The Heart of a Marine

The Heart of a Marine
Author: Jared McGowen
Publisher: WestBow Press
Total Pages: 100
Release: 2018-11-30
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1973646315

Jared McGowen’s time as a U.S. Marine consisted of some of the most tedious, miserable, exciting, and terrifying days of his life. When his days of getting shot at ended, he hung up his boots and traded a rifle for a laptop. He had a lot of questions: • Now what am I supposed to do? • I don’t have to shave? • Can I put my hands in my pockets? With a pat on the back and a certificate in hand, he was lost and wondering how he could translate his infantry skills to talents that would appeal to employers. With these questions heavy on his mind, he fought constant confusion and depression and covered it all up with long nights of drinking. But a chance meeting with a special woman at the gym combined with a lot of hard work changed the trajectory of his life. McGowen shares journal entries, letters to family members, interviews with fellow Marines, and recalls fighting in some of the most violent battles during the Iraq War. In doing so, he provides a framework for anyone facing difficult circumstances to achieve victory with The Heart of a Marine.

Heart for the Fight

Heart for the Fight
Author: Brian Stann
Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2010-11-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1616739894

The champion former MMA fighter recounts his time on the Naval Academy football team, his service with the Marines in Iraq, and his career in the ring. Heart for the Fight is the story of Brian Stann, a kid from the wrong side of Scranton who made it to the Naval Academy, played linebacker for the Navy football team, became a Marine officer, graduated first in his infantry officer class, led his men in two intense combat tours in the Anbar Province of Iraq, received the Silver Star for gallantry, and emerged as one of the most interesting figures in the mixed martial arts (MMA) professional circuit. A former light-heavyweight champion in the WED (World Extreme Cagefighting), he also fought in the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), the “big leagues” of mixed martial arts. Praise for Heart for the Fight “Brian Stann has a remarkable story to tell and Heart for the Fight is a worthwhile read for those interested in the Iraq War or Stann’s MMA career.” —Los Angeles Times “After reading [Stann’s] book, Heart for the Fight, the only word that will come to your mind about Brian Stann is respect. This is an autobiography about a man who has been through and seen so much more than the average American citizen . . . When you finish reading this book, it becomes evident that ‘All-American’ is not just his MMA nickname, it’s exactly what he is.” —Bleacher Report “Reason to Read: Stann is a badass. There’s just no other way to describe him. If he never wins another fight in the Octagon, he’ll still be a badass. The man led his troops through two intense combat tours and received a Silver Star for gallantry. Now, he fights for the UFC and works as Executive Director of HireHeroes USA, a link to job opportunities for servicemen and women.” —FightMagazine

Heart of a Marine

Heart of a Marine
Author: Patty Campbell
Publisher: Satin Romance
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2021-06-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1953735592

Single dad and wounded warrior, Dwayne Dempsey, has no idea what he’s bargained for when he signs a construction contract with curvy Marla Danaher. The last thing he needs is her breathing down his neck every step of the project. Marla is a serious businesswoman. She leaves flirting and dating to her twin sister Charline. All she’s interested in is building a solid financial future. But she can’t ignore his raw physical strength and masculinity. They’re on each other’s nerves day and night. She loves his outspoken 6 yr old daughter, Amber. Things take a nasty turn when Dwayne’s ex-wife reappears. She demands full custody of Amber, who she abandoned days after her birth. Dwayne will never allow it. How does he protect those he loves without driving them away?

Black Hearts

Black Hearts
Author: Jim Frederick
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 474
Release: 2010-02-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0307450988

“Riveting. . . a testament to a misconceived war, and to the ease with which ordinary men, under certain conditions, can transform into monsters.”—New York Times Book Review This is the story of a small group of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division’s fabled 502nd Infantry Regiment—a unit known as “the Black Heart Brigade.” Deployed in late 2005 to Iraq’s so-called Triangle of Death, a veritable meat grinder just south of Baghdad, the Black Hearts found themselves in arguably the country’s most dangerous location at its most dangerous time. Hit by near-daily mortars, gunfire, and roadside bomb attacks, suffering from a particularly heavy death toll, and enduring a chronic breakdown in leadership, members of one Black Heart platoon—1st Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion—descended, over their year-long tour of duty, into a tailspin of poor discipline, substance abuse, and brutality. Four 1st Platoon soldiers would perpetrate one of the most heinous war crimes U.S. forces have committed during the Iraq War—the rape of a fourteen-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-blooded execution of her and her family. Three other 1st Platoon soldiers would be overrun at a remote outpost—one killed immediately and two taken from the scene, their mutilated corpses found days later booby-trapped with explosives. Black Hearts is an unflinching account of the epic, tragic deployment of 1st Platoon. Drawing on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with Black Heart soldiers and first-hand reporting from the Triangle of Death, Black Hearts is a timeless story about men in combat and the fragility of character in the savage crucible of warfare. But it is also a timely warning of new dangers emerging in the way American soldiers are led on the battlefields of the twenty-first century.

One Bullet Away

One Bullet Away
Author: Nathaniel Fick
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2006
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0618773436

An ex-Marine captain shares his story of fighting in a recon battalion in both Afghanistan and Iraq, beginning with his brutal training on Quantico Island and following his progress through various training sessions and, ultimately, conflict in the deadliest conflicts since the Vietnam War.

Underdogs

Underdogs
Author: Aaron B. O'Connell
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2012-10-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674067444

The Marine Corps has always considered itself a breed apart. Since 1775, America’s smallest armed service has been suspicious of outsiders and deeply loyal to its traditions. Marines believe in nothing more strongly than the Corps’ uniqueness and superiority, and this undying faith in its own exceptionalism is what has made the Marines one of the sharpest, swiftest tools of American military power. Along with unapologetic self-promotion, a strong sense of identity has enabled the Corps to exert a powerful influence on American politics and culture. Aaron O’Connell focuses on the period from World War II to Vietnam, when the Marine Corps transformed itself from America’s least respected to its most elite armed force. He describes how the distinctive Marine culture played a role in this ascendancy. Venerating sacrifice and suffering, privileging the collective over the individual, Corps culture was saturated with romantic and religious overtones that had enormous marketing potential in a postwar America energized by new global responsibilities. Capitalizing on this, the Marines curried the favor of the nation’s best reporters, befriended publishers, courted Hollywood and Congress, and built a public relations infrastructure that would eventually brand it as the most prestigious military service in America. But the Corps’ triumphs did not come without costs, and O’Connell writes of those, too, including a culture of violence that sometimes spread beyond the battlefield. And as he considers how the Corps’ interventions in American politics have ushered in a more militarized approach to national security, O’Connell questions its sustainability.

Planet Ocean

Planet Ocean
Author: Laurent Ballesta
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2007
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 9781426201868

Spanning the vast range of Earths marine environments, this collection reveals hidden landscapes of unsurpassed beauty and awe. With engaging text and more than 400 photographs presented in a stunning oversize format, Ballesta and Descamp lead readers on a compelling voyage of discovery.

Hell in the Pacific

Hell in the Pacific
Author: Jim McEnery
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2013-06-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1451659148

In what may be the last memoir to be published by a living veteran of the pivotal invasion of Guadalcanal, which occurred almost seventy years ago, Marine Jim McEnery has teamed up with author Bill Sloan to create an unforgettable chronicle of heroism and horror McErery’s Rifle Company—the legendary K/3/5 of the First Marine Division, made famous by the HBO miniseries The Pacific—fought in some of the most ferocious battles of the war. In searing detail, the author takes us back to Guadalcanal, where American forces first turned the tide against the Japanese; Cape Gloucester, where 1,300 Marines were killed or wounded; and bloody Peleliu, where McEnery assumed command of the company and helped hasten the final defeat of the Japanese garrison after weeks of torturous cave-to-cave fighting. McEnery’s story is a no-holds-barred, grunt’s-eye view of the sacrifices, suffering, and raw courage of the men in the foxholes, locked in mortal combat with an implacable enemy sworn to fight to the death. From bayonet charges and hand-to-hand combat to midnight banzai attacks and the loss of close buddies, the rifle squad leader spares no details, chronicling his odyssey from boot camp through twenty-eight months of hellish combat until his eventual return home. He has given us an unforgettable portrait of men at war.

A Marine's Conflict

A Marine's Conflict
Author: Elle Armstrong
Publisher:
Total Pages: 428
Release: 2020-07-08
Genre:
ISBN:

Mags Newsome has already given over a decade of her life to the Marine Corps. She's learned to compartmentalize her life to survive the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that keeps servicemembers from serving openly. But that's also kept her from any meaningful relationships.Elaine 'Lane' Chapman moved to the US from England with her girlfriend who soon left her. Remaining in sunny southern California, Elaine built a life for herself as a college math professor, content to experience love through romance novels rather than risk her heart again.A chance encounter in a bookstore cafe brings the two women together where they discover an off the charts attraction. As they battle their feelings to maintain their 'friends with benefits' agreement, another war looms in the Middle East, threatening everything they've built.A Marine's Conflict is a standalone lesbian romance in the Marine's Heart series, with overlapping events from A Marine Discovery.

Shadow of the Sword

Shadow of the Sword
Author: Jeremiah Workman
Publisher: Presidio Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2009-09-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0345516664

Awarded the Navy Cross for gallantry under fire, Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Workman is one of the Marine Corps’ best-known contemporary combat veterans. In this searing and inspiring memoir, he tells an unforgettable story of his service overseas–and of the emotional wars that continue to rage long after our fighting men come home. Raised in a tiny blue-collar town in Ohio, Jeremiah Workman was a handsome and athletic high achiever. Having excelled on the sporting field, he believed that the Marine Corps would be the perfect way to harness his physical and professional drives. In the Iraqi city of Fallujah in December 2004, Workman faced the challenge that would change his life. He and his platoon were searching for hidden caches of weapons and mopping up die-hard insurgent cells when they came upon a building in which a team of fanatical insurgents had their fellow Marines trapped. Leading repeated assaults on that building, Workman killed more than twenty of the enemy in a ferocious firefight that left three of his own men dead. But Workman’s most difficult fight lay ahead of him–in the battlefield of his mind. Burying his guilt about the deaths of his men, he returned stateside, where he was decorated for valor and then found himself assigned to the Marine base at Parris Island as a “Kill Hat”: a drill instructor with the least seniority and the most brutal responsibilities. He was instructed, only half in jest, to push his untested recruits to the brink of suicide. Haunted by the thought that he had failed his men overseas, Workman cracked, suffering a psychological breakdown in front of the men he was charged with leading and preparing for war. In Shadow of the Sword, a memoir that brilliantly captures both wartime courage and its lifelong consequences, Workman candidly reveals the ordeal of post-traumatic stress disorder: the therapy and drug treatments that deadened his mind even as they eased his pain, the overwhelming stress that pushed his marriage to the brink, and the confrontations with anger and self-blame that he had internalized for years. Having fought through the worst of his trials–and now the father of a young son–Workman has found not perfection or a panacea but a way to accommodate his traumas and to move forward toward hope, love, and reconciliation.