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Valkyrie: The USA's Ill-fated Supersonic Heavy Bomber
by Graham M. SimonsDuring the 1950s, at the time Elvis Presley was rocking the world with Hound Dog and the USA was aiming to become the worlds only superpower, plans were being drawn at North American Aviation in Southern California for an incredible Mach-3 strategic bomber. The concept was born as a result of General Curtis LeMays desire for a heavy bomber with the weapon load and range of the subsonic B-52 and a top speed in excess of the supersonic medium bomber, the B-58 Hustler. If LeMays plans came to fruition there would be 250 Valkyries in the air; it would be the pinnacle of his quest for the ultimate strategic bomber operated by Americas Strategic Air Command. The design was a leap into the future that pushed the envelope in terms of exotic materials, avionics and power plants. However, in April 1961, Defense Secretary McNamara stopped the production go-ahead for the B-70 because of rapid cost escalation and the USSRs newfound ability to destroy aircraft at extremely high altitude using either missiles or the new Mig-25 fighter. Nevertheless, in 1963 plans for the production of three high-speed research aircraft were approved and construction proceeded. In September 1964 the first Valkyrie, now re-coded A/V-1 took to the air for the first time and in October went supersonic.This book is the most detailed description of the design, engineering and research that went into this astounding aircraft. It is full of unpublished details, photographs and firsthand accounts from those closely associated with the project. Although never put into full production, this giant six-engined aircraft became famous for its breakthrough technology, and the spectacular images captured on a fatal air-to-air photo shoot when an observing Starfighter collided with Valkyrie A/V-2 which crashed into the Mojave Desert.The loss of the $750 million aircraft and two lives stopped future development, although there were several attempts to redesign it as an airliner to compete against the European Concorde.
Valley Forge
by Bob Drury Tom ClavinThe #1 New York Times bestselling authors of The Heart of Everything That Is return with one of the most inspiring—and underappreciated—chapters in American history: the story of the Continental Army’s six-month transformation in Valley Forge.December 1777. It is 18 months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and some 12,000 members of America’s beleaguered Continental Army stagger into a small Pennsylvania encampment 23 miles northwest of British-occupied Philadelphia. The starving and half-naked force is reeling from a string of demoralizing defeats at the hands of King George III’s army, and are barely equipped to survive the coming winter. Their commander in chief, the focused and forceful George Washington, is at the lowest ebb of his military career. The Continental Congress is in exile and the American Revolution appears to be lost. Yet a spark remains. Determined to keep the rebel cause alive through sheer force of will, Washington transforms the farmland plateau hard by the Schuylkill River into a virtual cabin city. Together with a dedicated coterie of advisers both foreign and domestic—Marquis de Lafayette, Baron von Steuben, the impossibly young Alexander Hamilton, and John Laurens—he sets out to breathe new life into his military force. Against all odds, as the frigid and miserable months pass, they manage to turn a bobtail army of citizen soldiers into a professional fighting force that will change the world forever. Valley Forge is the story of how that metamorphosis occurred. Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, the team behind such bestsellers as The Heart of Everything That Is, The Last Stand of Fox Company, and Halsey’s Typhoon, show us how this miracle was accomplished despite thousands of American soldiers succumbing to disease, starvation, and the elements. Here is Steuben, throwing himself into the dedicated drilling sessions he imported from Prussian battlefields. Here is Hamilton, proffering the shrewd advice that wards off his beloved commander in chief’s scheming political rivals. Here is Laurens, determined to integrate the Continental Army with freed black men and slaves. Here is Lafayette, thirsting for battlefield accolades while tenaciously lobbying his own king for crucial French aid. At the center of it all is George Washington, in the prime of his life yet confronting crushing failure as he fends off political conspiracies every bit as pernicious as his incessant military challenges. The Virginia planter-turned-general is viewed by many as unqualified to lead the Continental Army after the humiliating loss of Philadelphia, and his detractors in and out of Congress plot to replace him. The Valley Forge winter is his—and the revolution’s—last chance at redemption. And, indeed, after six months in the camp, Washington fulfills his destiny, leading the Continental Army to a stunning victory in the Battle of Monmouth Court House. The momentum is never again with the Redcoats. Valley Forge is the riveting true story of a nascent United States toppling an empire. Using new and rarely seen contemporaneous documents—and drawing on a cast of iconic characters and remarkable moments that capture the innovation and energy that led to the birth of our nation—Drury and Clavin provide the definitive account of this seminal and previously undervalued moment in the battle for American independence.
Valley Forge: A Novel (George Washington Series #2)
by Newt Gingrich William R. ForstchenA riveting, personal look at one of our country's first heroes in the second captivating novel of the George Washington series by Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen, the New York Times bestselling authors of To Try Men's SoulsIt's the winter of 1777, a year after Washington's triumphant surprise attack on Trenton, and the battered, demoralized Continental Army retreats from Philadelphia. At Valley Forge, they discover that their requests for supplies have been ignored by Congress. With no other options, for weeks the army freezes under tents in the bitter cold. The men are on the point of collapse, while in Philadelphia the British live in luxury. In spite of the suffering, Washington endures, joined by a volunteer from Germany, Baron Friederich von Steuben. With precious little time, von Steuben begins recasting the army as a professional corps capable of facing the British head-on—something it has never accomplished before—in the process changing the course of history. Valley Forge is a compelling, painstakingly researched tour-de-force novel about survival, transformation, and rebirth. It chronicles the unique crucible of time and place where Washington and his army, against all odds, were forged into the force that would win a revolution and found the United States of America.
Valley Forge: Making and Remaking a National Symbol (Keystone Books)
by Lorett TreeseMore than four million people a year visit Valley Forge, one of America's most celebrated historic sites. Here, amid the rolling hills of southeastern Pennsylvania, visitors can pass through the house which served as Washington's Headquarters during the famous winter encampment of 1777–1778. Others picnic and jog in the huge park, complete with monuments, recreated log huts, and modern visitor center, all built to pay tribute to the Valley Forge story. In this lively book, Lorett Treese shows how Valley Forge evolved into the tourist mecca that it is today. In the process, she uses Valley Forge as a means for understanding how Americans view their own past. Treese explores the origins of popular images associated with Valley Forge, such as George Washington kneeling in the snow to seek divine assistance. She places Valley Forge in the context of the historic preservation movement as the site became Pennsylvania's first state park in 1893. She studies its "Era of Monuments" and the movement to "restore" Valley Forge in the spirit of Rockefeller's enormously popular colonial Williamsburg. Treese describes a Valley Forge fraught with controversy over the appropriate appearance and use of a place so revered. One such controversy, the "hot dog war," a brief but intense battle over concession stands, was spawned by Americans' changing perceptions of how a national park was to be used. The volatile Vietnam era prompted the state park commission to establish its "Subcommittee on Sex, Hippies, and Whiskey Swillers" to investigate park regulation infractions. Even today, people differ over exactly what happened at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777–1778. The modern visitor sees the remains of over a century of commemoration, competition, and contention. The result, Treese shows, is a historic site that may reveal more about succeeding history than about Washington's army. This book will give its readers a new way to look at Valley Forge—and all historic sites.
Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War
by Ted MorganPulitzer Prize-winning author Ted Morgan has now written a rich and definitive account of the fateful battle that ended French rule in Indochina-and led inexorably to America's Vietnam War. Dien Bien Phu was a remote valley on the border of Laos along a simple rural trade route. But it would also be where a great European power fell to an underestimated insurgent army and lost control of a crucial colony. Valley of Death is the untold story of the 1954 battle that, in six weeks, changed the course of history. A veteran of the French Army, Ted Morgan has made use of exclusive firsthand reports to create the most complete and dramatic telling of the conflict ever written. Here is the history of the Vietminh liberation movement's rebellion against French occupation after World War II and its growth as an adversary, eventually backed by Communist China. Here too is the ill-fated French plan to build a base in Dien Bien Phu and draw the Vietminh into a debilitating defeat-which instead led to the Europeans being encircled in the surrounding hills, besieged by heavy artillery, overrun, and defeated. Making expert use of recently unearthed or released information, Morgan reveals the inner workings of the American effort to aid France, with Eisenhower secretly disdainful of the French effort and prophetically worried that "no military victory was possible in that type of theater. " Morgan paints indelible portraits of all the major players, from Henri Navarre, head of the French Union forces, a rigid professional unprepared for an enemy fortified by rice carried on bicycles, to his commander, General Christian de Castries, a privileged, miscast cavalry officer, and General Vo Nguyen Giap, a master of guerrilla warfare working out of a one-room hut on the side of a hill. Most devastatingly, Morgan sets the stage for the Vietnam quagmire that was to come. Superbly researched and powerfully written, Valley of Death is the crowning achievement of an author whose work has always been as compulsively readable as it is important.
Valley of the Shadow
by Gen. O. P. Weyland Maj. Ward M. MillarU.S. Major Ward M. Millar was the third and last of three Air Force pilots captured during the Korean War to make his escape from the Communists. This is his story, first published in 1955, simply told, and one of stubborn and single-minded determination. Parachuting down in enemy territory, with two broken legs, Millar was picked up by some Chinese soldiers, treated minimally, interrogated at length, and finally taken to a “hospital,” which was no more than an infirmary. His first escape attempt—crawling on wooden skids—failed; his second, with walking sticks and padded galoshes for shoes, was more successful. He managed to hobble at the rate of a mile a day, lived on raw corn, was gradually weakened by dysentery and hunger, and fell into the hands of Kim—a friendly North Korean who was able to complete his escape and escort him to Seoul....“A modest, matter of fact account—which has (and perhaps needs) no pretensions beyond the bare, spare facts of this experience.”—Kirkus Review
Valley of the Shadow: A Novel (The Battle Hymn Cycle #3)
by Ralph PetersWinner of the 2015 Boyd Award for Literary Excellence in Military FictionIn the Valley of the Shadow, they wrote their names in blood.From a daring Confederate raid that nearly seized Washington, D.C., to a stunning reversal on the bloody fields of Cedar Creek, the summer and autumn of 1864 witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of our Civil War—in mighty battles now all but forgotten.The desperate struggle for mastery of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, breadbasket of the Confederacy and the South's key invasion route into the North, pitted a remarkable cast of heroes in blue and gray against each other: runty, rough-hewn Phillip Sheridan, a Union general with an uncanny gift for inspiring soldiers, and Jubal Early, his Confederate counterpart, stubborn, raw-mouthed and deadly; the dashing Yankee boy-general, George Armstrong Custer, and the brilliant, courageous John Brown Gordon, a charismatic Georgian who lived one of the era's greatest love stories.From hungry, hard-bitten Rebel privates to a pair of Union officers destined to become presidents, from a neglected hero who saved our nation's capital and went on to write one of his century's greatest novels, to doomed Confederate leaders of incomparable valor, Ralph Peters brings to life yesteryear's giants and their breathtaking battles with the same authenticity, skill and insight he offered readers in his prize-winning Civil War bestsellers, Cain at Gettysburg and Hell or Richmond.Sharp as a bayonet and piercing as a bullet, Valley of the Shadow is a great novel of our grandest, most-tragic war.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Valleys of Death
by Kevin Maurer Bill Richardson"Richardson never pulls his punches in these vivid descriptions." --Publishers Weekly Caught in the Chinese counterattack at Unsan-one of the deadliest American battles of the Cold War Era-Colonel Bill Richardson led an Alamo like defense of the few survivors before being taken prisoner. The North Koreans marched them through sub-zero weather without food, shelter, or medical attention to the area known as Death Valley. Enduring torture designed to break the mind and body, Richardson remained strong enough to lead his fellow prisoners in resistance, sabotage, and new plans for escape.Valleys of Death is a stirring story of survival and determination, an intimate look at the soldiers who fought America's first battle of the cold war in the unvarnished words of one of their own.
Valor In The Ashes (Ashes #9)
by William W. JohnstoneAfter nuclear war, an ex-soldier leads a band of rebels against evil cannibal mutants in New York City—from a USA Today–bestselling author. A decade has passed since the nuclear nightmare of the Great War brought America to the brink of destruction. Out of the smoldering ashes, Ben Raines has emerged to build a new society in this once proud land. But in this hellish new world there is evil lurking, evil that will stop at nothing to destroy the dream of a new America. Leaving a small rear-guard detachment at their home base in Louisiana, Ben Raines and his rebel army begin an overload expedition to New York City—the armed Hell on Earth of the cannibalistic mutants known as the Night People. For Raines and his rebels, it means clearing skyscrapers floor by floor and stalking an endless labyrinth of underground tunnels—a perilous search-and-destroy mission that will decide the fate of freedom's cause. Ninth in the long-running series!
Valor Wings
by Sam SubityA thrilling WWII adventure that reimagines the evacuation of Dunkirk... with dragons!May 10, 1940Everyone in Iris's small English village avoids the dragon in the woods. Everyone, that is, except for Iris. She knows Galahad would never hurt her--she's been caring for the dragon since he lost his mother when he was a baby. When Galahad is accused of stealing military rations, Iris strikes a bargain that will spare Galahad's life... but send him off to the war brewing in Europe. Soon after, she receives news that her brother is among the troops trapped in France by the advancing German troops. Refusing to give up hope, Iris devises a desperate plan that will either save both her brother and her best friend--or end in disaster.Meanwhile in Belgium, Max's school day is abruptly interrupted by some terrifying news: The Germans have invaded his country. He and his grandmother are forced to flee for their lives west toward France where they hope to find safety. But when they are separated after a German attack, Max must continue the treacherous journey on his own.Across hundreds of miles, the stories of Iris and Max steadily converge toward an explosive conclusion that will change them both forever. Along the way, they each must find the inner strength and resolve--the valor--to do the impossible. Author Sam Subity blends history and fantasy to tell a story like no other--an exhilarating adventure about the power of friendship, hope, and courage.
Valor in Vietnam: Chronicles of Honor, Courage, and Sacrifice: 1963-1977
by Allen B. Clark&“A well-informed, compelling compilation of the &‘up close and personal&’ side of the Vietnam War . . . [a] masterful chronicle of first person stories&” (Vice Admiral David B. Robinson, USN, Ret., Navy Cross recipient). Every war continues to dwell in the lives it touched, in the lives of those living through that time, and in those absorbed by its historical significance. The Vietnam War lives on—famously or infamously, depending on political points of view—but those who have &“been there, done that&” have a highly personalized window on their time of that history. Valor in Vietnam focuses on nineteen stories of Vietnam, stories of celebrated figures in the veteran community, compelling war narratives, vignettes of battles, and the emotional impact on the combatants. It is replete with leadership lessons and valuable insights that are just as applicable today as they were forty years ago. This is an anecdotal history of America&’s war in Vietnam composed of firsthand narratives by Vietnam War veterans presented in chronological order. They are intense, emotional, and highly personal stories. Connecting each of them is a brief historical commentary of that period of the war, the geography of the story, and the contemporary strategy written by Lewis Sorley, West Point class of 1956, and author of A Better War and Westmoreland. With a foreword by Lt. Gen. Dave R. Palmer, US Army (Ret.), Valor in Vietnam presents an overview of the war through the eyes of participants in each branch of service and throughout the entire course of the war. Simply put, their stories serve to reflect the commitment, honor, and dedication with which America&’s veterans performed their service.
Valor's Choice (Confederation of Valor #1)
by Tanya HuffTanya Huff—acclaimed author of the Blood Series—begins her celebrated Confederation series that will launch readers into a future where Humans are not the most evolved species…Good thing they can take orders.Brought into the multi-species Confederation, Humans earn their place along the Taykan and the Krai by acting as military guardians of the Elder Races, who have risen above societal aggression and violence.When Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr and her platoon are dragged from some well-deserved R&R to play honor guard for a diplomatic mission to the non-Confederation planet of the Silsviss, Torin suspects that something is about to go wrong. You don't make staff sergeant in the CMC without a well-developed sense of paranoia. Justified paranoia when word reaches them that the enemy has been spotted in this sector of space.The diplomatic mission becomes a race to recruit the Silsviss into the Confederation before the enemy returns, claims the reptilian warriors as their own, and turns them loose on the Confederation. One battle-weary platoon has to step up to stop the slaughter.
Valor's Trial (Confederation of Valor #4)
by Tanya HuffBestselling author Tanya Huff’s Confederation series of military science fiction returns with a novel where one woman’s discovery shakes the foundations of the intergalactic alliance itself...Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr has had enough of special treatment—and of gaping, skepticism, and whispers of Silsviss or Big Yellow as she passes. She’s glad to be back with her own Sh’quo Company, surrounded by familiar faces and enduring more razzing than awe. Of course, the company is going into battle again, facing death on all sides in a centuries-old war where every attempt at diplomacy fails, and she’s got a brand-new second lieutenant to train. Another glorious day in the Confederation Marine Corps.The battle goes disastrously wrong. And yet somehow Torin wakes up. The Others don’t take prisoners—or so the Confederation has always said. But the dark tunnels and mysterious mechanisms of the warren around her certainly seem like a prison. And there’s more going on than simple confinement. One after another, Torin’s most cherished beliefs are shaken to the core. She’s always been a survivor. But time is running out. If she has to question everything to escape, answers had better start coming fast...
Valor: The Astonishing World War II Saga of One Man's Defiance and Indomitable Spirit
by Dan HamptonValor is the magnificent story of a genuine American hero who survived the fall of the Philippines and brutal captivity under the Japanese, from New York Times bestselling author Dan Hampton.Lieutenant William Frederick “Bill” Harris was 25 years old when captured by Japanese forces during the Battle of Corregidor in May 1942. This son of a decorated Marine general escaped from hell on earth by swimming eight hours through a shark-infested bay; but his harrowing ordeal had just begun.Shipwrecked on the southern coast of the Philippines, he was sheltered by a Filipino aristocrat, engaged in guerilla fighting, and eventually set off through hostile waters to China. After 29 days of misadventures and violent storms, Harris and his crew limped into a friendly fishing village in the southern Philippines. Evading and fighting for months, he embarked on another agonizing voyage to Australia, but was betrayed by treacherous islanders and handed over to the Japanese. Held for two years in the notorious Ofuna prisoner-of-war camp outside Yokohama, Harris was continuously starved, tortured, and beaten, but he never surrendered. Teaching himself Japanese, he eavesdropped on the guards and created secret codes to communicate with fellow prisoners. After liberation on August 30, 1945, Bill represented American Marine POWs during the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay before joining his father and flying to a home he had not seen in four years.Valor is a riveting new look at the Pacific War. Through military documents, personal photos, and an unpublished memoir provided by his daughter, Harris’ experiences are dramatically revealed through his own words in the expert hands of bestselling author and retired fighter pilot Dan Hampton. This is the stunning and captivating true story of an American hero.
Valour: The History of the Gurkhas
by E D SmithSince the short and bloody war between Nepal and Britain in 1814-15, Gurkha volunteers, ever mindful of the their motto, 'It is better to die than be a coward', have fought and died for Britain, including in recent years in the Falklands, Afghanistan and Iraq. In the Second World War an astonishing quarter of a million Gurkhas fought aginst Germany and Japan. They have been awarded thirteen Victoria Crosses. Includes detailed appendices include all regimental changes and battle honours.
Vamped
by Lucienne Diver"Vamped is a total delight! Diver delivers a delightful cast of undead characters and a fresh, fast take on the vampire mythos. Next installment, please!" --Rachel Caine, New York Times bestselling author of the Morganville Vampires series. Gina Covello's Perks and Pitfalls of Vamp Life 1. Hello?! Eternal youth and beauty! 2. Free. Designer. Clothes. 3. My hot new boyfriend Bobby went from chess dud to vamp stud. 4. No reflection! First order of business: turn my own stylist to stop the downward spiral from chic to eek. 5. Vampire vixen Mellisande has taken an interest in my boyfriend, and is now transforming the entire high school into her own personal vampire army. If anyone's going to start their own undead entourage it should be me. I guess I'll just have to save everyone from fashion disasters and other fates worse than death.
Vampir: From Teenage Flak Auxiliary to Night-Fighting Machine Gunner in WWII
by Rolf FischerThe memoirs of Rolf Fischer, a night-fighting machine gunner in World War II. Rolf Fischer was born near Bremen, Germany in 1927. At age 15, he and his classmates were called up to serve as auxiliaries at the local antiaircraft defense battery. Here, Rolf and his friends experienced Allied bombing raids, death, and killing. Along with the young auxiliaries, the flak battery comprised wounded front veterans and Soviet prisoners of war, referred to as “Hiwis.”In this book, Rolf describes in great detail how all three groups interacted and learned to work together. At age 17 Rolf is called up to the regular army and is sent to basic training with the 65th Regiment, 22 Luftlande Infanterie Division, at Delmenhorst. From there, he is sent to a specialized machine gun–training facility in Denmark. Here Rolf and other handpicked recruits are taught to use MG 42s equipped with infrared optics. This early night-fighting gear was sometimes referred to by the Germans as “Vampir” (Vampire). Rolf provides an in-depth description of the equipment and its usage. Upon completion of the course, Rolf (now a corporal) and his squad are deployed on the Western Front, where they operate as an independent fire team, moving from unit to unit along the front. Rolf describes brutal combat in the Hürtgen Forest, supporting German paratroopers (Fallschirmjäger) in a desperate counterattack, and defending a position against dangerous US Army Rangers. He goes on to describe his surrender and captivity in a British POW camp. This is not a dry compilation of dates and figures; rather, it is an intense personal account of combat and comradeship in the deadly final acts of the Second World War. Rolf Fischer's narrative is constructed mostly through dialogue, providing an unusually immersive, cinematic feel to this exceptional memoir.
Vampire Boys: True Tales from Operators of the RAF's First Single-Engined Jet
by Charlotte BaileySliding out of the shadows of World War Two, the de Havilland Vampire – accompanied by the distinctive whine of its Goblin engine – quickly proved itself an effective alternative to piston-powered fighters. After entering operational service with the RAF (as the service’s first single-engined jet) in 1946, the Vampire – sought by air forces the world over – held a number of notable records: the first fighter to exceed 500 mph, the first to set a world altitude record of almost 60,000 ft, the first jet to take off and land from an aircraft carrier, and the first jet to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Not bad for something built partly of wood. Throughout these pages, the ‘Vampire Boys’ bring to life the trials and tribulations of operating a first-generation jet across the globe. Through their insightful anecdotes and exceptional experiences, the reader can follow squadrons across the dusty deserts of Iraq to exercises in West Germany. First-hand tales of training, aerial handling, incidents and accidents (including the much-maligned spin characteristics) and squadron life – accompanied by unique images – bring together a portrait of a pioneering time in aviation advancement, right up to the present day with the T.11 still flying from Coventry Airport.
Van Cleve At Chickamauga: The Study Of A Division’s Performance In Battle
by Major Robert P. LottThis thesis is an analysis of General Van Cleve and his division to determine the proximate causes for their failure to withstand the brutal test of combat throughout the two-day battle.The thesis begins with a discussion of the importance of the study of war in order to draw out lessons which are still pertinent to today's officer. The thesis then briefly describes the weapons, tactics, organization, and staff available to a division commander during the American Civil War. The thesis continues with an examination of the backgrounds and combat experiences of Brigadier General Van Cleve, his staff, and his brigade and regimental commanders. The backgrounds and combat experiences of the regiments which comprised the division are also evaluated. Thereafter, the thesis analyzes the performance of General Van Cleve and his division beginning with their first combat action at the Battle of Stones River and culminates with an in-depth study of the division's performance at Chickamauga.The fog of war impacted negatively on Van Cleve's ability to control his men, yet his own personal shortcomings ultimately doomed the division to failure.
Vandals of the Void
by Jack VanceIn the Foreword, writing fifty years ago, the author describes his vision of a new space age; he predicts that by 1985 the age of space piracy will begin and that a Space Navy will be established, speculating that some of his younger readers might participate: "I hope that none of you serve with the pirates. The pay might not be so good in the Space Navy, but you'll live longer."
Vandenberg Air Force Base (Images of America)
by Joseph T. Page IIA historical cornucopia ranging from native tribal lands and ranch living to infantry training grounds and missile launch site, the location currently known as Vandenberg Air Force Base has held an amazing legacy that continues today. Stretching over 45 miles of pristine California coastline and covering over 99,000 acres, the base has been the vanguard for the United States' space and missile program. Showcasing over 1,900 launches since 1957, Vandenberg put the world's first photoreconnaissance (spy) satellite into orbit and is the only launch location for America's operational intercontinental ballistic missile force. Within Vandenberg's lands are ancient rock drawings from the native Chumash tribe, hundreds of species of plants, insects, and animals, and untouched beaches--protected and thriving under the military's stewardship of the lands. Within these pages are stories and photographs that highlight Vandenberg Air Force Base's legacy as the free world's first missile base.
Vanguard
by Jack CampbellJack Campbell returns to the world of the New York Times bestselling Lost Fleet novels with a new action-packed military science fiction series that explores the founding of the Alliance . . . and the men and women who fought to create it. <P><P> Earth is no longer the center of the universe. After the invention of the faster-than-light jump drive, humanity is rapidly establishing new colonies. But the vast distances of space mean that the old order of protection and interstellar law offered by Earth has ceased to exist. When a nearby world attacks, the new colony of Glenlyon turns to Robert Geary, a young former junior fleet officer, and Mele Darcy, a onetime enlisted Marine. With nothing but improvised weapons and a few volunteers, Geary and Darcy must face down warships and armored soldiers—or die trying. <P><P> As battles rage and pirates take an increasing toll throughout the colonies, the only hope for lasting peace lies with Carmen Ochoa, a “Red” from the anarchic world of Mars, and Lochan Nakamura, a failed politician. They have a plan: to lay the groundwork for mutual defense that could someday grow into an alliance. But if their efforts don’t succeed, the growing power of aggressor worlds could turn regions of space founded on freedom into battlefields between the first interstellar empires...the first interstellar empires...
Vanguard #1: Harbinger (Star Trek: The Original Series)
by David MackFrom the USA TODAY bestselling author of Star Trek ®: A Time to Heal, the start of a new epic in the era of the original series.Returning from its historic first voyage to the edge of the galaxy, the damaged U.S.S. Enterprise™ journeys through the Taurus Reach, a vast and little-known region of space in which a new starbase has been unexpectedly established. Puzzled by the Federation's interest in an area so far from its borders and so near the xenophobic Tholian Assembly, Captain James T. Kirk orders the Enterprise to put in for repairs at the new space station: Starbase 47, also known as Vanguard. As Kirk ponders the mystery of the enormous base, he begins to suspect that there is much more to Vanguard than meets the eye. It's a suspicion shared by the Tholians, the Orions, and the Klingon Empire, each of whom believes that there are less than benign motives behind the Federation's sudden and unexplained desire to explore and colonize the Taurus Reach. But when a calamity deep within the Reach threatens to compromise Starfleet's continued presence in the region, Kirk, Spock, and several key specialists from the Enterprise must assist Vanguard's crew in investigating the cause of the disaster and containing the damage. In the process, they learn the true purpose behind the creation of Vanguard, and what the outcome of its mission may mean for life throughout that part of the galaxy. Inside: Bonus diagrams of Vanguard station!
Vanguard #2: Summon the Thunder (Star Trek: The Original Series)
by Dayton Ward Kevin DilmoreThe second novel from the acclaimed Vanguard saga, based on Star Trek: The Original Series!The Taurus Reach: a remote interstellar expanse that holds a very old and potentially cataclysmic secret, the truth of which is feared by the Tholians, coveted by the Klingons, and dubiously guarded by the Federation. At the center of this intrigue is Vanguard, a Federation starbase populated by an eclectic mix of Starfleet officers and civilians, whose lives are forever altered as they explore the layers of mystery surrounding the Reach and steadily peel them away...one after another. In the aftermath of Harbinger, Commodore Diego Reyes commands Vanguard while waging an intensely personal struggle, tasked to uncover the true significance of the Taurus Reach while simultaneously concealing that mission from his fellow officers—and even his closest friends. As the Daedalus-class U.S.S. Lovell brings some of Starfleet's keenest technical minds to help, the U.S.S. Endeavour makes a find that could shed further light on the enigmatic meta-genome that has captured the Federation's interest—if its crew survives the discovery... Deep within the Taurus Reach, an ancient and powerful alien mind has awakened prematurely from aeons of hibernation, alerted to the upstart civilizations now daring to encroach upon the worlds in her care. With the stakes for all sides escalating rapidly, the alien lashes out with deadly force against the interlopers, propelling the Vanguard crew on a desperate race to understand the nature of the attacker, and to prevent the Taurus Reach from becoming a war zone.
Vanguard #3: Reap the Whirlwind (Star Trek: The Original Series #3)
by David MackThe mystery of the Taurus Reach is about to be revealed in this third novel from the acclaimed Vanguard saga, based on Star Trek: The Original Series!Ancient secrets lie on the fourth planet of the Jinoteur system, and three great rivals are fighting to control it. The Federation and the Klingon Empire want to wield its power; the Tholian Assembly wants to bury it. But the threat stirring on that distant world is more dangerous than they realize. The Shedai, who ruled the Taurus Reach aeons ago, have risen from their ages of deathlike slumber to gather, marshal their strength, and take their revenge. To keep Jinoteur from falling into enemy hands, the crews of Starbase Vanguard and the U.S.S. Sagittarius must risk everything: friends...loved ones...their own lives. But the sacrifices they make may prove too terrible for them to bear.