Non-Fiction

Title: Doonesbury.com's The Sandbox: Dispatches from Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
Edited: David Standord
Genre: Non-Fiction, Anthology
Reviewer: Andrew Lubin

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0740769456

Launched as a military blog (or "milblog") by Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau in October 2006, The Sandbox is an online forum through which service members in Afghanistan and Iraq share their stories with readers here at home. In hundreds of fascinating and compelling posts, soldiers write passionately, eloquently, and movingly of their day-to-day lives, of their mission, and of the drama that unfolds daily around them.

A dog adopts a unit on patrol in Baghdad and guards its flank; a soldier chronicles an epic day of close-call encounters with IEDs; an Afghan translator talks earnestly with his American friend about love and theology; a dad far from home meditates on time and history in the desert night under ancient stars; a Chuck Norris action figure witnesses surreal moments of humor in the cramped cab of a Humvee --Doonesbury.com's The Sandbox: Dispatches from Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan presents a rich outpouring of stories, from the hilarious to the thrilling to the heartbreaking, and helps us understand what so many of our countrymen are going through and the sacrifices they are making on our behalf.

Title: Securing the Global Transportation Network
Author: Luke Ritter, J. Barrett, and Rosalyn Wilson
Genre: Non-Fiction, Reference
Reviewer: Rob Ballister

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0071477519

Viable, value-creating solutions for securing global transportation networks

Securing Global Transportation Networks demonstrates how improved security processes can create value across all the business functions throughout an entire value chain. Readers will learn a whole new security management philosophy, as explained through domestic and international examples and case studies ranging from major retailers such as Home Depot to shipping giants such as Maersk and FedEx. This book also looks ahead to future developments and "best practices" for the future. If you're charged with making or evaluating transportation security decisions, you'll find the tools you need to succeed -- and prosper -- with the Total Security Management approach.

Explains globalization's impact on transportation networks
Creates a framework for realizing a return on security investments by integrating it as a core business process
Details how transportation firms, investors, and insurance companies can measure and reward smart security practices that protect a firm's fixed assets, assets in transit, brand equity and goodwill, and human capital

Title: The Highlanders: Charlie Company Goes to the Iraq Training Center
Author: Rob Kauder
Genre: Non-Fiction, Current Events
Reviewer: Andrew Lubin

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 1419688928

By April Fools Day 2004, the war to liberate Iraq had "officially" ended with Saddam Hussein's capture and President Bush's announcement that major combat operations had ceased. The truth was the war in Iraq was just getting warmed up, and it was at this point that the 1st Battalion, 161st Infantry of the Washington Army National Guard arrived in Baghdad. This is the story of Charlie Company's 1st Platoon, who were mobilized for federal service and attached to the 1st Cavalry Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team for a year in Iraq. A motley crew of part-time weekend warriors, 1st Platoon had its share of cops and criminals, professors and students, fathers and husbands, teenage privates eager to see war and thirtysomething veterans who had served in Panama and Kuwait. This is the story of 1st Platoon as told from the perspective of their "Invisible Embed" Rob Kauder, a former Marine turned journalist serving as a National Guard infantry squad leader. In The Highlanders Kauder captures the stories of struggle and sacrifice of the enlisted men as they fought the boredom, madness, heartbreak and the enemies both inside and outside the wire of the Green Zone.

Title: The Border: Exploring the U.S.-Mexican Divide
Author: Daniel Danelo
Genre: Non-Fiction, Current Events
Reviewer: Andrew Lubin

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): B005DIADJC

Thoughtful investigative report about a central issue of the 2008 presidential race
- Asks and answers the core questions: Should we close the border? Is a fence or wall the answer? Is the U.S. government capable of fully securing the border?
- Examines the border in human terms through a cast of colorful characters
- Reviews the political, economic, social, and cultural aspects
- Discusses NAFTA, immigration policy, border security, and other local, regional, national, and international issues

More than 250 million people cross the U.S.- Mexican border legally each year, and as many as 10 million do so illegally, making the border--la frontera to Mexicans--the most traversed national boundary on the planet. In an age of terrorism and economic uncertainty, that border is already one of the most hotly debated issues in American politics and is certain to play a prominent role in the 2008 campaign for president. In 2007, David Danelo spent three months traveling the 1,952 miles that separate the United States and Mexico, beginning at Boca Chica, Texas, and traveling to the westernmost limit at Border Field State Park in California--a journey that took him across four states and two countries through a world of rivers and canals, mountains and deserts, highways and dirt roads, fences and border towns. Here the border isn_t just an abstraction thrown around in political debates in Washington; it_s a physical reality, infinitely more complex than most politicians believe. Danelo_s reporting digs beneath the debate and attempts to explain the border and related issues--from legal and illegal immigration to NAFTA and border fences--as they are experienced by the people who live and work there: businessmen, smugglers, Minutemen, migrants, humanitarians, border patrol agents, government officials, and everyday people in the U.S. and Mexico. The divide is great, as Danelo makes clear, but so is the opportunity. Refreshing in the new perspectives it offers and captivating in its depiction of this vibrant, if troubled, region, The Border is an essential starting point for understanding this vital topic.

Title: Fire Mission:The World of Nam-a Marine's Story
Author: Earl Gorman
Genre: Non-Fiction, Military, Marines
Reviewer: Andrew Lubin

ISBN (links go to the MWSA Amazon store): 0615205941

Award Winning Memoir of a life-changing 2007 adventure back to Vietnam with a medical mission team that weaves in the author's 1965-66 combat experiences as a Marine artillery officer, "who spent too much time with the grunts." Against all odds, he searched for the two Vietnamese friends he had emotionally connected with during the war. Closure for combat veterans is the powerful message that weaves through the inspirational story. A deadly Viet Cong sapper unit attack on his artillery battery as well as episodes from Operation Hastings, the first large scale battle along the DMZ are featured combat stories. Tours of Hue, the Gulf of Tonkin, and the "Hanoi Hilton" prison round out the Annapolis graduate's memoir.