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A Hero’s Life
$3.99 – $12.99The story of a war hero who is faced with a choice between what he believes is moral on the one hand, and his job, his family and the security of his country on the other.
Steve Pritchard was a World War II fighter pilot hero who returned from England in 1945 to his home in Los Angeles. He was a double ace with twelve downed Messerschmitt ME-109’s to his credit. Steve had married his high school sweetheart, the prettiest girl in town, went to work at Western Aircraft Company, the largest aircraft company in Southern California and moved into a new home with swimming pool on the Palos Verdes peninsula. Steve and Ellen quickly had three children and settled down to a comfortable post-war life.
He earned a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering at UCLA night school and became his company’s chief troubleshooter. The company’s design team listened to his suggestions and respected his opinion. All was going well when he was assigned a special mission by the company president to investigate multiple crashes of the company’s new, supersonic fighter jet. It would be a simple task, one that he was sure he could solve in a few days.
But those few days turned into months of futile probing, political infighting, Air Force interference, threats on his life and lack of support from his company’s management as well as from his family. Using his experience in airplane design and applying his flying skills, could he finally identify the cause of the crashes? If he identifies the problem, should he reveal the faulty design and lose his job, his home, and his family, or cover up the problem, get the promotion for which he had been working, and continue to live a comfortable life? A man who had been hailed a hero just a few years before in World War II was now to find out what it really meant to lead a hero’s life.
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La Guerra Que Casi Perdimos: Cómo Estuvimos a Punto de Perder la Segunda Guerra Mundial
$3.99 – $10.99La guerra que casi perdimos: Cómo estuvimos a punto de perder la Segunda Guerra Mundial
En “La guerra que casi perdimos”, el autor explica cuán mal preparados estábamos para la guerra en 1941. Discute las áreas en las que podríamos haberlo hecho mucho mejor y cómo la responsabilidad podría haber sido compartida por muchos políticos y líderes militares.
El autor escribe sobre errores y meteduras de pata, así como movimientos brillantes realizados durante la guerra por ambos bandos que nos permitieron ganar, pero que casi nos cuestan la victoria. Una mejor planificación y ejecución por parte de los países del Eje podrían haber tenido efectos desastrosos en los Aliados. Pero al final, a través de un buen diseño, golpes de suerte y malas decisiones tomadas por nuestros enemigos, nos recuperamos y salimos adelante en la terrible guerra con colores voladores liderados por la “Generación más grande” de todos los tiempos.
Arthur A. Edwards fue un oficial naval y veterano del conflicto de Corea que creció en el norte de California durante la depresión y la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Estudió la guerra en la Universidad de California, Berkeley, y tiene una biblioteca llena de libros de historia. Desciende de una larga línea de veteranos; dos de sus bisabuelos sirvieron en el Ejército de la Unión durante la Guerra Civil, un abuelo que intentó alistarse en la Guerra Hispano-Americana y un padre que sirvió en la Marina dos veces, una justo cuando terminó la Primera Guerra Mundial, y otra en la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Arthur se graduó en ingeniería mecánica en Cal Berkeley, y trabajó en la industria aeroespacial construyendo satélites meteorológicos y de comunicaciones. Cada vez que trae a casa otro libro sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial, su esposa pregunta, “¿Hay algo que no sepas sobre la guerra?”
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La travesía a Hangtown Haven
$3.99 – $13.99Cómo un grupo de voluntarios comprometidos liderados por un ingeniero aeroespacial retirado construyó un refugio para personas sin hogar en una comunidad de la ebre del oro y cómo la élite nanciera y del poder lo cerró. ¿Fue porque Hangtown Haven fue un éxito inesperado?
¿Cómo se puede construir un refugio exitoso para personas sin hogar que sea legal, práctico y económico sin costo para el contribuyente? Un grupo de voluntarios sin hogar liderados por un ingeniero aeroespacial retirado junto con corporaciones sin nes de lucro e iglesias preocupadas se lanzaron a la refriega e hicieron precisamente eso. Pero no sin cometer errores y correr riesgos por el camino. Nadie podría haber predicho lo controvertido que sería brindar refugio a nuestros vecinos que no tenían un lugar donde vivir. “Vamos a construir un refugio para perros moderno con $7 millones, pero no se molesten en pedirle al condado o a la ciudad ni un centavo para ayudar a nuestros ciudadanos
sin hogar”.
Entonces, la verdadera pregunta es: “¿Cómo se construye un refugio para personas sin hogar que funcione y sea aceptable para toda la comunidad sólo con donaciones?” Este libro cuenta la historia del esfuerzo de una comunidad de la Sierra para responder esta pregunta y cómo su éxito demostró que se podía hacer; sin embargo, su éxito también puso al poder de la ciudad en su contra.
Cuando se hizo evidente que el refugio era un éxito y que las personas sin hogar prosperaban, la estructura de poder de la ciudad se unió y lo cerró, expulsando a cuarenta hombres y mujeres sin hogar de su refugio en medio del invierno sin un lugar donde vivir.
Pero el genio ya ha salido de la botella y los ocupantes de este pequeño pueblo minero de oro saben cómo hacerlo la próxima vez. Están dispuestos a intentarlo de nuevo hasta tener éxito, aunque todos los intereses empresariales, políticos y de poder estén decididos a impedirlo. Esta historia cuenta cómo se hizo, cómo se puede hacer y cómo evitar errores graves en el camino.
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The Journey to Hangtown Haven
$3.99 – $13.99How a group of committed volunteers led by a retired aerospace engineer built a homeless shelter in a gold rush community and how the power and financial elite closed it down. Was it because Hangtown Haven was an unexpected success?
How does one build a successful homeless shelter that is legal, practical and economical at no cost to the taxpayer? A group of homeless volunteers led by a retired aerospace engineer along with non-profit corporations and concerned churches jumped into the fray and did just that. Not, however, without making mistakes and ruffling feathers along the way. No one could have predicted how controversial it would be to provide shelter to our neighbors who had no place to live. “We are going to build a modern dog shelter with $7 million, but don’t bother asking the county or the city for one penny to help our homeless citizens.”
So, the real question is, “How do you build a homeless shelter that works and is acceptable to the entire community with donations only?” This book tells the story of one Sierra community’s eff ort to answer this question and how its success proved that it could be done, however its success also turned the city’s power establishment against it.
When it was obvious that the shelter was a success and homeless people were thriving, the city’s power structure got together and closed it down throwing forty homeless men and women out of their shelter in the middle of winter with no place to live.
But the genie is out of the bottle now and the occupants of this small gold mining town know how to do it the next time. They are prepared to try again until they are successful even though all of the business, political and power interests are determined to stop it. Th is story tells how it was done, how it can be done and how to avoid serious mistakes along the way.
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The War We Almost Lost
$3.99 – $10.99In the War We Almost Lost the author explains how badly we were prepared for war in 1941. He discusses the areas in which we could have done much
better and how the responsibility could have been shared by many politicians and military leaders.
The author writes about mistakes and blunders as well as brilliant moves made during the war by both sides that allowed us to win, but almost cost us victory. Better planning and execution by the Axis countries could have had disastrous effects on the Allies. But in the end, through some good design, lucky breaks and bad-decision making by our enemies, we rallied and came through the terrible war with flying colors led by the “Greatest Generation” of all times.
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War Is Hell: A Tale of War And One’s Man’s Search for Meaning
$3.99 – $13.99This story is told by a soldier who was a part of the bloody war in Burma, the executive officer of a rugged group of American jungle fighters. He tells us in great detail what the war did to him and how he feels about taking another man’s life even to protect his own as he searches for meaning in it all…
World War II is winding down in the summer of 1945, but not for Major Jenkins and his band of Merrill’s Marauders. They have spent months combing the Burmese jungle for the notorious Japanese commander Colonel Maruyama and his troops. Major Jenkins, Captain Beltrans and what was left of their band were outnumbered two to one; so, they had to devise a plan that would overcome the odds. But after they settled the score with their enemy, they had to march hundreds of miles through the jungle back to their base near the Indian border. It was now August, and the war was over, but how would the local civilians living along the only trail out of Burma view the American soldiers?
Their journey back home was fraught with unexpected dangers and facing unplanned enemies through an unforgiving jungle. They had never been taught at West Point how to fight their new enemy.
After the war, Captain Beltrans is convinced that he should return Colonel Maruyama’s samurai sword to his descendants in Japan. However, what he thought would be a routine side trip to a modern country turned into a harrowing adventure in Japanese politics and a thousand-year-old culture. He ended up in an ancient Zen Garden in Kyoto wondering if he had done the right thing by killing enemy soldiers and civilians during the war. Does he get help from his deceased native grandmother?
