United in Service, United in Sacrifice

A wide-ranging military anthology. The reader experiences an amazing variety of stories spanning the last eighty years of US military engagements, as well as the experiences of family members, who also serve and sacrifice for the rest of us. You scan through packets of old letters, undiscovered until 2012. They reveal a World War II love-story that lasted a lifetime. Then there were the thousands of other scared young G.I.'s in the boat they called "the steel coffin," as their convoy zig-zags across a heaving ocean and U-boats hunt for and torpedo some of the ships around them. Flee with Jake, the Marine, and his buddy down through the frozen mountains of North Korea with hoards of the Chinese "People's Army" in hot pursuit. In the wee hours of an inky-black night, climb the compound guard towers with a young lieutenant, a mug of coffee in each fist, as he brings comfort and a kind word to the frightened young look-outs at Dak To Special Forces Base in Vietnam. Learn how to survive being "waterboarded, Air Force-style." At 2 AM, stand at attention with Colonel Tim at Dover Air Force Base, as grieving loved ones wait for the arrival of their dead from Iraq. From World War II, Korea and Vietnam, through the Cold War to the Mid-East conflicts of today, the authors of the Rochester, NY, Veterans Writers' Group bring you these and many other stories. Some are shocking, some are humorous, all of them are gripping. They will give you a new perspective on the service and sacrifice of our military, and especially their families-and what it means for the rest of us.