Book Reviews

Title: Waking Up in the Land of the Morning Calm
Author: Jeffrey Miller
Genre: Creative Non-Fiction
Reviewer: Pat McGrath Avery

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1257851284

"How did you end up in Korea? " is a question that most people have asked when they learn that I have lived and worked in South Korea. "I turned left at Japan," I've often replied, tweaking a famous line from The Beatles' A Hard Day's Night when John Lennon was asked, "How did you find America? " upon which he replied, "Turned left at Greenland." Since 1990, Jeffrey Miller, who originally came to South Korea to teach English, has survived nuclear crises, met former U.S. Presidents, Yoko Ono, interviewed the current President of Korea, flown into Panmunjom with CNN and pushed 8G's in an F-16 in the skies over Korea.

Title; Peleliu File
Author: Dale A. Dye
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Barbara Peacock

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0982167016

While searching for answers to World War II mysteries on the infamous island of Iwo Jima, retired Marine Gunner Shake Davis answers a call on his satellite phone. Not long after that he's back in the counter-terrorism game and immersed eyeball-deep in desperate attempts to prevent a unique and very deadly biological warfare attack.

His efforts to help thwart what could be a devastating threat to populations around the globe takes him on a whirlwind trek through the South Pacific with stops at some of the most familiar battlegrounds of the Second World War including the Philippines, Wake Island and Peleliu. His intimate knowledge of the history, people and places involved makes him an invaluable asset in a desperate chase across the vast reaches of the South Pacific. Along the way Shake teams up with new allies including U.S. Army Special Forces and a SEAL Team operating from one of the Navy's newest and most capable littoral combat ships.

He also reunites with familiar characters from his earlier sojourn in Southeast Asia in pursuit of the Laos File. Gunner Shake Davis USMC is back...and this time he's up against a ruthless enemy using science as a weapon and bound to let the evil genie of germ warfare out of the bottle. "As a Navy SEAL and combat veteran I participated in numerous highly sensitive operations around the world during my 24 years of military service.

The Peleliu File is a captivating journey into the dark world of International Terrorism and the brave people that confront the global threat. Dale Dye's masterful understanding of Transnational Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction and Military Operations create an exciting and dynamic novel. " -- Rick Toms, Navy SEAL, LCDR (Ret)

Title: Tom Clancy Presents: Act of Valor
Author: George Galdorisi and Dick Couch
Genre: Thriller/Mystery
Reviewer: Barbara Peacock

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B006JSSFPE

Behind the secret missions. Beneath the official stories. Beyond the brotherhood…

The Navy SEALs have been fighting terrorists around the world for more than a decade. And for all that time, the Bandito Platoon from SEAL Team Seven have been on continuous combat rotation. Now they have drawn a shipboard assignment off Central America—an easy day.

But for a Navy SEAL, the only easy day was yesterday.

Act of Valor goes deep into the secret world of today’s most elite and highly trained group of warriors. When the rescue of a kidnapped CIA operative leads to the discovery of a deadly terrorist plot against the United States, a team of SEALs is dispatched on a worldwide manhunt. As the men of Bandito Platoon race to stop a coordinated attack that could kill and wound thousands of American civilians, they must balance their commitments to country, Team, and their families back home.

But each time they accomplish their mission, a new piece of intelligence reveals another shocking twist to the plot, which stretches from Chechnya to the Philippines and from the Ukraine to Somalia. The widening operation sends the SEALs across the globe as they track a terrorist ring to the U.S.-Mexico border—where they engage in an epic firefight with potentially unimaginable consequences for America…

In a powerful story of global anti-terrorism—inspired by real-life missions, Act of Valor combines stunning combat scenes, up-to-the minute battlefield technology, and heart-pumping emotion for the ultimate in action adventure.

Title: Still Having Fun
Author: Candace George Thompson
Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir
Reviewer: Joyce M. Gilmour

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1937763625

This remarkable biography of a military marriage which lasted from 1941 until 2007 includes everything from letters written in war zones to photographs that chronicle the lives and romance of Rex and Bettie George. Written by their daughter, Candace George Thompson, after their deaths, "Still Having Fun" is a moving testament to the character and resilience of American military families.

Title: DEROS Vietnam: Dispatches from the Air-Conditioned Jungle
Author: Doug Bradley
Genre: Short Story Collection
Reviewer: Jim Greenwald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0985338814

DEROS Vietnam: Dispatches from the Air-Conditioned Jungle presents a unique, fictional montage of the war, and postwar, experiences of Vietnam support troops. Structurally based on Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, DEROS Vietnam (the acronym stands for Date Eligible for Return from Over Seas) is a riveting collection of 16 short stories and 16 interlinears about the GIs who battled boredom, racial tensions, the military brass, drugs, alcohol—and occasionally the enemy. From cooks and correspondents to clerks and comptrollers, DEROS Vietnam distills the essence of life for soldiers in the rear during the war and, later, back home in a divided America. Vietnam veteran Doug Bradley, a former Army journalist who served in the air-conditioned jungle at U. S. Army Headquarters near Saigon in 1970-71, tells these compelling stories with wit, intensity, and empathy. In doing so, he provides a gateway to a Vietnam experience that has been largely ignored and whose reverberations still echo across America.