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Audiobooks Narrated by Shawn Compton
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Visual Friendlies, Tally Target: Surges continues the story of the role of forward air controllers (JTACs) and Close Air Support (CAS), picking up in 2006 and continuing through 2013. This volume covers the evolution of Joint Fires through the colloquial 'second phase' of the War on Terror—the 'surges' of Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2010–2011. Vol. II recounts the evolution of air power during the rising counterinsurgencies, as well as the psychology and mental makeup of these exclusive tribes. Notable accounts include the recovery mission of EXTORTION17, the first withdrawal from Iraq, previously unreported missions against insurgent strongholds, and instances where the situational awareness and decision-making of forward air controllers prevented civilian casualties and fratricide.
The story carries with it a continuation of the strategic lessons learned from America's longest war: where tactical successes and innovation failed to achieve a strategic outcome amidst ambiguous grand strategy, flawed policy and a failure to understand the new battlefields of the twenty-first century, as recounted by the men whose air power tribes went into the breach again and again. Volume II concludes as the 'War on Terror' nominally ended in 2013, as the final phase of the post-9/11 wars transitioned to the 'Train, Advise, and Assist' missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
'Brown has taken an incredibly complex subject and made it accessible and readable, all while retaining the gravity of history and the sheer intensity of these battlefields. Airpower became a fundamental warfighting tool in the Global War on Terror, and its success depended on the community of JTACs whose experiences populate this important work. They are the unsung heroes of the post-9/11 wars America needs to meet.' —David L. Goldfein, General (Ret.), USAF, 21st Chief of Staff
With a new century and a new enemy came a new kind of war: low intensity and civilian-dominated, blending austere rural and dense urban environments alike. Into this new kind of war, the American military launched two invasions against terrorist networks and military rivals, relying on airpower—close air support (CAS)—at a scale never before seen.
The Global War on Terror was the 'CAS war.' Forward Air Controllers were on the front lines, directing airstrikes against enemies in their safe havens, safeguarding friendly forces and civilians alike to their utmost, and achieving unprecedented success with limited resources. This volume captures the heroic accounts of the first Tactical Air Control Party (TACPs) in Afghanistan and Iraq, and how Close Air Support fundamentally reshaped the American war machine in the first five years of the War on Terror.
North Carolina represents a perfect distillation of the promise and peril of modern American democracy: hyperpartisanship, gerrymandering, dissatisfaction with the two-party system, the urban-rural divide—these issues are all brought into sharp relief in the Tar Heel State. For that reason, North Carolina politics and government are increasingly of interest not just to North Carolina citizens but to journalists, political observers, and people across the country. Political scientist Christopher A. Cooper, to whom the national media go when they need a quote about North Carolina politics, offers a primer made for all people, no matter their political leanings.
Listeners will be introduced to everything that has made North Carolina the most purple of purple states—from the state constitution and the influence of think tanks to the growing racial diversity of the state and the limitations on the governor's power. By explaining how we came to be in the political situation we are in, Cooper shows us where we might go next. And, as many have said, 'As North Carolina goes, so goes the nation.'
Move past the ESG culture wars and make better choices for your business.
Embracing ESG—environmental, social, and governance goals—isn't just the right thing to do. It's good business. Companies that don't address their material long-term risks may save a few dollars today, but they're putting themselves, their stakeholders, and their investors in jeopardy.
ESG: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review will help you move past the noise and political debates to execute an ESG strategy that best fits your business. You'll discover how to link ESG targets to financial performance, when and how to respond to social issues, and where governance needs to adapt to meet a changing world.
Business is changing. Will you adapt or be left behind?
Deepen your understanding of the topics that are shaping your company's future with the Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review series. Featuring HBR's smartest thinking on fast-moving issues—blockchain, cybersecurity, AI, and more—each book provides the foundational introduction and practical case studies your organization needs to compete today and collects the best research, interviews, and analysis to get it ready for tomorrow.
Discover how to boldly lead, address conflict, and inspire others in your business and personal life
In the newly revised second edition of Hostage at the Table: How Leaders Can Overcome Conflict, Influence Others and Raise Performance, clinical psychologist, distinguished leadership professor, and veteran hostage negotiator George Kohlrieser comes together with his son Andrew Kohlrieser, an experienced leadership, negotiation, and conflict resolution consultant, to deliver another incisive and practical discussion of how to use the proven psychological techniques used in hostage negotiations to enhance your leadership skills both professionally and personally. Step-by-step, the authors explain the seven key factors that anyone can use to remove the obstacles that stand in the way of resolving interpersonal, business, and leadership issues.
You'll:
● Discover proven techniques for interpersonal and business conflict management
● Become a secure base for your team, establish trust, and learn how to bond with anyone
● Explore how to identify where you are holding yourself hostage in your life and learn how to reclaim your agency and move toward a more empowered future
Are you preparing to take the gospel to the nations?
You've said "yes" to God's call to go, and now you will pack up your things and step into the unknown of a new location, people, and culture. The following years will likely include great joy, frustration, homesickness, difficulty, and excitement. In this book, ten men who have served in missions in various ways share what they wish they had known before they began.
This book is a handbook for entering the mission field, including essays on: Discerning Your Calling; Leaving What You Love; Identity and Task; Integrity and Accountability; Serving Well as a Team; Prayer and Evangelism; Going Single; Family & Mission; The Fellowship of the Suffering; Spiritual Patterns of a Missionary.
A Vietnam War helicopter pilot shares arresting accounts of flying troops into hot LZs and medevacking the wounded under fire.
The Freedom Shield brings together stories of veterans of the 191st Assault Helicopter Company, who were tasked with carrying troops into battle, attacking enemy positions, and evacuating the wounded in their UH-1 Iroquois 'Huey' helicopters. The unit was assembled from a hodgepodge of hand-me-down aircraft, used equipment, and overlooked personnel—its appearance belied the invaluable work the crews of the 191st would undertake during the Vietnam War. This narrative of the Company, told through collected stories of veterans, defines a breed of soldier newly minted in Vietnam: the combat assault-helicopter crewman.
The 191st pilots, crews, and support personnel vividly share the details of what it was like to be at war and forced to rely on your fellow crewmembers for your own survival. Their accounts of helicopter combat at the height of the Vietnam conflict accurately recreate the sights and sounds of the battlefields, the fear and horror of watching close friends torn to pieces, and their feelings on returning to base. Their message is infinitely clear: 'The price of freedom is painful.'
In September 1943, as America began advancing from its foothold on Guadalcanal, a young American airman was lost in heavy weather over the South Pacific on what was expected to be a routine flight. In examining that loss and the events leading up to a rescue attempt on an island in the South Pacific, and bringing together societies utterly alien to each other, Survival in the South Pacific brings together the big themes of the Pacific War.
The American lieutenant and his comrades had been swept from their homes, trained at speed for war, and dispatched to one of the remotest places on the globe. American war plans in place when Pearl Harbor was attacked poorly reflected the capabilities of its military, and the limits imposed by America's far-flung and indefensible territories. The 'Germany First' policy had resulted in a deeply uncertain future for forces in the South Pacific and Australia—the United States was unprepared for the global war that came to it in late 1941, even as the pipeline of men and materiel began to fill. Young Allied and Japanese aviators, sailors, and soldiers, were not the only ones thrown into the swirling maelstrom of war that had engulfed the Pacific—the indigenous islanders were also immersed in a new reality. In bringing together individual stories of men at war, this book gives a new perspective on the Pacific War.
Few Americans know the facts about the final year of US combat operations in South Vietnam. As political will to sustain the fight shrank and the US withdrew most of their ground forces, the Soviets and North Vietnamese sought battlefield success to strengthen their negotiating position at the Paris peace talks. In March of 1972, North Vietnam invaded the South with five armored divisions, massive artillery support, and modern Soviet anti-aircraft weapons, intended to sweep any remaining US military aviation support to South Vietnam from the skies. But the Soviets and their North Vietnamese proteges had miscalculated.
The remaining US aviation forces, along with the US Air Force and US Navy and Marine aviation assets, would not be easily removed from the battle. For the US forces still in-country, this is an untold story of heroism, dedication, and refusal to yield the battlefield despite being largely considered by US political leaders as 'expendable.'
An acclaimed historian captures the true nature of imperialism in early America, demonstrating how the frontier shaped the nation.
We are divided over the history of the United States, and one of the central dividing lines is the frontier. Was it a site of heroism? Or was it where the full force of an all-powerful empire was brought to bear on Native peoples? In this startlingly original work, historian Robert Parkinson presents a new account of ever-shifting encounters between white colonists and Native Americans. Drawing skillfully on Joseph Conrad's famous novella, Heart of Darkness, he demonstrates that imperialism in North America was neither heroic nor a perfectly planned conquest. It was, rather, as bewildering, violent, and haphazard as the European colonization of Africa, which Conrad knew firsthand and fictionalized in his masterwork.
Parkinson argues that American history is, in fact, tied to the frontier, just not in the ways we are often told. Altering our understanding of the past, he also shows what this new understanding should mean for us today.
Distilling the ideas of the greatest military theoreticians of history, including Sun Tzu, Niccol? Machiavelli, and Carl von Clausewitz, this clear and engaging Very Short Introduction presents a fascinating account of the 'art of the general.' Antulio J. Echevarria II highlights the dynamic relationship between the main elements of strategy: purpose, method, and means. Drawing on historical examples, he discusses the major types of military strategy and how emerging technologies are affecting them.
This second edition has been updated throughout, and now includes an extended chapter on cyberwarfare which shows how the use of social media platforms to influence opinions on political views and manipulate populations to act in certain ways has evolved from an art to a science.
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