The Footprints of an American Soldier contains some fiction and nonfiction stories. The stories are that of Clay Mills, who finds himself to be on this journey looking for his soul mate. He started his journey looking for a new soul mate about three years ago after going through a divorce, and while he tries to makes his way through this desert in which he has found himself, he tells short stories about the time he spent with his hometown unit. He hopes that you find his stories to be entertaining. May God bless one and all who read this book.

Begun as the United States moved its armed forces into Iraq, Rashid Khalidi's powerful and thoughtful new book examines the record of Western involvement in the region and analyzes the likely outcome of our most recent Middle East incursions. Drawing on his encyclopedic knowledge of the political and cultural history of the entire region as well as interviews and documents, Khalidi paints a chilling scenario of our present situation and yet offers a tangible alternative that can help us find the path to peace rather than Empire. We all know that those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Sadly, as Khalidi reveals with clarity and surety, America's leaders seem blindly committed to an ahistorical path of conflict, occupation, and colonial rule. Our current policies ignore rather than incorporate the lessons of experience. American troops in Iraq have seen first hand the consequences of U.S. led "democratization" in the region. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict seems intractable, and U.S. efforts in recent years have only inflamed the situation. The footprints America follows have led us into the same quagmire that swallowed our European forerunners. Peace and prosperity for the region are nowhere in sight. This cogent and highly accessible book provides the historical and cultural perspective so vital to understanding our present situation and to finding and pursuing a more effective and just foreign policy.

Eleven-year-old Abigail presents a diary account of life in Valley Forge from December 1777 to July 1778 as General Washington prepares his troops to fight the British.

Here is an inspiring and poignant collection of teen essays, depicting individual stories of the courage and humanitarianism demonstrated by soldiers who served from World War II through the conflicts in the Middle East. These engaging stories illustrate how American soldiers, driven by perseverance and a spirit of patriotism, have provided our country with over 200 years of freedom and prosperity. Experience the tragedy of WWII pilot Lt. Norman J. Rogers, whose B-24 and crew went down over Germany and the massacre that unfolded. Observe how the victorious Tuskegee Airmen and one of their fighter pilots, Lt. William M. Wheeler proved their superior aerial abilities while faced with discrimination and segregation in the military. Find out about flying the Hump in the 'Forgotten Theater' of WWII. Learn what it was like for Marine Sergeant, Leroy Caughey to survive a rocket attack on his barracks in Vietnam. Read the stirring memorial to Captain Benjamin Sklaver, U.S. Army reserve officer killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan. These are some of the remarkable stories featured and the history about those who lived it. Interwoven in the essays, are the younger generation's (the young writers') introspective reasons why they chose to honor these heroes.

Lenard D. Moore and African American Haiku: Merging Traditions identifies Moore as a primary figure in the American Haiku Movement as well as a significant contributor to the field of African American haiku. Ce Rosenow analyzes the ways in which Moore combines haiku with a variety of other traditions: African American storytelling, jazz poetry, ekphrasis, and elegies. An examination of Moore’s haibun, a Japanese form combining prose and haiku, reveals the further development of the African American aesthetic created in his individual poems. Ultimately, the author argues that Moore’s decades-long engagement with haiku and his prolific publication history solidify haiku as an established form in African American poetry.

Death is in their blood! The enemy wants them dead. Their own side wants them to shape up. They’re the Rat Bastards. They steal. Lie. Kill. And they never respect the rules. The stuntman. The Indian. The gangster. The bum. The most awesomely effective fighting team in the history of man-to-man mayhem. And now they’re all that stands between the Japs and their plan to retake the bloody Pacific island of Bougainville. The Rat Bastards.

A beautiful reckoning with the life and work of the legendary journalist Ernie Pyle, who gave World War II a human face for millions of Americans even as he wrestled with his own demons At the height of his fame and influence during World War II, Ernie Pyle’s nationally syndicated dispatches from combat zones shaped America’s understanding of what the war felt like to ordinary soldiers, as no writer’s work had before or has since. From North Africa to Sicily, from the beaches of Anzio to the beaches of Normandy, and on to the war in the Pacific, where he would meet his end, Ernie Pyle had a genius for connecting with his beloved dogfaced grunts. A humble man, himself plagued by melancholy and tortured by marriage to a partner whose mental health struggles were much more acute than his own, Pyle was in touch with suffering in a way that left an indelible mark on his readers. While never defeatist, his stories left no doubt as to the heavy weight of the burden soldiers carried. He wrote about post-traumatic stress long before that was a diagnosis. In The Soldier's Truth, acclaimed writer David Chrisinger brings Pyle’s journey to vivid life in all its heroism and pathos. Drawing on access to all of Pyle’s personal correspondence, his book captures every dramatic turn of Pyle’s war with sensory immediacy and a powerful feel for both the outer and the inner landscape. With a background in helping veterans and other survivors of trauma come to terms with their experiences through storytelling, Chrisinger brings enormous reservoirs of empathy and insight to bear on Pyle’s trials. Woven in and out of his chronicle is the golden thread of his own travels across these same landscapes, many of them still battle-scarred, searching for the landmarks Pyle wrote about. A moving tribute to an ordinary American hero whose impact on the war is still too little understood, and a powerful account of that war’s impact and how it is remembered, The Soldier's Truth takes its place among the essential contributions to our perception of war and how we make sense of it.