Book Reviews

Title: West Pac: A Young Sailor's Journey
Author: Scott F. Schmidt
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Reviewer: Bill McDonald

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1930486928

When a carrier goes to sea, those who work on the dangerous flight deck are at an average age of twenty years old. To add to the danger, those who work with aircraft ordnance, the bombs and missiles of these planes, are at even more risk of injury on the pitching deck. This is a true story of one young man, an aviation ordnanceman, who went to sea on his second cruise in 1978 at age twenty. What he discovered in the hot Pacific and Indian Oceans would change his life forever and set him on a path to discovery. Follow the author on his personal and poignant journey as he explores the universal truths of those who must succeed under arduous conditions.

Title: U.S. Experimental & Prototype Aircraft Projects
Author: Bill Norton
Genre: Non-Fiction, Reference
Reviewer: Frank Evans

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1580071090

America's military aircraft industry was forced to grow at an incredible pace during World War II. At the beginning of the conflict, the nation's air arms were out-matched by better-performing Axis aircraft. It was the development, often in secret, and subsequent performance of America's fighter aircraft that helped turn the tide of the war.
This book focuses on those American fighter projects of WWII that never reached combat forces, or only in a very limited manner. The book illuminates little known or minimally documented aircraft and projects that significantly advanced fighter design but never went into full-rate production and deployment. The standard types are also examined to illustrate the state of the art at the time, the American posture and capabilities, goals set by national and military leadership, and general factors affecting the course of development for classes of fighters. Hence, this work follows the overall development of American fighter aircraft, but emphasizes those little-known projects that matured to the point of significant design development such as mockups, wind-tunnel models, and especially those yielding flying prototypes. Also includes dead-end variants of service types, those only exported after US evaluation, and aircraft that entered service in only small numbers before being overcome by more advanced models or the end of hostilities.

Title: To Serve My Country
Author: Jenna Turnipseed
Genre: Non-Fiction, Autobiography
Reviewer: Frank Evans

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1602643547

Young woman searching for purpose, a young soldier making her mark in the world. The author puts her life, her thoughts, her challenges, and her pride on display in this insightful story of a young woman's discovery of self. This coming-of-age biography shows how she discovered meaning in her life; conveying an honest and emotional portrayal of life in service to her country. This is the true story of a young woman venturing out into the world seeking adventure, and discovering life, love and herself.

Title: The White Train
Author: Larry Purcell
Genre: Fiction, Thriller
Reviewer: Rob Ballister

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0595288510

A secret train-carrying nuclear missiles and protected by the most lethal anti-terrorist devices available-has vanished without a trace.The President receives a fax in the Oval Office, the contents of which carry an impact of icy terror. His efforts to place nuclear warheads in the hands of an unfriendly Third World nation, to achieve a strategic advantage for the United States, has started to unravel.The fax, signed by a mysterious militant group, has a simple ransom demand-one the President can neither meet nor acknowledge.The President must rely on a shady cast of unscrupulous advisors and ruthless agents to effect the return of the train to its mission, without going public, alarming the American people or incurring the wrath of the Congress of the United States.All that stands in the way of this highly illegal and clandestine mission's success is a strange alliance between an Air Force special operative, an investigative reporter for the Washington Post and a world-renowned anthropologist.

Title: The Remains of Company D: a Story of the Great War
Author: James Carl Nelson
Genre: Non-Fiction, History
Reviewer: Dave Brown

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B0057DBJH8

Haunted by an ancestor's small tale of near-death on and salvation from a French battlefield, a journalist expands and completes his grandfather's story, following the men of Company D, 28th Infantry Regiment, US First Division through their trials at Cantigny, Soissons, St. Mihiel, the Meuse-Argonne -- and beyond.