Fleming Community Library

When Nick Nardini enlists in the Marine Corps' new paratrooper combat unit at the start of World War II, he has to talk his best friend, Zachary Klecko, into joining him in what he sees as an adventure--but from boot camp on it is clear that Zach is much more serious about the war than Nick is, at least until they are assigned to one of the POW recovery teams on the Japanese mainland.

D-Day, Operation Market Garden, Battle of the Bulge-the US Airborne divisions were integral at all these major points in World War II. But they also played a significant role in North Africa, where they first saw action, and in Italy in 1943. Right on the tail of these planes, this expert history follows the airborne divisions from the redesignation and initial training of the 82nd in 1942 through to their final, momentous missions in the Pacific. Featuring...

Explains what it takes to become a paratrooper, discusses the combat history of the 82nd Airborne Division, and describes the training necessary for these special soldiers.

"No matter how advanced a military is or how intelligent its members are, the reality is that missions will sometimes fail. The Pararescue units of the U.S. Air Force are responsible for extracting soldiers who are gravely injured or trapped behind enemy lines. Pulled from the Air Force's Special Warfare division, these elite soldiers are not only skilled medics, they're also accomplished survivalists. In this title, readers get a glimpse of what...

T"he riveting story of how a young boy's upbringing with outlaw culture and charismatic role models forged him into an elite Marine and a decorated Pararescueman. "Absence of self is my sword" comprises the final line in "The Warrior's Creed," a 14th century poem written by an unknown Japanese Samurai, and this is the code Master Sergeant Roger Sparks embodied as a Recon Marine turned Alaskan Pararescueman. A living legend in the military, Sparks...

It was Christmastime, 2010, in Billings, Montana, when my father-in-law handed me a shoebox. Its contents, unknown to me at the time, sparked a curiosity, an adventure, a challenge. Inside were stacks and stacks of letters. That day I learned of a man named Sonnie Rockford, my wife's great-uncle who was a paratrooper in World War II. Sonnie was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (H-Minus), 1st Battalion, Company...

What did you do to deserve that a fellow soldier responds when he hears that Nicolai Lilin has been assigned to an unconventional, ultra-high-risk paramilitary unit of the Russian army. Also nicknamed the para-bats for the black parachutes that dropped them behind enemy lines at night, Lilin and his fellow saboteurs soon find themselves fighting Islamic insurgents armed with American weaponry in the breakaway province of Chechnya. In vivid, harrowing...

Chronicles letters written by one soldier, David Clinton Tharp, depicting his personal journey before, during, and after World War II as a radio operator while serving under the 101st Airborne Division.