Military

Title: Baptism of Fire
Author: Michael Winston
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Bob Doerr

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1475166249

This first volume in the Sgt. Smith World War II trilogy follows a squad of First Infantry Division soldiers to the rugged Tunisian desert of North Africa in their first experience of the war. As members of the “Big Red One,” the most famous Division in the American Army, they do battle with the most famous units in the German Army: Rommel’s Africa Corps, as well as the 10th and 21st Panzer Divisions. This is a vivid and unvarnished odyssey into the foxholes of World War II, a gritty look at a war we should never forget, and dedicated to all those brave men and women who through their courage and sacrifice fought to free the world from a cloud of evil.

Title: Red Sky at Morning
Author: Steve Wilson
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Elizabeth Beard

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1618080350

When Marine Lieutenant Michael Neill is ordered to the former Soviet Union, his assignment is to verify nuclear disarmament. But before his mission begins, an American reconnaissance plane is attacked by a Russian fighter, and a Navy pilot is killed. After the incident, Neill’s mission changes.

Willis Avery, the President’s National Security Advisor, wants Lieutenant Neill to investigate Russian stealth technology, in addition to his original assignment. Photographic evidence—and the lack of radar images of the attacking aircraft—lead the American intelligence community to conclude that something new has been developed in the skies over Russia.

Avery believes that Neill’s friendship with a high-ranking officer in the Ukrainian Air Force is the key to establishing Red Sky at Morning—the existence of new aviation technology that could upset the balance of power between East and West. However, ultra-nationalist forces are at work. After arriving in Eastern Europe, Neill quickly uncovers a conspiracy of terrorism secretly instigated by the Kremlin. Government leaders in Moscow will stop at nothing to rebuild the Soviet Union as they try to force the breakaway republics back into the fold.

Neill discovers that the terrorism has extended to the weapons facility he is charged with inspecting. Communist agents have gone far beyond their original orders, and it’s a race against time as the Marine—with the help of a beautiful Ukrainian journalist—tries to stop them—and come up with a plan to bring down the corrupt govenment officials in Moscow.

Title: Tainted Dawn: The Great War
Author: B.N. Peacock
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Edward Kelly

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1611792126

August 1789. The Rights of Man. Liberty. Equality. Idealism. Patriotism. A new age dawns. And yet, old hostilities persist: England and Spain are on the brink of war. France, allied by treaty with Spain, readies her warships.

Three youths - the son of an English carpenter, the son of a naval captain, and the son of a French court tailor - meet in London, a chance encounter that entwines their lives ever after. The English boys find themselves on the same frigate bound for the Caribbean.

The Frenchman sails to Trinidad, where he meets an even more zealous Spanish revolutionary. As diplomats in Europe race to avoid conflict, war threatens to explode in the Caribbean, with the three youths pitted against each other. Will the dawn of the boys' young manhood remain bright with hope? Or will it become tainted with their countrymen's spilled blood? "...compelling characters and an exciting plot... Much like the Hornblower series

Title: CORPS VET: A Memoir
Genre: Memoir
Author: Dick Hrebic
Reviewer: Hodge Wood

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0981950582

"LOYALTY TO GOD, COUNTRY, AND CORPS" More than just a Marine's motto, Dick Hrebik takes these words to heart and lives the life he espouses. From the streets of Chicago to the jungles of Vietnam to law offices in Washington, D.C., Hrebik's moral compass and values guide him through the highs and lows of his life. Dick's courageous voice from the "Silent Generation," offers a unique insight into a Marine's mind, and how the lessons he was taught in the military carried forward into his life after his distinguished career in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Title: A Passel of Hate
Author: Joe Epley
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reviewer: Edward Cox

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1461075939

Gripping, visceral, and full of intensity, A Passel of Hate is as historically fascinating as it is emotionally satisfying; capturing the heartache and triumphs of a war that brutally pits brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor in the western Carolina frontier in 1780. “The first link in a chain of evils…the loss of America” is how Sir Henry Clinton, Britain’s commander-in-chief in the Colonies, describes the decisive American victory at the battle of Kings Mountain. This fact-based novel brings the events leading to that battle into sharp focus through the highly personal experiences of families and individuals who shaped its outcome. Through the eyes of Jacob Godley, A Passel of Hate brings to life the hardships and challenges of frontier living where there is a constant threat from Indians, roving raiders and British invaders. Without government orders or formal training, mountain and piedmont patriots join together with their own weapons and horses to expel a British led Loyalist army that plunders the western Carolina countryside, delivering harsh retribution to those supporting rebellion. Jacob and his 15-year-old brother enter the savage fighting with the Liberty Men, but with a dread of having to face their three Loyalist brothers. The overwhelming victory at Kings Mountain is bittersweet for Jacob who suffers a crushing personal tragedy on the battlefield. In addition, his nemesis, the notorious Tory raider Rance Miller escapes, and Jacob, consumed by hatred, tracks the terrorist through the Carolina backcountry to seek the revenge he so desperately needs. A battle Thomas Jefferson called “the turn of the tide of success,” Kings Mountain has a devastating impact on the British Army’s goal of quashing the rebellion in the south. Brutal in its depiction of the harrowing nature of war and the price paid by our revolutionary ancestors, A Passel of Hate is a powder keg of highly charged personal feelings and military significance.