Karl Zinsmeister's Boots on the Ground includes 32 color photographs taken by the author during the month he was embedded with the 82nd in Kuwait and Iraq. This is a riveting account of the war in Iraq moving north with the 82nd Airborne. Units of the 82nd depart Kuwait and convoy to Iraq's Tallil Air Base en route to night-and-day battles within the major city of Samawah and its intact bridges across the Euphrates. Boots on the Ground quickly becomes an action-filled microcosm of the new kinds of ultramodern war fighting showcased in the overall battle for Iraq. At the same time it remains specific to the daily travails of the soldiers. Karl Zinsmeister, a frontline reporter who traveled with the 82nd, vividly conveys the careful planning and technical wizardry that go into today's warfare, even local firefights, and he brings to life the constant air-ground interactions that are the great innovation of modern precision combat. What exactly does it feel like to travel with a spirited body of fighting men? To come under fire? To cope with the battlefield stresses of sleep-deprivation, and a steady diet of field rations for weeks on end? Readers of this day-to-day diary are left with not only a flashing sequence of strong mental images, but also a notion of the sounds and smells and physical sensations that make modern military action unforgettable. Ultimately, Boots on the Ground is a human story: a moving portrayal of the powerful bonds of affection, trust, fear, and dedication that bind real soldiers involved in battle. There are unexpected elements: The humor that bubbles up amidst dangerous fighting. The pathos of a badly wounded young boy. The affection openly exhibited by many American soldiers--love of country, love of family and hometown, love of each other. This is a true-life tale of superbly trained men in extraordinary circumstances, packed with concrete detail, often surpassing fiction for sheer drama.

Immediately following 9/11, the United States needed to strike back . . . but against whom? In the eyes of the intelligence community, the aerial attack on the World Trade Center and Washington, D.C., bore all the signs of an al-Qaeda operation. This was soon verified by al-Qaeda itself, as Osama bin Laden claimed credit. America quickly targeted al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that was providing them sanctuary. Central Command, responsible for the Middle East, including Afghanistan, outlined three options: strike back with cruise missiles, strike back with cruise missiles and manned bombers, or complement aerial attacks with American ground forces: “boots on the ground.” President George W. Bush wanted direct action, so American ground forces, supported by American airpower and cruise missiles, became the order of the day. Initially, the boots were worn by CIA covert operatives and U.S. Army Special Forces teams, the famed Green Berets. Bush authorized the CIA an additional $1 billion to drive al-Qaeda and the Taliban from power. On 17 September 2001, Bush authorized the CIA to engage al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations anywhere in the world and assassinate individuals designated as terrorists. It was the broadest and most lethal authority in the agency’s history. The CIA deployed teams across Afghanistan to work with the Northern Alliance and U.S. Army Special Forces. The results were immediate and positive. The Northern Alliance had the Taliban and al-Qaeda on the run with a remarkable combination of “horse soldiers” and high-tech U.S. airpower called in by American special operations forces. Late in November, U.S. Marine Corps Task Force 58 seized an airstrip southwest of the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in the longest amphibious raid in history, 450 miles from the sea. In early December, Kandahar fell to forces loyal to Hamid Karzai, who would later become president of Afghanistan. It was the last remaining Taliban stronghold in the country. Al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership fled. Acclaimed military historian Dick Camp details this remarkable campaign for Afghanistan. He also provides a comprehensive history of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Red Army’s unsuccessful occupation of the country, which led to the rise of the Afghani mujahideen and anti-Soviet foreign fighters under al-Qaeda, as well as the subsequent rise of the Taliban.

★ "Partridge proves once again that nonfiction can be every bit as dramatic as the best fiction."* America's war in Vietnam. In over a decade of bitter fighting, it claimed the lives of more than 58,000 American soldiers and beleaguered four US presidents. More than forty years after America left Vietnam in defeat in 1975, the war remains controversial and divisive both in the United States and abroad. The history of this era is complex; the cultural impact extraordinary. But it's the personal stories of eight people—six American soldiers, one American military nurse, and one Vietnamese refugee—that create the heartbeat of Boots on the Ground. From dense jungles and terrifying firefights to chaotic helicopter rescues and harrowing escapes, each individual experience reveals a different facet of the war and moves us forward in time. Alternating with these chapters are profiles of key American leaders and events, reminding us of all that was happening at home during the war, including peace protests, presidential scandals, and veterans' struggles to acclimate to life after Vietnam. With more than one hundred photographs, award-winning author Elizabeth Partridge's unflinching book captures the intensity, frustration, and lasting impacts of one of the most tumultuous periods of American history. *Kirkus Reviews, starred review of Marching for Freedom

Over the last century, the scale of Canada’s domestic disaster response system has grown significantly due to the country’s increased capacity for emergency management and the rise in natural hazards. However, there has been no systematic assessment of how effectively this multilevel system, which includes all levels of government and the military, has been integrated, and how efficient this system actually is at responding to high-level disasters. Using in-depth archival analysis and interviews with senior military and civilian officials on the inside, Boots on the Ground provides a detailed examination of Canada’s disaster response system. Including policy recommendations focused on the expansion of emergency management networks, the maintenance of Canada’s decentralized emergency management system, and disaster response resources for First Nations communities, Boots on the Ground aims to highlight opportunities to improve Canada’s urgent disaster response. Boots on the Ground offers helpful lessons for students, policy makers, emergency management practitioners, and military officers, ensuring that readers gain concrete insights into the strategic and efficient implementation of disaster response initiatives.

Pat Tillman was seen by many as an American hero. A star college football player turned pro, he walked away from a multimillion-dollar NFL contract after the 9/11 attacks, choosing to enlist in the U.S. Army. He graduated from their elite Ranger school and was deployed to Iraq in 2003. On April 22, 2004, Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan. The administration and the Pentagon immediately portrayed his death as the result of a dramatic gun battle with the enemy, and Pat was posthumously awarded the Silver Star and a promotion in recognition of his bravery. But as would later emerge, Army officials were all along hiding the truth: Pat was killed by his fellow Rangers. The Tillmans discovered this fact five weeks after Pat's death, and six separate investigations have since been launched, largely due to the family's passionate insistence. But even now, the true circumstances remain murky and fraught with contradictions. Here is Mary Tillman's story, as she describes her attempts to uncover the truth about what happened to Pat and why the government went to such great lengths to keep the circumstances secret. In the process, she paints an indelible portrait of her son, a man of remarkable character who followed a set of guiding principles that ultimately led him to Afghanistan and, in death, into the hearts and minds of people all over the world.

Possibly there is nothing more conducive to thoughts of the Eternal, than having ones face slammed into red, wet muck, with explosions so close your body arcs and bounces off the ground, hot shards burn in your flesh, and concussions are bright flashes of dirty fire beating a tattoo on the light receptors in the backs of your eyes. Your head aches; throbbing from visual shock waves. Time has come to an end; there is no right, no wrong, only whatever follows a life that is now over. The dark reaper is here. Whats it going to be like on the other side? Is there an other side? The old timers use the maxim, There are no atheists in a fox-hole. Possibly so; I can only give my own experience, and I never had the opportunity to be in one. Combat aviators crash and sometimes burn instead. But close calls almost always give rise to interminable questions; especially when the survived experience is seared into the human psyche. For some, satisfactory answers never seem to come. For myself, may I pro-offer both scorching experience, and incredible life-lessons learned? Then, should you ever fall into similar adventure; you man go into it better prepared than I was. JWV

Whenever God wants to do something, a child is born. From Adam, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Esther, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Hosea, Debra, Joel, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Malachi, John the Baptist, Jesus, the disciples, Paul, to you and me. God has raised you up to be his hands extended in the marketplace—your homes, workplace, government, the arts, religion, media, education, and calling you to advance forward with him to introduce all to the kingdom of light and overthrow the kingdom of darkness. We are to go to the high places (strongholds in our lives, our generation and the world) and tear the devil's kingdom down. He has shown us the way to him and have given us the charge to show others the way to him through the Word, his love, and our lives (2 Cor 3:2). We have been instructed to go in to all the world baptizing and teaching those under our sphere of influence what God has taught us. You do not have to wait for a position in the church or become a minister or pastor to do the work of God. If you are a born again, blood-brought child of God, you have the authority, through the Holy Spirit that lives in you, to proclaim the goodness of God (1 Pet. 2:9). The Bible said that "they overcame -Triumph over him by the blood; cleaning, forgiving, redeeming, blood of lamp and the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death" (Rev. 12:11). Tell them what you have seen, what you have heard, and what you have experienced, so that they also may have fellowship with us, with the Father, and with his son, Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3).I will venture to say that we all have been placed in one of these cultural mountains of influence (arts, religion, media, education, family, government, and economy). This is a Clarion Call to the church, or should I say the Body of Christ. It is a call to advance forward, to go forth, a call to action. You are the boots on the ground. Go! Go! Go!

"This thesis was accepted as a doctoral dissertation by the Faculty of Arts of the University of Zurich in the fall semester 2010 on the recommendation of Prof. Dr. Albert A. Stahel and Prof. Dr. Peter Dombrowski (U.S. Naval War College.)" - p. ii

This paper clearly shows the immediate relevancy of historical study to current events. One of the most common criticisms of the U.S. plan to invade Iraq in 2003 is that too few troops were used. The argument often fails to satisfy anyone for there is no standard against which to judge. A figure of 20 troops per 1000 of the local population is often mentioned as the standard, but as McGrath shows, that figure was arrived at with some questionable assumptions. By analyzing seven military operations from the last 100 years, he arrives at an average number of military forces per 1000 of the population that have been employed in what would generally be considered successful military campaigns. He also points out a variety of important factors affecting those numbers-from geography to local forces employed to supplement soldiers on the battlefield, to the use of contractors-among others.

On Lüneberg Heath in 1945, the German High Command surrendered to Field Marshall Montgomery; in 2015, seventy years after this historic triumph, the last units of the British Army finally left their garrisons next to Lüneberg Heath. Boots on the Ground is the story of those years, following the British Army against the backdrop of Britain's shifting security and defence policies. From the decolonisation of India to the two invasions of Iraq, and, of course, Ireland, the book tracks the key historical conflicts, both big and small, of Britain's transformation from a leading nation with some 2 million troops in 1945, to a significantly reduced place on the world stage and fewer than 82,000 troops in 2015. Despite this apparent de-escalation, at no point since WWII has Britain not had 'boots on the ground' - and with the current tensions in the Middle East, and the rise of terrorism, this situation is unlikely to change. Sir Richard Dannatt brings forty years of military service, including as Chief of Staff, to tell the fascinating story of how the British Army has shaped, and been shaped by, world events from the Cold War to the Good Friday Agreement. Whether examining the fallout of empire in the insurgencies of Kenya and Indonesia, the politically fraught battle for the Falklands, the long-standing conflict in Ireland or Britain's relationship with NATO and experience of fighting with - or for - America, Dannatt examines the complexity of perhaps the greatest British institution.