Books about Narratives from Amazon.com

.
Price: $3.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Four US Navy SEALS departed one clear night in early July, 2005 for the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a reconnaissance mission. Their task was to document the activity of an al Qaeda leader rumored to be very close to Bin Laden with a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Five days later, only one of those Navy SEALS made it out alive.

This is the story of the only survivor of Operation Redwing, SEAL fire team leader Marcus Luttrell, and the extraordinary firefight that led to the largest loss of life in American Navy SEAL history. His squadmates fought valiantly beside him until he was the only one left alive, blasted by an RPG into a place where his pursuers could not find him. Over the next four days, terribly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell crawled for miles through the mountains and was taken in by sympathetic villagers who risked their lives to keep him safe from surrounding Taliban warriors.

A born and raised Texan, Marcus Luttrell takes us from the rigors of SEAL training, where he and his fellow SEALs discovered what it took to join the most elite of the American special forces, to a fight in the desolate hills of Afghanistan for which they never could have been prepared. His account of his squadmates' heroism and mutual support renders an experience that is both heartrending and life-affirming. In this rich chronicle of courage and sacrifice, honor and patriotism, Marcus Luttrell delivers a powerful narrative of modern war..
Price: $8.04 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $6.70 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $8.89 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A Medal of Honor recipient looks back at his own service—and ahead to America’s future.

Jack Jacobs was acting as an advisor to the South Vietnamese when he and his men came under devastating attack. Severely wounded, 1st Lt. Jacobs took command and withdrew the unit, returning again and again to the site of the attack to rescue more men, saving the lives of a U.S. advisor and thirteen Allied soldiers. Col. Jacobs received the nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor.

Here, with candor, humor, and quiet modesty, Col. Jack Jacobs tells his stirring story of heroism, honor, and the personal code by which he has lived his life, and expounds with blunt honesty and insight his views on our contemporary world, and the nature and necessity of sacrifice.

If Not Now, When? is a compelling account of a unique life at both war and peace, and the all-too-often unexamined role of the citizenry in the service and defense of the Republic..
Price: $16.04 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In 1978, Jerry Boykin joined what would become the world's premier Special Operations unit, Delta Force. The only promise: "A medal and a body bag." What followed was a .50 caliber round in the chest and a life spent with America's elite forces bringing down warlords and war criminals, despots, and dictators. In Colombia, his task force hunted the notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar. In Panama, he helped capture the brutal dictator Manuel Noriega, liberating a nation. From Vietnam to Iran to Mogadishu, Lt. General Jerry Boykin's life reads like an action-adventure novel. Boykin's powerful story will keep you riveted as he reveals how his military duty worked in tandem with his faith to bring him through the bloody storms of foreign battle-and through the political firestorm that ambushed him in his own country.


.
Price: $13.39 [Notify me when price goes down.]

.
Price: $13.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

If the Marines are "the few, the proud," Recon Marines are the fewest
and the proudest. Nathaniel Fick's career begins with a hellish summer
at Quantico, after his junior year at Dartmouth. He leads a platoon
in Afghanistan just after 9/11 and advances to the pinnacle—Recon—
two years later, on the eve of war with Iraq. His vast skill set puts him
in front of the front lines, leading twenty-two Marines into the deadliest
conflict since Vietnam. He vows to bring all his men home safely, and
to do so he'll need more than his top-flight education. Fick unveils the
process that makes Marine officers such legendary leaders and shares
his hard-won insights into the differences between military ideals and
military practice, which can mock those ideals.

In this deeply thoughtful account of what it's like to fight on
today's front lines, Fick reveals the crushing pressure on young leaders
in combat. Split-second decisions might have national consequences or
horrible immediate repercussions, but hesitation isn't an option. One
Bullet Away never shrinks from blunt truths, but ultimately it is an
inspiring account of mastering the art of war..
Price: $7.92 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In their stunning follow-up to the classic bestseller We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young, Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway return to Vietnam and reflect on how the war changed them, their men, their enemies, and both countries—often with surprising results.

More than fifteen years since its original publication, the number one New York Times bestseller We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young is still required reading in all branches of the military. Now Moore and Galloway revisit their relationships with ten American veterans of the battle—men such as Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley and helicopter pilot Bruce "Old Snake" Crandall—as well as Lt. Gen. Nguyen Hu An, who commanded the North Vietnamese Army troops on the other side, and two of his old company commanders. These men and their countries have all changed dramatically since the first head-on collision between the two great armies back in November 1965.

Traveling back to the red-dirt battlefields, commanders and veterans from both sides make the long and difficult journey from old enemies to new friends. After a trip in a Russian-made helicopter to the Ia Drang Valley in the Central Highlands, with the Vietnamese pilots using Moore's vintage U.S. Army maps and Galloway's Boy Scout compass to guide them, they reach the hallowed ground where so many died. All the men are astonished at how nature has reclaimed the land once scarred by bullets, napalm, and blood. As darkness falls, the unthinkable happens—the authors and many of their old comrades are stranded overnight, alone, left to confront the ghosts of the departed among the termite hills and creek bed.

Moore and Galloway combine gritty and vivid detail with reverence and respect for their comrades. Their ability to capture man's sense of heroism and brotherhood, their love for their men and their former enemies, and their fascination with the history of this enigmatic country make for riveting reading. With sixteen pages of photos, tributes to departed friends and loved ones, and General Moore's reflections on lessons learned throughout his military career, We Are Soldiers Still puts a human face on warfare in a way that will not soon be forgotten.

.
Price: $10.69 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is a gifted animal scientist who has designed one third of all the livestock-handling facilities in the United States. She also lectures widely on autism—because Temple Grandin is autistic, a woman who thinks, feels, and experiences the world in ways that are incomprehensible to the rest of us.

In this unprecedented book, Grandin delivers a report from the country of autism. Writing from the dual perspectives of a scientist and an autistic person, she tells us how that country is experienced by its inhabitants and how she managed to breach its boundaries to function in the outside world. What emerges in Thinking in Pictures is the document of an extraordinary human being, one who, in gracefully and lucidly bridging the gulf between her condition and our own, sheds light on the riddle of our common identity..
Price: $7.60 [Notify me when price goes down.]