In The Finishing School, former Navy SEAL Dick Couch, author of the acclaimed Warrior Elite, follows SEALs on the ground and in the water as they undergo SEAL Tactical Training. In America’s new war, the first guns in the fight are special operations forces, including the Navy SEALs, specially trained warriors who operate with precision, swiftness, and lethal force. In the constantly shifting war on terror, SEAL units—small in number, flexible, stealthy, and efficient—are more vital than ever to America’s security as they take the battle to an elusive enemy around the globe. But how are Navy SEALs made? In Warrior Elite, Couch narrated one SEAL class's journey through BUD/S training, the brutal initial course that separates out candidates with the character and stamina necessary to begin training as Navy SEALs. In The Finishing School, Couch follows SEALs into the next levels of training—SEAL Tactical Training—where they master combat skills such as precision shooting, demolitions, secure communications, parachuting, diving, and first aid. From there, the men enter operational platoons, where they subordinate their individual abilities to the mission of the group and train for special operations in specific geographic environments. Never before has a civilian writer been granted such close access to the training of America’s most elite military forces. The Finishing School is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what goes into the making of America’s best warriors.
The powerful and moving story of two Medal of Honor winners, written by New York Times bestselling author Dick Couch, with a foreword by Senator Bob Kerrey.
Delivering "a gripping insider's view of the secret world of nuclear security" (W.E.B. Griffin), Dick Couch's explosive novel poses the chilling and timely question: How safe are America's waterways from terrorist threat? Riding quietly at her moorings on Puget Sound, the U.S. Navy's deadly weapon -- the Trident submarine -- waits for her return to the sea. But an Arab terrorist known as the Shadow has targeted the USS Michigan, with nearly three hundred nuclear warheads nestled in its missile silos. He intends to take the deadliest weapon of the Cold War and turn it into the deadliest dirty bomb conceivable -- by hijacking the Spokane, flagship of the nation's largest ferry fleet. The nation, caught by surprise, sends a select team of Navy SEALs to stop the Shadow. They are aided by a savvy FBI agent and the ferry's captain, Ross Peck. Unless the U.S. wields its political might to support his terrorist brothers in the Middle East, the Shadow will unleash a radiological holocaust, and a nightmare beyond imagining. . . .
This now-classic tale of SEAL combat action in Vietnam marked Dick Couch's debut as a novelist in 1990 and sold more than 100,000 copies. Hailed for its authenticity, it was the first novel about Navy SEALs to be written by one of their own. Couch, a SEAL platoon leader in the Mekong Delta from 1970 to 1971, includes gripping descriptions of dangerous operations that continue to attract a broad audience, with many bestselling authors calling his book a sensational story they can't put down. This new paperback edition features a foreword by the former head of the Naval Special Warfare Command.
An unprecedented view of Green Beret training, drawn from the year Dick Couch spent at Special Forces training facilities with the Army’s most elite soldiers. In combating terror, America can no longer depend on its conventional military superiority and the use of sophisticated technology. More than ever, we need men like those of the Army Special Forces–the legendary Green Berets. Following the experiences of one class of soldiers as they endure this physically and mentally exhausting ordeal, Couch spells out in fascinating detail the demanding selection process and grueling field exercises, the high-level technical training and intensive language courses, and the simulated battle problems that test everything from how well SF candidates gather operational intelligence to their skills at negotiating with volatile, often hostile, local leaders. Chosen Soldier paints a vivid portrait of an elite group, and a process that forges America’s smartest, most versatile, and most valuable fighting force.
Following the success of his recent book on Navy SEALs in Iraq, The Sheriff of Ramadi, bestselling author and combat veteran Dick Couch now examines the importance of battlefield ethics in effectively combating terrorists without losing the battle for the hearts of the local population. A former SEAL who led one of the only successful POW rescue operations in Vietnam, Couch warns that the mistakes made in Vietnam forty years ago are being repeated in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that the stakes are even higher now. His book takes a critical look at the battlefield conduct of U.S. ground-combat units fighting insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since the prize of the fight on the modern battlefield is the people, he warns every death has a consequence. Every killing has both strategic and moral significance for U.S. warriors. From his unique and qualified perspective, Couch examines the sources and issues that can lead to wrong conduct on the battlefield, and explains how it comes about and what can be done to correct it. He considers the roles of command intent and the official rules of engagement, but his primary focus is on ethical conduct at the squad and platoon level. Tactical ethics, according to the author's definition, is the moral and ethical armor that should accompany every American warrior into battle, and these standards apply to the engaged unit as well as to the individual. A harsh critic of immoral combat tactics, Couch offers realistic measures to correct these potentially devastating errors. He argues that as a nation, we must do all we can to protect our soldiers' humanity, for their sake, so they can return from service with honor, and for our sake as a people and for our standing in the world.
“Captures the essence of Naval Special Warfare from our storied beginnings to the current fight.” —Admiral WILLIAM H. McRAVEN Written with the unprecedented cooperation of the Naval Special Warfare community, this vivid and definitive history of the U.S. Navy SEALs reveals the inside story behind the greatest combat operations of America's most celebrated warriors. Illustrated with forty pages of photographs and based on exclusive interviews with more than 100 U.S. frogmen (including multiple Medal of Honor recipients), here is "the first comprehensive history of the special operations force" (Military.com). New York Times bestselling authors Dick Couch—a former SEAL—and William Doyle chart the SEALs' story, from their origins in the daring Naval Combat Demolition Teams, Underwater Demolition Teams, Scouts and Raiders commando units, and OSS Operational Swimmers of World War II to their coming of age in Vietnam and rise to glory in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11.
First there was The Mercenary Option. Now IFOR, the surgical strike team led by former Navy SEAL Garrett Walker, returns in an explosive adventure charged with authenticity and suspense. COVERT ACTION Formed by a wealthy industrialist after the terror attacks on American soil, the Intervention Force is a professional strike team called in on missions others can't -- or won't -- undertake. IFOR has already defused a seemingly impenetrable scheme for nuclear annihilation; now they are called into one of the world's hottest zones. In the Zimbabwean province of Tonga, an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever has U.S. officials on the alert for bioterrorism. Walker leads his Black Ops team into the heart of danger in the African nation to unhinge the workings of two terrorist kingpins -- the brilliant Russian Pavel Zelinkow and Al Qaeda mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- before a cataclysm is unleashed on an unsuspecting world. For "hard-as-nails adventure that will keep you riveted to your chair" (Stephen Coonts), delve into the IFOR novels from Dick Couch.
THE DATE IS DECEMBER 7TH. AND INFAMY LIVES. . .AGAIN. On a remote Pacific Island, millions of pounds of lethal chemical agents are being stockpiled by the United States--enough toxic material to annihilate one quarter of the Earths population. In a swift and daring early morning surprise attack, a band of Japanese terrorist led by a fanatical right-wing nationalist has seized the weakly defended island. More than a thousand Americans--including a U.S. senator--have been made prisoners. A madman with dreams of empire suddenly commands the most terrifying weapon the worlds has ever known. The gravest crisis since the end of the second World War has set rival economic superpowers on a lethal collision course--unless two men, Lt. John Moody of the U.S. Navy SEALs and modern-day Samurai Shintaro Nakajima of the elite, top-secret Japanese Counter Force, join together on an extraordinary mission to save a hostage planet form the terrible vengeance of the . . . RISING WIND
In America’s battle against global terrorism, the goal of the Navy SEALs is to be the best guns in the fight—stealthy, effective, professional, and lethal. Here for the first time is a SEAL insider’s battle history of these Special Operations warriors in the war on terrorism. “Down range” is what SEALs in Afghanistan and Iraq call their area of operations. In this new mode of warfare, “down range” can refer to anything from tracking roving bands of al-Qaeda on a remote mountain trail in Afghanistan to taking down an armed compound in Tikrit and rousting holdouts from Saddam Hussein’s regime. It could mean interdicting insurgents smuggling car-bomb explosives over the Iraqi-Syrian border or silently boarding a freighter on the high seas at night to enforce an embargo. In other words, “down range” could be anywhere, anytime, under any conditions. In Down Range, author Dick Couch, himself a former Navy SEAL and CIA case officer, uses his unprecedented access to bring the reader firsthand accounts from the warriors in combat during key missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Couch creates a pulse-pounding, detailed narrative of the definitive engagements of this war, while painting an unusually intimate portrait of these warriors in the field. The performance of the SEALs in difficult, changing environments—in the heat of the Afghan desert, in the snow-packed Hindu Kush, on the high seas, and in the urban chaos of Baghdad—has been nothing short of extraordinary. The SEALs, coordinating with other American forces, the CIA, and foreign special operations units like the Polish GROM, have once more shown their genius for improvisation and capacity for courageous action in leading the fight against this new and vicious enemy. The first battle history of its kind, Down Range is a riveting close-up of some of America’s finest warriors in action against a deadly foe.
A New York Times bestseller! Tom Clancy's Op-Center is back with this new thriller written by the New York Times bestselling authors of Tom Clancy's ACT OF VALOR and featuring a chilling, ripped-from-the-headlines scenario. Before 9/11 America was protected by a covert force known as the National Crisis Management Center. Commonly known as Op-Center, this silent, secret mantel guarded the American people and protected the country from enemies. The charter was top secret and Director Paul Hood reported directly to the president. Op-Center used undercover operatives with SWAT capabilities to diffuse crises around the world, and they were tops in their field. But after the World Trade Center disaster, in the interest of streamlining, OP-Center was disbanded-leaving the country in terrible danger. But when terrorists detonate bombs in sports stadiums around the country leaving men, women and children dead or mutilated, the President executes an emergency order to bring back Op-Center-an Op-Center capable of dealing with the high tech crises of the 21st Century, and there is a lethal one brewing in the Middle East. A renegade Saudi Prince with ambitions of controlling the world's oil supply has an ingenious plot to manipulate America into attacking Syria and launching a war against Iran. Next, they would ignite a sleeper cell to attack the America homeland, resulting in a bloodbath unlike any other. Only the men and women of Op-Center, using sophisticated technology, realize what is about to be unleashed. Only they have the courage to issue a warning no one wants to hear. But will anyone believe them?
When the USS Milwaukee is attacked by the North Koreans, the Op-Center initiates a sensitive operation to rescue the survivors, a mission made more crucial following the discovery of a secret pact between China and North Korea.
With a postscript describing SEAL efforts in Afghanistan, The Warrior Elite takes you into the toughest, longest, and most relentless military training in the world. What does it take to become a Navy SEAL? What makes talented, intelligent young men volunteer for physical punishment, cold water, and days without sleep? In The Warrior Elite, former Navy SEAL Dick Couch documents the process that transforms young men into warriors. SEAL training is the distillation of the human spirit, a tradition-bound ordeal that seeks to find men with character, courage, and the burning desire to win at all costs, men who would rather die than quit.
In the worst intelligence failure since Pearl Harbor, Al Qaeda operatives hijack four commercial airliners and use them in a deadly, coordinated attack against the United States completely revamps its national security structure, creating brand new organizations to better protect the American homeland from aftershock attacks ... Now, Dick Couch - retired Navy seal and ex-CIA operative - posits an interesting theory. In a fast-paced, action-packed, fictionalized account of the hunt for bin Laden, Couch teases out an intriguing and completely plausible alternate history"--
What happens when a Navy SEAL comes home from war-with a mission.Garrett Walker is a warrior. For the last decade and a half he's been continuously at war -combat rotation after combat rotation. He's a veteran of the close fight. And he's taken a great many lives. Yet, all that combat and all those deaths were in the service of his country. Now, that's about to change.Since their college days, Garrett and his identical twin have been estranged. They were both in love with the same woman, and she chose Garrett's brother. So Garrett chose the Navy SEALs. Then, following the death of their younger brother, also a Navy SEAL, yet another tragedy strikes the Walker family. The twin is caught in the web of a Russian Mafia organ-theft ring. He was just another business man in Las Vegas on just another business trip. Then drugged and alone, strange men enter his hotel room and crudely remove his kidneys. It's a rare crime, but one that happens more than is reported. For those in the black-market organ trade, easy pickings right? But they didn't count on the resiliency of the one twin, nor the rage of the warrior twin. Together, they embark on a mission. Together, they put all the rules aside bring to about the ultimate Act of Revenge.
An explosive novel of international intrigue from the author of Pressure Point. A U.S. spy disappears after obtaining proof of an illegal nuclear weapons trade made by the Russian Republic. Now a Navy SEAL team is being sent to penetrate the frozen Kola peninsula to find him.
Dick Cavett is back, sharing his reflections and reminiscences about Hollywood legends, American cultural icons, and the absurdities of everyday life In Brief Encounters, the legendary talk show host Dick Cavett introduces us to the fascinating characters who have crossed his path, from James Gandolfini and John Lennon to Mel Brooks and Nora Ephron, enhancing our appreciation of their talent, their personalities, and their place in the pantheon. We tag along as Cavett spends an afternoon with Stan Laurel at his modest apartment in Los Angeles, spars with Muhammad Ali at his training camp, and comes to know a young Steve Jobs—who woos him to be Apple's first celebrity pitchman. He also offers piquant commentary on contemporary politics, the indignities of travel, the nature of comedy writing, and the utter improbability of being alive at all. On his talk show, Cavett welcomed the leading figures from film, music, theater, literature, comedy, and politics, and engaged them in conversation that made viewers feel that the discussion was taking place in their own living rooms. Jimmy Fallon, the host of The Tonight Show, has called him "a legend and an inspiration" and has written a foreword that makes clear the debt that today's talk show hosts owe to Dick Cavett. To spend a few minutes, or an hour, or even a whole evening with Dick Cavett is an experience not to be missed, and now there's no reason to deny yourself. Enjoy the conversation!
“What Kafka was to the first half of the twentieth century, Philip K. Dick is to the second half.”—Art Spiegelman, author of MAUS Philip K. Dick was both our most brilliant science fiction writer and a visionary philosopher who chose to couch his speculations in fiction. For, as he wrote about androids and virtual reality, schizophrenic prophets and amnesiac gods, Dick was also posing fundamental questions: What is reality? What is sanity? And what is human? This unprecedented collection of Dick’s literary and philosophical writings acquaints us with the astonishing range and eloquence of his lifelong inquiry. The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick includes autobiography, critiques of science fiction, and dizzyingly provocative essays such as “The Android and the Human” and “If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others.” Readers will also find two chapters of a proposed sequel to Dick’s award-winning novel The Man in the High Castle and selections from the metaphysical Exegesis that inspired his classic VALIS. Witty, erudite, and exploding with intellectual shrapnel, this is the last testament of an American original. This collection confirms Dick’s reputation as one of the foremost imaginative thinkers of the twentieth century. “A wide-ranging selection of free-wheeling philosophical essays, and journal entries; humorous, thoughtful speeches; and plot scenarios. . . . For both casual and serious Dick fans, The Shifting Realities unearths some gems.”—Boston Phoenix
A memoir by the legendary television executive detailing his pioneering work on Saturday Night Live, Sunday Night Football, the Olympics, the NBA, music videos, late night, and more. Think of an important moment in live TV over the last half-century. Dick Ebersol was likely involved. Dropping out of college to join the crew of ABC’s Wide World of Sports, Ebersol worked the Mexico City Olympics during the famous protest by John Carlos and Tommie Smith as well as the Munich Olympics during the tragic hostage standoff. He went on to cocreate Saturday Night Live with Lorne Michaels and later produced the show for four seasons, helping launch Eddie Murphy to stardom. After creating Friday Night Videos and partnering with Vince McMahon to bring professional wrestling to network TV, he next took over NBC Sports, which helped turn basketball into a global phenomenon and made history as the first broadcaster to host the World Series, the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, and the Summer Olympics in the same year; it was Ebersol who was responsible for Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame in Atlanta. Then, following a plane crash that took the life of his fourteen-year-old son Teddy and nearly killed him, he determinedly undertook perhaps his greatest career achievement: creating NBC’s Sunday Night Football, still the #1 primetime show in America. The Today show’s headline-making hosting changes, the so-called “Late-Night Wars,” O.J. Simpson’s Bronco chase—Ebersol had a front-row seat to it all. From Saturday Night to Sunday Night is filled with entertaining and illuminating stories featuring such boldface names as Billy Crystal, Michael Jordan, Bill Clinton, Jay Leno, Peyton Manning, Michael Phelps, and Larry David. (Ebersol even inspired the famous Seinfeld episode in which George Costanza pretends he didn’t quit his job.) More than that, the book offers an insightful history and analysis of TV’s evolution from broadcast to cable and beyond—a must-read for casual binge-watchers and small-screen aficionados alike.
The legendary talk show host's humorous reminiscences and pointed commentary on the great figures he has known, and culture and politics today For years, Dick Cavett played host to the nation's most famous personalities on his late-night talk show. In this humorous and evocative book, we get to hear Cavett's best tales, as he recounts great moments with the legendary entertainers who crossed his path and offers his own trenchant commentary on contemporary American culture and politics. Pull up a chair and listen to Cavett's stories about one-upping Bette Davis, testifying on behalf of John Lennon, confronting Richard Nixon, scheming with John Updike, befriending William F. Buckley, and palling around with Groucho Marx. Sprinkled in are tales of his childhood in Nebraska in the 1940s and 1950s, where he honed his sense of comic timing and his love of magic. Cavett is also a wry cultural observer, looking at America today and pointing out the foibles that we so often fail to notice about ourselves. And don't even get him started on politicians. A generation of Americans ended their evenings in Dick Cavett's company; Talk Show is a way to welcome him back.
Dick Miller is a retired special agent with the US Army Criminal Investigation Division who faithfully served his country for over twenty-three years in the military and an additional twenty years working for various US government law enforcement, intelligence, and security agencies. His book, Army Detective: Life and Times of Dick Miller, not only chronicles his early years growing up in a small coal-mining town in southwestern Indiana but goes into his first tour in the US Army where he served a year in Vietnam then left to pursue a college degree. He writes about how his personal life, studies, and aspirations to work in law enforcement were hindered by his wife’s refusal to support his career ambitions, which overflowed into her disruptive personality and own personal desires to make him stay in their hometown without the hope of pursuing any type of career. Knowing his life would be forever stagnated without hope of achieving his goals and realizing his marriage was a failure, he reentered the US Army and achieved his career goal at the same time by seeking to serve as a CID special agent. His decision caused his marriage to end but opened the opportunity to find true love with a different woman and establish a stronger bond with his son, Chris. His journey to become successful picked up momentum at this stage, and as he rose through the ranks from a street investigator to senior investigative manager, he accomplished a lifelong dream of having that career in law enforcement. The many gruesome and violent crimes he investigated took their toll on his health and psyche. Realizing what his lifelong career had done, he had to find an avenue to allow him to keep associated with his work without the trials and tribulations of the job. Knowing it was a risk to get out of investigations, he pursued a position with the US Army Protective Services Unit. This action would allow him to continue working until retirement. This decision caused him to leave investigations but to stay in the job until his retirement. At the end, the US Army did offer him a chance to return to criminal investigations, but he turned them down and retired. He moved to Sun City Center, Florida, where he enjoys spending time with his wife of thirty-five-plus years, Elda, traveling throughout the United States and other parts of the world with her, and reading the many books accumulated over the years.
Straminipilous Fungi presents a critical comparative review of the morphology and ultrastructure, morphogenesis, cytology, molecular biology and evolution of the biflagellate fungi. These organisms encompass the fungi formerly called oomycetes; taxonomically related heterotrophs studied by mycologists; plasmodiophorids and other heterotrophs. Appropriate comparisons are made with chromophyte algae, marine heterotrophs and chytridiaceous fungi. Little-known taxa which have been referred to the various orders of flagellate fungi are also listed together with citations. A new hierarchical classification is presented which is supported by systematic accounts and synoptic keys. Dichotomous keys based on habitat and habit are given to all known species of lagenidiaceous fungi, labyrinthulids and plasmodiophorids. A unique `one stop' reference resource for plant pathologists is provided by the binominal lists, including host-related lists for the downy mildews. The book, including ca 4000 references, is a major text for post-graduate and research workers, particularly freshwater and marine biologists, soil ecologists and plant pathologists.
King Solomon's Mines, The Lost Continent, New Atlantis, The Lost World, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Mysterious Island, The Moon Pool, She, Pellucidar, The Monster Men, Adjustment Team…
King Solomon's Mines, The Lost Continent, New Atlantis, The Lost World, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Mysterious Island, The Moon Pool, She, Pellucidar, The Monster Men, Adjustment Team…
Musaicum Books presents to you this unique Lost World collection, designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Abraham Merritt: The Moon Pool The Metal Monster The People of the Pit Arthur Conan Doyle: The Lost World Jules Verne: Journey to the Center of the Earth Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea The Mysterious Island Edward Bulwer-Lytton: The Coming Race George MacDonald: Lilith H. Rider Haggard: King Solomon's Mines She: A History of Adventure Gertrude Barrows Bennett (aka Francis Stevens): The Citadel of Fear (5b) Edgar Rice Burroughs: Pellucidar Series: At the Earth's Core Pellucidar Caspak Series: The Land That Time Forgot The People That Time Forgot Out of Time's Abyss Other SF Novels: The Monster Men The Lost Continent (aka Beyond Thirty) Francis Bacon: New Atlantis C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne: The Lost Continent Philip K. Dick: Adjustment Team The Defenders
Offering an intimate perspective on the life of an important, prolific author, this revealing biography uncovers the inner workings of a cult figure through his tumultuous relationship with his third wife. Brilliant and charismatic, Philip K. Dick was known as a loyal friend, father, and husband, as well as a talented science fiction writer. His six-year marriage to the woman he described as “the love of his life” and his intellectual equal was full of passion—the meeting of soul mates. But behind the façade of an untroubled life was a man struggling with his demons, unable to trust anyone, and reliant upon his charm to navigate his increasingly dark reality and descent into drugs and madness. Exposing personal details of their married life as well as the ways he continued to haunt her even after their relationship collapsed, Anne Dick provides thorough research combined with personal memories of this mysterious man.
Monkey Bottom Redux" completes the Monkey bottom Trilogy, which commenced with "Monkey Bottom" and the affair between Navy Admiral Chet Dillon and a female government employee on Naval Base Norfolk, which he commanded. The affair was cut short with the shooting death of his mistress by his wife in a neglected part of the naval base called Monkey Bottom, where the Navy wants to lease land for a casino. The disgraced admiral is forced into retirement. In the sequel, "Revenge in Monkey Bottom", Dillon leaves the country to work as a liquor rep servicing Navy bases in the Caribbean. He returns to Norfolk to help secure the liquor contract for the prospective Pamunkey Indian Resort and Casino. Because the admiral's mistress had Pamunkey blood and her murder was on sacred Pamunkey ancestral land, the tribe's "Enforcer", "Robert", kills the admiral in an act of blood revenge. In "Monkey Bottom Redux", "Robert" is a mercenary for the revolutionary FARC in Colombia, where he assassinates a high-ranking Colombian Army general and flees the country via Mexico City to San Diego where a former Army Ranger buddy produces fake ID's. He returns to Norfolk with hopes for a quieter life. He falls in love with an employee at the temporary Pamunkey casino who was the former admiral's lover in Puerto Rico. Navy NCIS and Army CID collaborate in their search for "Robert", which will require all their skills and resources. The highest levels in the Pentagon and State Department are brought into play on legal and extradition issues, with help from DOJ. What is "Robert's" fate?
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