Stories of grit and gumption, as told by the "Mud Marines"

“Kids like me didn’t go to Vietnam,” writes Jack McLean in his compulsively readable memoir. Raised in suburban New Jersey, he attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, MA, but decided to put college on hold. After graduation in the spring of 1966, faced with the mandatory military draft, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps for a two-year stint. “Vietnam at the time was a country, and not yet a war,” he writes. It didn’t remain that way for long. A year later, after boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, and stateside duty in Barstow, California, the Vietnam War was reaching its peak. McLean, like most available Marines, was retrained at Camp Pendleton, California, and sent to Vietnam as a grunt to serve in an infantry company in the northernmost reaches of South Vietnam. McLean’s story climaxes with the horrific three-day Battle for Landing Zone Loon in June, 1968. Fought on a remote hill in the northwestern corner of South Vietnam, McLean bore witness to the horror of war and was forever changed. He returned home six weeks later to a country largely ambivalent to his service. Written with honesty and insight, Loon is a powerful coming-of-age portrait of a boy who bears witness to some of the most tumultuous events in our history, both in Vietnam and back home.

Air traffic control is an exciting, interesting, exacting, and high paying career open to anyone with a willingness to study, learn, and work hard. It can be a difficult profession to enter, but the rewards are worth it! This book is an attempt to inform you about all the different careers available. It acts as a primer concerning the basic principles and practices of air traffic control. This book will make you a better-informed applicant or student of the profession. Nolan’s and LaRue’s practical approach to the field and comprehensive coverage of difficult-to-understand concepts is key in providing you with a decisive advantage in reaching your goals of becoming an air traffic controller. They bring years of experience as a professor, FAA traffic air controller, and pilot to the subject. Unlike other books, which focus only on reciting rules and regulations, this book focuses on teaching you how the air traffic control system works and the rationale for why the system functions.

This is a story of Africa, shown at its cruelest and most tender moments. It is also a story of violence set against the breathtaking beauty of the land, where cicadas sing their interminable song, and elephants gambol in mud holes. It is a story of vengeance and endurance, not about black versus white, but of resistance to the winds of change, the drawing in of empires, and the global trend towards righting past wrongs. It is where Sergeant Bob Wilson and his men fight a war they know they cannot win, but fight it anyway, because it is their job. Appalling events personalise the conflict into a brutal contest between the best man each side has to offer: Sergeant Wilson against Chaka, the leader of a terrorist band. Severely wounded and taken across the border for interrogation, Sergeant Wilson is beyond pain. Bob’s fiancée Sally Ferguson attempts to discover where he is being held. With the ill-conceived idea of rescuing Bob, she instead finds herself in a life-and-death situation. This is also a story of love and passion. The novel is unremitting in its action. The truth is, much of this story could easily have taken place in real life. Set in “Nyanga,” a make-believe African nation, those who have been in Africa will know where this country is.

A gentle, imaginative introduction to the skills all creative writers need. Breaking down the elements that go into successful imaginative works, The Creative Writer leads aspiring writers through the skills needed to construct each. The assignments, designed to make students more aware of language and more confident in their own ingenuity, build on each other until beginning creative writers have successfully created their own stories, poems, and essays. • Simple but innovative exercises encourage young writers to strengthen their vocabulary and become aware of the patterns of sentences • Legends and folklore are used to teach point of view, characterization, plotting, and other vital skills • Classic poetry serves as a model for the student’s own original poems • Unlike most “how to write” books, The Creative Writer is designed to be used in a mentor/student relationship, with teaching, guidance, and evaluation tips provided for the mentor or teacher • Can be used as a complement to Writing With Skill or on its own