Showing results by narrator "Chris Monteiro" in All Categories

Having Seaman Jenna as the mascot on the USS Vandegrift was never meant to be a statement or symbolic act, or to put the crew on the radars of four-star admirals. Jenna came aboard unannounced, a Christmas gift that brought instant joy to the crew and transformed a gray ship into a home for 225 sailors. Her addition was not pre-approved by the chain of command—contrary to military protocol. Before long, Jenna became a phenomenon—the only dog on a Navy ship since World War II—despite the best efforts to keep her from the public eye.

Lance was just trying to get through his terrible day when his world came crashing down. As the blazing sun dipped below the horizon, Lance's heart pounded in his chest, each beat pushing him closer to the edge of desperation. Racing against time and a cosmic cataclysm, he must navigate a ravaged world after a monstrous CME strikes the Earth, plunging it into darkness. But this harrowing journey is not solely to survive the aftermath; it's a race to reach his injured father in distant Kansas, where a lonely farmhouse stands as their last beacon of hope.

Kip Garrity’s father is the only family or friend he has left. After a viral catastrophe known as “the Outbreak” destroyed human civilization, Kip and his family locked themselves inside their fortified home to protect against a horde of mindless, infected killers that rose from the ashes of the old world.

When a man of science and a man of faith develop the ability to go back in time, there is only one place for them to go to demonstrate their new technology. After they make a wager about whether or not the resurrection of Jesus really happened, the two set out to prove it, one way or the other. Along the way, they face obstacles and challenges from those who want to use their technology for personal gain.

Gabacho is the true tale of youthful angst, crime, misunderstandings, love, friendship, and redemption. Over Christmas break of his senior year, a University of Utah theater student, disenchanted with his conservative Mormon upbringing, took off for Mexico with a college friend seeking a wild adventure. If the adventure hadn’t included smuggling drugs it might have been another college road trip. To survive, Jewkes starts a theater group with a rag-tag bunch of Mexican convicts.

In 1968, a budding New York City entrepreneur who provided immigrants with jobs takes a Florida vacation with his family. Meanwhile, his relative, an employee, is murdered on Long Island. Upon returning to New York, Sam Sommer learns the fate of his wife’s uncle, Irving Silver, when he doesn’t show up to carpool to work. Three days pass with no clues about his death. Then Sam is kidnapped by detectives with the engine still running. While held in custody, he is beaten and allegedly confesses to the murder.

On the morning of July 2, 2012, in the most dangerous warzone in the world, Lieutenant Clint Lorance took command of his small band of American paratroopers at the spearhead of the American War in Afghanistan. Intelligence reports that morning warned of a Taliban ambush against Lorance’s platoon. Fifteen minutes into their patrol, three military-age Afghan males crowded on a motorcycle and sped aggressively down a Taliban-controlled dirt road toward Lorance’s men.

Disaster has struck the McDonald family. Everything they’ve built since the fall of civilization has been destroyed by a devastating fire. They’ve lost their community, supplies, and even loved ones. The death of Mike and James hits hardest of all. The other survivors are scattered. There’s nothing left. All that remains is the indomitable will to survive. Jodi is lucky enough to have several family members survive the fire, as they take to the road to find their new home.

Richard Edward Carey came from a broken home. Enlisting in the Corps in 1946 he later earned a commission, fighting at Inchon and Chosin in Korea before becoming a pilot. During his thirty-eight-year military career he witnessed and participated in major historical events, though a high school wrestling injury would eliminate him from the Mercury-7 space program. As a second lieutenant, he tackled General Douglas MacArthur on the way to Seoul in 1950. Carey would provide critical intelligence decisions enabling the successful defense of the Chinese attack on Hagaru-ri at the Chosin Reservoir.

The philosophy found in this work is the product of a childhood on a tobacco and cattle farm in central Kentucky, education at various schools, and a three-decade career in the US Navy while simultaneously contributing as a husband, father, and grandfather. The remainder of this book will be separated into phases reflective of the major changes in my life: the farm, schooling, and a navy career continuum from junior officer through flag officer. The lessons learned in earlier phases were often exported and applied later.

Marine Maxims is a collection of fifty principle-based leadership lessons that Thomas J. Gordon acquired commanding Marines over a career spanning three decades of service. Dealing with the complexities and challenges of the contemporary operating environment requires an internal moral compass fixed true. These maxims focus on developing inner citadels of character, moral courage, and the resilience to persevere in a contested domain where information is key. Its purpose is to provide future leaders with a professional development plan that will enable them to lead with honor.

In the early 1980s, a golden generation of volleyball players joined the U.S. men's national team. With the Olympics coming to Los Angeles in 1984, the pressure was on to build a winning program around these exceptional athletes. In If Gold Is Our Destiny, Sean P. Murray shares the incredible story of how a group of free-spirited players and their demanding coach captured the heart of a nation and became one of the greatest indoor volleyball teams of all time.

From Eve's crafty exchange with the serpent, to Martin Luther King's soaring, subtle ultimatums, to the throes of Twitter—argument's drainpipe—the human desire to prevail with words has been not just a moral but an existential compulsion. In this dazzling reformulation of argument, renowned critic Lee Siegel portrays the true art of argument as much deeper and far more embracing than mere quarrel, dispute, or debate. It is the supreme expression of humanity's longing for a better life, born of empathy and of care for the world and those who inhabit it.

The year is 1970, and the war in Vietnam rages on. Sergeant Eddie Henderson returned home from his first tour of duty a broken man, haunted by the promises he made to his fallen brothers. Promises he failed to keep.... Now, he’s going back. Leaving his new wife behind, Eddie returns to the war-torn jungles, where he is handpicked for a special recon-and-rescue squad.

When chasing a dream leads deeper within... Picking up where Searching for Paradise left off, Mike Hogan, Decky Brady, and Luke Coppens start off in London, still chasing and believing their Hollywood dreams of working in the music video business. But after only a few days into the trip, the friends quickly abandon their efforts and put new plans into place. On his own developing journey and through encounters with other travelers and new friends, Mike Hogan experiences the love of finding oneself again.

Glyn Haynie carries the names of 13 brothers forever engraved on his heart. They are the names of brothers killed in combat during the War in Vietnam. The bonds formed in battle are unique and not understood by anyone who has not served in the military. The men in their foxholes do not fight for lofty ideals or principles; they fight to protect the man standing on either side of them. For these Vietnam veterans, there is an additional element included within this bond of brotherhood. That is the disrespect and abuse these soldiers received when they returned from Vietnam.

On a frigid winter night in early 1963, Rocco Anthony Balliro and a pair of associates stormed a darkened apartment on the outskirts of Boston and were immediately embroiled in a deadly shootout with several unseen assailants. Unbeknownst to Rocco at the time, the men who returned his fire were several Boston police officers, waiting in ambush for him. It was, as Rocco later described it, a hastily planned rescue mission that went downhill in a hurry. In the aftermath, his beloved girlfriend and her toddler son lay dead.

They’ll protect what’s theirs - or die trying. The McDonald clan have learned their lessons the hard way these last months. Shane and Jodi finally realize they must keep their reunited family close and protect their own above all others to survive in this new post-apocalyptic reality. The repairs on the home are complete, solar panels installed, and the now operational pump means they won’t have to continue collecting rainwater for the foreseeable future.

When the dust settled and the world as they knew it crumbled, Lance and Sophie were left with nothing but their love and their grief. With his father dead, his hometown threatened by a ruthless corporation bent on swallowing every last farm in the region, and his future hanging by a thread, Lance knows there's only one person who can help fight back: his estranged brother, Sam.

In The Making of White American Identity, Ron Eyerman provides an explanation for how whiteness has become a basis for collective identification and collective action in the United States. Drawing upon his previous work on the formation of African American identity, as well as cultural trauma theory, collective memory, and social movements, he reveals how and under what conditions such a collective identification emerges, as well as how the mobilization of collective action around an ideology of whiteness and white superiority.