Our Sons, Our Heroes, Memories Shared by America's Gold Star Mothers from the Vietnam War PDF Download

Author: Linda Jenkin Costanzo
Publisher: Sonrisa Press LLC
ISBN: 9780989150606
Category : Mothers of war casualties
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
It was the sixties. Mothers waited anxiously for their sons to return from Vietnam. But a knock on the door and two uniformed men delivered the news that would change their lives. Take a journey with the author and step inside the homes of 16 mothers who candidly talk about losing their sons nearly 50 years ago. These broken-hearted, yet courageous women wondered whether our country would remember their sons. As they struggled to make sense of their devastating loss, they kept their faith. A whisper of hope entered their lives. They forged ahead to honor the sacrifices of their sons. Many joined the American Gold Star Mothers Inc. You will learn how they overcame their darkest moments. What would they like us to know about their sons and what would they say to their sons if they could? These mothers opened their hearts and spoke with unquestionable pride about their sons, their heroes. They face grief, anger and shock with laughter, tears and strength as they honor their sons with a love burnished by time. These are America's gold star mothers.

Author: Thich Nhat Hanh
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1844132250
Category : Peace
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Creating True Peace is likely to be the most widely read book on the subject of peace published in 2003. Thich Nhat Hanh has been the world's foremost peace activist for the past four decades. A highly respected spiritual leader who is also a philosopher,

Author: Paul Fazekas
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 1452077495
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Enduring Images describes the personal cost of war paid by combat veterans and their loved ones over the course of a lifetime. Dr. Paul Fazekas was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1969 at the age of nineteen and participated in the most unpopular and controversial war in American history. He reluctantly, and sometimes defiantly, served as a rifleman with the First Air Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and the 11th Light Infantry Brigade for a one-year tour in Vietnam. Despite his best efforts to forget combat trauma, he was forced to confront the ghosts of Vietnam in 2002, when he met the family of his squad leader who was mortally wounded in an ambush and died in his arms. This providential meeting opened the way to a more meaningful healing from posttraumatic stress, a disorder that many combat veterans and their families can identify with along their own journeys. He was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge along with other military medals and decorations.

Author: Frank L. Grzyb
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 9781557531995
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
A Story for All Americans: Vietnam, Victims, and Veterans (formerly titled, Touched by the Dragon) details wartime accounts of average servicemen and women - some heroic, some frightening, some amusing, some nearly unbelievable. The work is a historical compendium of fascinating and compelling stories woven together in a theme format. What makes this book truly unique, however, is its absence of literary pretentiousness. Relating oral accounts, the veterans speak in a no-nonsense, matter-of-fact way. As seen through the eyes of the veterans, the stories include first-person experiences of infantry soldiers, a flight officer, a medic, a nurse, a combat engineer, an intelligence soldier, and various support personnel. Personalities emerge gradually as the veterans discuss their pre-war days, their training and preparation for Vietnam, and their actual in-country experiences. The stories speak of fear and survival: the paranoia of not knowing who or where the enemy was; the bullets, rockets, and mortars that could mangle a body or snuff out a life in an instant; and going home with a CMH - not the Congressional Medal of Honor, but a Casket with Metal Handles. The veterans also speak of friendships and simple acts of kindness. But more importantly, they speak of healing - both physical and mental.

Author: Maria Goodavage
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0451414365
Category : Pets
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
A leading reporter offers a tour of military working dogs' extraordinary training, heroic accomplishments, and the lasting impacts they have on those who work with them. People all over the world have been riveted by the story of Cairo, the Belgian Malinois who was a part of the Navy SEAL team that led the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound. A dog's natural intelligence, physical abilities, and pure loyalty contribute more to our military efforts than ever before. You don't have to be a dog lover to be fascinated by the idea that a dog-the cousin of that furry guy begging for scraps under your table-could be one of the heroes who helped execute the most vital and high-tech military mission of the new millennium. Now Maria Goodavage, editor and featured writer for one of the world's most widely read dog blogs, tells heartwarming stories of modern soldier dogs and the amazing bonds that develop between them and their handlers. Beyond tales of training, operations, retirement, and adoption into the families of fallen soldiers, Goodavage talks to leading dog-cognition experts about why dogs like nothing more than to be on a mission with a handler they trust, no matter how deadly the IEDs they are sniffing, nor how far they must parachute or rappel from aircraft into enemy territory. "Military working dogs live for love and praise from their handlers," says Ron Aiello, president of the United States War Dogs Association and a former marine scout dog handler. "The work is all a big game, and then they get that pet, that praise. They would do anything for their handler." This is an unprecedented window into the world of these adventurous, loving warriors.

Author: Frank L. Grzyb
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 9781557531339
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
Touched by the Dragon is a collection of gripping narratives of Vietnam veterans from Newport County, Rhode Island. We learn of the experiences of men and women, the enlisted and officers, those in combat and those behind the lines, in a way that resonates far beyond Rhode Island. What makes this book truly unique is its absence of literary pretensions. These oral accounts speak in a no-nonsense, matter-of-fact way. Personalities emerge as the veterans discuss their prewar days, their training and preparation for Vietnam, their in-country experiences - some heroic, some frightening, some amusing, some nearly unbelievable - and their return to a country that didn't value their sacrifice.

Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Publisher: One World
ISBN: 0679645985
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Author: Donald J. Mrozek
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
ISBN: 1428993347
Category : Public opinion
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
This book probes various groups of Americans as they come to grips with the consequences of the Vietnam War. Dr. Mrozek examines several areas of concern facing the United States Air Force, and the other services in varying degrees, in the years after Vietnam.

Author: United States. Congress
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1392

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Author: Jim Sheeler
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781594201653
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning story, Jim Sheeler's unprecedented look at the way our country honors its dead; Final SaluteIs a stunning tribute to the brave troops who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan and to the families who continue to mourn them They are the troops that nobody wants to see, carrying a message that no military family ever wants to hear. It begins with a knock at the door. "The curtains pull away. They come to the door. And they know. They always know," said Major Steve Beck. Since the start of the war in Iraq, marines like Major Beck found themselves thrown into a different kind of mission: casualty notification. It is a job Major Beck never asked for and one for which he received no training. They are given no set rules, only impersonal guidelines. Marines are trained to kill, to break down doors, but casualty notification is a mission without weapons. For Beck, the mission meant learning each dead marine's name and nickname, touching the toys they grew up with and reading the letters they wrote home. He held grieving mothers in long embraces, absorbing their muffled cries into the dark blue shoulder of his uniform. He stitched himself into the fabric of their lives, in the simple hope that his compassion might help alleviate at least the smallest piece of their pain. Sometimes he returned home to his own family unable to keep from crying in the dark. In Final Salute, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jim Sheeler weaves together the stories of the fallen and of the broken homes they have left behind. It is also the story of Major Steve Beck and his unflagging efforts to help heal the wounds of those left grieving. Above all, it is a moving tribute to our troops, putting faces to the mostly anonymous names of our courageous heroes, and to the brave families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Final Saluteis the achingly beautiful, devastatingly honest story of the true toll of war. After the knock on the door, the story has only begun.