It was 1950, the converted LSI was plowing the waters of the Pacific, heading towards Korea, when Robert Baker, an enlisted man aboard the ship, was summoned by a Chief Petty Officer to deliver messages to the Signal Officer in the ships ward room. And, it was a moment of truth for Baker. When ushered into the ships ward room Robert became painfully aware that he had somehow been assigned to the wrong part of the ship. The officers, that he was only hazily aware of during his day to day duties, were actually sitting at tables covered with linen table clothes, drinking their coffee from china cups while being served by a Philippine stewards mate. Baker, on the other hand, was eating off of a tin tray, one deck below and under very different circumstances. Different enough, that he decided to change his circumstances, for the better. That afternoon, Baker submitted his application for flight training with the U.S. Navy. He had always wanted to fly anyway. Baker had actually logged four or five hours a couple of years earlier during his assignment at the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville Florida. He had only quit then because he could no longer afford it. After a lot of pain, blood and about ten days in the hospital wearing a kotex under his nose, he was finished with all the formalities. Now, it was just a question of waiting for the orders to arrive. The U.S. Navy, like any other military organization moves slowly. In this case, they didnt move fast enough. After months of waiting, with no answer to the application, frustration set in, along with the end of his enlistment in the Navy. Not easily deterred, Baker felt it was the Navys loss and some other services gain.

Warrant Officer Daryl Miller was standing beside me as the mission commander briefed the pilots and crew members. Like most of us, he was just a kid, about 24 years old. He did not smoke nor drink, and I had never heard him use an ugly word. He was a great guy, a good pilot and my friend. The mission commander informed us that a Special Forces Delta Team was in trouble and had to be extracted immediately, as they were about to be surrounded by a large company of the North Vietnamese Army. After the briefing we all hurried to the flight line, and in minutes we were on the way. Daryl was the copilot in a UH-1D recovery helicopter; I was flying a UH-1C gunship... The weather was marginal with low clouds and poor visibility. The team on the ground was running for their lives. The radio traffic was going wild as Wolf Pack gunships made a couple of gun runs firing rockets and mini-guns to keep the North Vietnamese Army's head down. The next thing I saw was the helicopter that Warrant Officer Miller had boarded rolling end over end down a steep hill. When it finally stopped rolling, it burst into flames. I could not believe that anyone could survive such a crash, but moments later I saw all four of the crew escape from the burning helicopter, seemingly with no life threatening injuries. The odds said they should have survived. With minutes Miller and two of his crew were killed while being rescued by a U.S. Air Force helicopter, a rescue which they should have survived. -Lance Ham, Warrant Officer, Wolf Pack Pilot, 1968-1969

Standing above the Crowd will help you rise up above life's dramas, traumas, pettiness, negativity, and dozens more situational issues that tend to keep us down and hold us back from achieving our dreams and fulfilling our potential. Standing above the Crowd is jam-packed full of success strategies that I've used throughout my life in the areas of athletics, business and community. All are very straightforward and easy for anyone to implement. There's helpful advice from the team of wonderful people I've surrounded myself with throughout the years. I've always believed in a team concept approach, because we truly can't do it alone. The success I've had in sports, business, and community involvement has all been because of people and principles I've learned from during my journey.

Sensational eyewitness accounts from the most heroic and legendary American aviators of World War II, never before published as a book They are voices lost to time. Beginning in the late 1970s, five veteran airmen sat for private interviews. Decades after the guns fell silent, they recounted in vivid detail the most dangerous missions that made the difference in the war. Ed Haydon dueled with the deadliest of German aces—and forced him to the ground. Robert Johnson racked up twenty-seven kills in his P-47 Thunderbolt, but nearly lost his life when his plane was shot to ribbons and his guns jammed. Cigar-chomping Curtis LeMay was the Air Corps general who devised the bomber tactics that pummeled Germany's war machine. Robin Olds was a West Point football hero who became one of the most dogged, aggressive fighter pilots in the European theater, relentlessly pursuing Germans in his P-38 Lightning. And Jimmy Doolittle became the most celebrated American airman of the war—maybe even of all time—after he led the audacious raid to bomb Tokyo. Today these heroes are long gone, but now, in this incredible volume, they tell their stories in their own words.

A Seattle Times Best Book of the Year Okinawa, present day: Luz, a teenage military brat, has moved to the island’s U.S. Air Force base with her mother, a no-nonsense sergeant. Luz’s mother hopes that the move will reconnect them with the Okinawan branch of their family—and help them heal from the death of Luz’s beloved older sister. This is an island where departed spirits mingle with the living, and interwoven with Luz’s narrative is the story of an Okinawan girl, Tamiko Kokuba, who in 1945 was plucked from her high school and trained to work in the Imperial Army’s horrific cave hospitals. Both of these extraordinary young women are seeking peace, and as Luz digs deeper and deeper into her past, their quests will intersect. Above the East China Sea tells the entwined stories of two lives connected across time by the shared experience of loss, the strength of an ancient culture, and the power of family love.

FOREWORD BY GUY KAWASAKI Presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert Garr Reynolds, creator of the most popular Web site on presentation design and delivery on the Net — presentationzen.com — shares his experience in a provocative mix of illumination, inspiration, education, and guidance that will change the way you think about making presentations with PowerPoint or Keynote. Presentation Zen challenges the conventional wisdom of making "slide presentations" in today’s world and encourages you to think differently and more creatively about the preparation, design, and delivery of your presentations. Garr shares lessons and perspectives that draw upon practical advice from the fields of communication and business. Combining solid principles of design with the tenets of Zen simplicity, this book will help you along the path to simpler, more effective presentations.