Flying Camelot

Flying Camelot PDF Author: Michael W. Hankins
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150176067X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Winner of the Gardner-Lasser Aerospace History Literature Award Flying Camelot brings us back to the post-Vietnam era, when the US Air Force launched two new, state-of-the art fighter aircraft: the F-15 Eagle and the F-16 Fighting Falcon. It was an era when debates about aircraft superiority went public—and these were not uncontested discussions. Michael W. Hankins delves deep into the fighter pilot culture that gave rise to both designs, showing how a small but vocal group of pilots, engineers, and analysts in the Department of Defense weaponized their own culture to affect technological development and larger political change. The design and advancement of the F-15 and F-16 reflected this group's nostalgic desire to recapture the best of World War I air combat. Known as the "Fighter Mafia," and later growing into the media savvy political powerhouse "Reform Movement," it believed that American weapons systems were too complicated and expensive, and thus vulnerable. The group's leader was Colonel John Boyd, a contentious former fighter pilot heralded as a messianic figure by many in its ranks. He and his group advocated for a shift in focus from the multi-role interceptors the Air Force had designed in the early Cold War towards specialized air-to-air combat dogfighters. Their influence stretched beyond design and into larger politicized debates about US national security, debates that still resonate today. A biography of fighter pilot culture and the nostalgia that drove decision-making, Flying Camelot deftly engages both popular culture and archives to animate the movement that shook the foundations of the Pentagon and Congress.

Flying Camelot

Flying Camelot PDF Author: Michael W. Hankins
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 150176067X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book Here

Book Description
Winner of the Gardner-Lasser Aerospace History Literature Award Flying Camelot brings us back to the post-Vietnam era, when the US Air Force launched two new, state-of-the art fighter aircraft: the F-15 Eagle and the F-16 Fighting Falcon. It was an era when debates about aircraft superiority went public—and these were not uncontested discussions. Michael W. Hankins delves deep into the fighter pilot culture that gave rise to both designs, showing how a small but vocal group of pilots, engineers, and analysts in the Department of Defense weaponized their own culture to affect technological development and larger political change. The design and advancement of the F-15 and F-16 reflected this group's nostalgic desire to recapture the best of World War I air combat. Known as the "Fighter Mafia," and later growing into the media savvy political powerhouse "Reform Movement," it believed that American weapons systems were too complicated and expensive, and thus vulnerable. The group's leader was Colonel John Boyd, a contentious former fighter pilot heralded as a messianic figure by many in its ranks. He and his group advocated for a shift in focus from the multi-role interceptors the Air Force had designed in the early Cold War towards specialized air-to-air combat dogfighters. Their influence stretched beyond design and into larger politicized debates about US national security, debates that still resonate today. A biography of fighter pilot culture and the nostalgia that drove decision-making, Flying Camelot deftly engages both popular culture and archives to animate the movement that shook the foundations of the Pentagon and Congress.

Camelot's Destiny

Camelot's Destiny PDF Author: Cynthia Breeding
Publisher: Zebra Books
ISBN: 9780821780305
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
Set in Britain in the 5th century, a time of pagan magic and Christian piety, this enchanting debut novel brings to life the legend of Camelot, and with it, bold passions and forbidden love. Original.

Harry the Poisonous Centipede: A Story To Make You Squirm

Harry the Poisonous Centipede: A Story To Make You Squirm PDF Author: Lynne Reid Banks
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007402880
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
A delightfully squirmy story starring Harry the Poisonous Centipede in a scary world of flying swoopers, furry biters and the dreaded Hoo-Mins! With wonderful humour and brilliant illustrations, this is the perfect book for wriggly young readers.

Earning Their Wings

Earning Their Wings PDF Author: Sarah Parry Myers
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469675048
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Established by the Army Air Force in 1943, the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program opened to civilian women with a pilot's license who could afford to pay for their own transportation, training, and uniforms. Despite their highly developed skill set, rigorous training, and often dangerous work, the women of WASP were not granted military status until 1977, denied over three decades of Army Air Force benefits as well as the honor and respect given to male and female World War II veterans of other branches. Sarah Parry Myers not only offers a history of this short-lived program but considers its long-term consequences for the women who participated and subsequent generations of servicewomen and activists. Myers shows us how those in the WASP program bonded through their training, living together in barracks, sharing the dangers of risky flights, and struggling to be recognized as military personnel, and the friendships they forged lasted well after the Army Air Force dissolved the program. Despite the WASP program's short duration, its fliers formed activist networks and spent the next thirty years lobbying for recognition as veterans. Their efforts were finally recognized when President Jimmy Carter signed a bill into law granting WASP participants retroactive veteran status, entitling them to military benefits and burials.

Autumn of Our Discontent

Autumn of Our Discontent PDF Author: John Curatola
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1682476219
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
In the Fall of 1949, a series of international events shattered the notion that the United States would return to its traditional small peacetime military posture following World War II. Autumn of our Discontent chronicles the events that triggered the wholesale review of United States national security policies. The review led to the adoption of recommendations advanced in NSC-68, which laid the foundation for America’s Cold War activities, expanded conventional forces, sparked a thermonuclear arms race, and, equally important to the modern age, established the national security state—all clear breaks from America’s martial past and cornerstone ideologies. In keeping with the American military tradition, the United States dismantled most of its military power following World War II while Americans, in general, enjoyed unprecedented post-war and peacetime prosperity. In the autumn of 1949, however, the Soviet’s first successful test of their own atomic weapon in August was followed closely by establishment of the communist People’s Republic of China on October 1st shattered the illusion that American hegemony would remain unchallenged. Combined with the decision at home to increase the size of the atomic stockpile on and the on-going debate regarding the “Revolt of the Admirals,” the United States found itself facing a new round of crisis in what became the Cold War. Curatola explores these events and the debates surrounding them to provide a detailed history of an era critical to our own modern age. Indeed, the security state conceived of in the events of this critical autumn and the legacy of the choices made by American policymakers and military leaders continue to this day.

Capturing Camelot

Capturing Camelot PDF Author: Kitty Kelley
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1250018838
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
A bestselling author goes behind the lens of a legendary photographer to capture a magical time A consummate photojournalist, Stanley Tretick was sent by United Press International to follow the Kennedy campaign of 1960. The photographer soon befriended the candidate and took many of JFK's best pictures during this time. When Kennedy took office, Tretick was given extensive access to the White House, and the picture magazine Look hired him to cover the president and his family. Tretick is best known today for the photographs he took of President Kennedy relaxing with his children. His photographs helped define the American family of the early sixties and lent Kennedy an endearing credibility that greatly contributed to his popularity. Accompanied by an insightful, heartwarming essay from Kitty Kelley—Tretick's close friend—about the relationship between the photographer and JFK, Capturing Camelot includes some of the most memorable images of America's Camelot and brings to life the uniquely hopeful historical era from which it emerged.

I Am Morgan le Fay

I Am Morgan le Fay PDF Author: Nancy Springer
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101142626
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Fans who love King Arthur's legend, Camelot, Merlin, and similar tales will love reading about Morgan le Fay. Morgan is a willful, mischievous girl with mismatched eyes of emerald and violet. A girl of magic, whose childhood ends when King Uther Pendragon murders her father and steals away her mother. Then Pendragon dies and, in a warring country with no one to claim the throne, there are many who want Morgan dead. But Morgan has power, and magic. She is able to change the course of history, to become other, to determine her own fate-and, thus the fate of Britain. She will become Morgan le Fay. "Springer wields language like a sword, and both blood and flowers spring to these pages in vivid hues." (Booklist, starred review)

Merchant Vessels of the United States

Merchant Vessels of the United States PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Merchant marine
Languages : en
Pages : 1788

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Book Description


Merchant Vessels of the United States...

Merchant Vessels of the United States... PDF Author: United States. Coast Guard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1778

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Book Description


Command

Command PDF Author: Lawrence Freedman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197540678
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 609

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Book Description
Using examples from a wide variety of conflicts, Lawrence Freedman shows that successful military command depends on the ability not only to use armed forces effectively but also to understand the political context in which they are operating. Command in war is about forging effective strategies and implementing them, making sure that orders are appropriate, well-communicated, and then obeyed. But it is also an intensely political process. This is largely because how wars are fought depends to a large extent on how their aims are set. It is also because commanders in one realm must possess the ability to work with other command structures, including those of other branches of the armed forces and allies. In The Politics of Command, Lawrence Freedman explores the importance of political as well as operational considerations in command with a series of eleven vivid case studies, all taken from the period after 1945. Over this period, the risks of nuclear escalation led to a shift away from great power confrontations and towards civil wars, and advances in communication technologies made it easier for higher-level commanders to direct their subordinates. Freedman covers defeats as well as victories. Pakistani generals tried to avoid surrender as they were losing the eastern part of their country to India in 1971. Iraq's Saddam Hussein turned his defeats into triumphant narratives of victory. Osama bin Laden escaped the Americans in Afghanistan in 2001. The UK struggled as a junior partner to the US in Iraq after 2003. We come across insubordinate generals, such as Israel's Arik Sharon, and those in the French army in Algeria, so frustrated with their political leadership that they twice tried to change it. At the other end of the scale, Che Guevara in Congo in 1966 and Igor Girkin in Ukraine in 2014 both tried to spark local wars to suit their grandiose objectives. Freedman ends the book with a meditation on the future of command in a world that is becoming increasingly reliant on technologies like artificial intelligence. A wide-ranging and insightful history of the changing nature of command in the postwar era, this will stand as a definitive account of a foundational concept in both military affairs and politics.