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Put your pressure suit on and strap yourself in for a Mach 3 ride! Former SR-71 Wing Commander Rich Graham tells the amazing inside story of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. Graham provides a detailed look at the entire SR-71 story beginning with his application to be an SR pilot through commanding an entire wing.
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Integrating interviews with individuals ranging from senior policymakers to frontline soldiers, a look at the Persian Gulf War shows how the conflict transformed modern warfare.
Selected as a Mission Specialist in 1978 in the first group of shuttle astronauts, Mike Mullane completed three missions and logged 356 hours aboard the Discovery and Atlantis shuttles. It was a dream come true. As a boy, Mullane could only read about space travel in science fiction, but the launch of Sputnik changed all that. Space flight became a possible dream and Mike Mullane set out to make it come true. In this absorbing memoir, Mullane gives the first-ever look into the often hilarious, sometime volatile dynamics of space shuttle astronauts - a class that included Vietnam War veterans, feminists, and propeller-headed scientists. With unprecedented candour, Mullane describes the chilling fear and unparalleled joy of space flight. As his career centred around the Challenger disaster, Mullane also recounts the heartache of burying his friends and colleagues. And he pulls no punches as he reveals the ins and outs of NASA, frank in his criticisms of the agency. A blast from start to finish, Riding Rockets is a straight-from-the-gut account of what it means to be an astronaut, just in time for this latest generation of stargazers.
The author found himself in places and times to closely observe significant events and noteworthy personalities in 20th century science. Variously, he interacted with such notables as Richard Feynman, S. Chandrasekhar, Edward Teller, Ya. B. Zel'dovich, John Wheeler, James Watson, Julian Schwinger, Fred Hoyle, Martin Rees, Stephen Hawking, Freeman Dyson, Ed Witten, and many others. His Ph.D. advisor, Kip Thorne, and his Ph.D. student, Adam Riess, each won Nobel Prizes-for discoveries that he helped them start. Later, he worked with (or for) not just scientists, but also technology capitalists and billionaires, admirals and generals, and political leaders including two U.S. presidents. His memoir is rich in stories about these people and events.
School Days in Vietnam is the third book in a trilogy that encompass five years of teaching English in Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam. I only taught for a year in Hanoi and used the second year to travel and carry-on with other missions in my life that included writing much of this book and other stories about travel. I had wanted to live in Hanoi since first visiting in 2004, but the opportunity didnt present itself until eight years later through employment as an English teacher in an international school. In my mind I had high expectations and a goal of remaining in Hanoi for two years. Everything was more interesting and meaningful than I could have expected and at the end of two years I felt tied to my friendships and the amazing lifestyle that was simple yet lavish in humanity. I was totally enamored with Vietnam, the people, the natural beauty of its diverse geography, and the culture that separates it from all other nations. I made more friends than I had in any other country, and in North Vietnam I enjoyed a weather pattern that was near to the tropics but decidedly four seasons.
Events of the past decade provide compelling evidence that the national security environment continues to evolve at a rapid pace and in unpredictable directions. Further, it is clear that meeting the demands of the evolving environment calls for new levels of adaptable military capabilities that, in turn, demand joint forces that are responsive and effective across a range of operations from small scale operations through major theater conflict. In the two most recent major contingencies - Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) - we have seen new levels of understanding of the need for truly integrated joint capabilities and new levels of innovation in leveraging existing capabilities to achieve the needed level of effectiveness. Lessons Learned activities have verified important shifts in focus leading to a series of emerging concepts for more effectively integrating capabilities.