Krig

"e;Top Gun"e; became a household name with the worldwide success of the film of the same title. The 1986 blockbuster starring Tom Cruise as a hotshot U.S. Navy fighter pilot was so popular (drawing $356 million worldwide) that recruiters set up desks in theaters that were showing it, looking to attract the next generation of combat aviators. The movie did for Navy pilots what The Right Stuff did for astronauts.With the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the real TOPGUN-as the U.S. Navy Fighter Weapons program was known-approaching in 2019, and with Jerry Bruckheimer's sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, set to shoot next year, this is the time to publish the real story of the actual risk takers, disruptors, and innovators who revolutionized the art of aerial combat and created the center for excellence and incubator of leadership that thrives to this day.Here is the inside story of TOPGUN, told by the man who was picked to lead it at the start, from war to peace and back to war again, on and off the flight line, and through all six of our decades. Though Pedersen was a part of it at the beginning, some other great pilots carried on our work and he is eager to pay them tribute and make the book a celebration of our whole community. It's a great story, full of interesting characters and exciting history that American should know.

The thrilling, true, cold-war era story of counterespionage in Moscow and the clandestine eavesdropping arms race.

Two months before the outbreak of the Second World War, eighteen-year-old Geoffrey Wellum becomes a fighter pilot with the RAF . . .Desperate to get in the air, he makes it through basic training to become the youngest Spitfire pilot in the prestigious 92 Squadron. Thrust into combat almost immediately, Wellum finds himself flying several sorties a day, caught up in terrifying dogfights with German Me 109s. Over the coming months he and his fellow pilots play a crucial role in the Battle of Britain. But of the friends that take to the air alongside Wellum many never return.

A tense, thrilling account of how, in 1983, tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union nearly caused global Armageddon.

Offers a glimpse into one of America's most brutal fighting outfits Since World War II, the US 101st Airborne Division has achieved legendary status.

A sobering study of the troubled African nation, both pre- and post-genocide, and its uncertain future

A bestselling military historian provides a comprehensive account of how World War II was fought, showing how disparate conflicts waged across the globe in the air, on land, and at sea coalesced into a single war-and how the Allied powers won it

John Kiszely draws on his own experience in the military to assess the ignominious failure of the British campaign in Norway in 1940. The result helps us to understand not only the outcome of the Norwegian campaign but also why more recent military campaigns have found success so elusive.

The remarkable story of the Knights Templar - the wealthiest, most powerful and most secretive of the military orders that flourished in the crusading era.

A classic tale of derring-do: The Great Escape meets Touching the Void

Published in the 75th anniversary year, a gripping and definitive account of the attack that led to the United States' entry into the Second World War.

The explosive, dark secrets behind America's post-WWII science programs from the author of the New York Times bestseller AREA 51.

A superbly crafted and humane portrait of the last days - and last rulers - of the Russian Empire.

To Hell and Back offers readers a stunning, "you are there" time capsule, wrapped in elegant prose. Charles Pellegrino's scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written.

A magisterial chronicle of the calamity that crippled Europe in 1914.

After a routine security check by George Smiley, civil servant Samuel Fennan apparently kills himself. When Smiley finds Circus head Maston is trying to blame him for the man's death, he begins his own investigation, meeting with Fennan's widow to find out what could have led him to such desperation.