<![CDATA[Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground]]>

false <![CDATA[Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground]]>

583866

In this extraordinary book, Robert D. Kaplan lets readers experience up close the American military worldwide in the air, at sea, and on the ground: flying in a B-2 bomber, living on a nuclear submarine, and traveling with a Stryker brigade on missions around the world. Provided unprecedented access, Kaplan moves from destroyers off the coast of Indonesia to submarines in the central Pacific, from simulated Iraqi training grounds in Alaska to technology bases in Las Vegas, from army and marine land forces in the heart of the Sahara Desert, to air bases in Guam and Thailand and beyond. Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts provides not only a riveting ground-level portrait of the Global War on Terrorism on several continents, but also a gritty firsthand account of how U.S. soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen are protecting sea-lanes, providing disaster relief, contending with the military rise of China, fighting the war in Iraq, and crafting contingency plans for war with North Korea and Iran. Expanding on Kaplan’s acclaimed Imperial Grunts, the first volume of his exploration of the American military, which “offers the reader an enlightened way to understand what is happening in the world” (San Francisco Chronicle), Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts shifts focus to the Pacific, where emerging Asian powers present vexing diplomatic and strategic challenges to U.S. influence. In this volume, Kaplan completes his analysis of army Special Forces and the marines, while also taking readers into the heart of the myriad tribal cultures of the air force, surface and subsurface navies, and the regular army’s Stryker brigades. Kaplan goes deep into their highly technical and exotic worlds, and he tells this story through the words and perspectives of the enlisted personnel and junior officers themselves–men and women who, as he writes, have “had their national identities as Americans engraved in sharp bas-relief.” This provocative and illuminating book, like Imperial Grunts before it, not only conveys the vast scope of America’s military commitments, which rarely make it into the news, but also shows us astonishing and vital operations right as they unfold–from the point of view of the troops themselves.

570722

2007

Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground

total:44|5:8|4:20|3:14|2:1|1:1|

165

0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:53:10 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:53:10 -0800 2009 Robert D. Kaplan turns away from the more incendiary front line of the war on terror in this follow-up to Imperial Grunts. He spent over two years embedded with a diverse group of soldiers, and his admiration for their work comes through on every page. That same high esteem opens up the major vein o...

more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Sep 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 14 14:35:57 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 23 20:41:18 -0700 2008 Not so good as biography of modern American soldiers.

The author does an excellent job of demonstrating the nature/need of modern US defense policy. From the need to utilize SF forces to help maintain the capbilities of weakened state...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 10 12:35:50 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 10 13:31:47 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Mar 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Feb 19 07:42:12 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 29 03:34:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 07 17:49:08 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 07 18:04:15 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Dec 12 20:34:18 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 11 18:47:15 -0800 2009
The last chapter is all about North Korea. Good summary of the history and sobering look at ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 07 09:56:15 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 21 07:41:35 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 15 09:18:12 -0700 2007 Fri Dec 28 23:09:53 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jun 24 21:18:35 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 24 21:19:18 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Wed Nov 04 13:07:56 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 04 13:08:01 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Oct 26 19:23:56 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 26 19:24:23 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Oct 24 15:29:10 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 28 18:21:24 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Sep 25 02:11:08 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 02:11:08 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Sep 13 19:58:21 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 19:59:30 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Sep 13 19:41:45 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 13:16:35 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 19:41:45 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Aug 06 12:45:50 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 06 12:45:58 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat Jun 27 12:44:59 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 27 12:44:59 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu May 28 09:18:45 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 09:18:45 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon May 25 06:03:24 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 06:03:24 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun May 17 19:08:25 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 19:08:25 -0700 2009