Thirty-Eight North Yankee [Hardcover]

Ruggero (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1990

used book hard cover but the paper is crashing a litter taking about war in korea.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author, a career officer currently teaching English at West Point, sets his first novel in the near future, when North Korea once again invades the South. Spearheading the U.S. response is a light infantry division from Hawaii. Eschewing questions of policy and strategy, Ruggero centers his story around the maneuvers of a rifle company. He takes the unit from its deployment through initial patrols and rear-guard actions to the climax of an air assault behind North Korean lines. While the characters are adequate for the novel's purpose, this military procedural emphasizes doctrine, training and weapons. Ruggero presents the capacities and weaknesses of light infantry troops in an easily assimilable form and highlights an underlying irony: the strategic mobility of these troops invites their use in emergencies which often involve the kind of high-intensity combat for which they are least equipped.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Readers who enjoy the school of military realism/suspense found in novels by Tom Clancy and Stephen Coonts should welcome this first novel set in today's Korea. The code "38 North Yankee" means that the North Korean People's Army has crossed into the demilitarized zone to invade South Korea and that American units are to engage them. Sent to counter this military adventurism, Captain Mark Isen and his men of C Company, 25th Light Infantry Division, move from Schofield barracks in Oahu to hostilities in Korea. What follows is a realistic account of men in difficult battle situations, as Isen tries to keep enemy forces contained until U.S. reinforcements arrive. Recommended for popular fiction collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/90.
- William C. McCully, Park Ridge P.L., Ill.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 395 pages
• Publisher: Atria; 1St Edition edition (June 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671700219
• ISBN-13: 978-0671700218
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,752,392 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Following graduation from West Point, Ed was commissioned in the United States Army and served as an infantry officer in a variety of positions, including an assignment teaching at West Point. Following his service, Ed pursued a career as an author and public speaker, engaging audiences around the world in discussions on leadership and leader development. He also leads a Gettysburg and a Normandy Leadership Experience, where participants walk the ground of these great struggles to learn battle-tested leadership lessons that will help them meet their own challenges. Ed lives in Wallingford, Pennsylvania with his wife, Marcia Noa and a bunch of dogs. For more information, see www.edruggero.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 38 North Yankee is stunning debut for underrated writer...., May 5, 2004

By 

Alex Diaz-Granados "fardreaming writer" (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 38 North Yankee: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

It's 1990. The Cold War is over, and Communism is being rejected by most of the dying Soviet Union's former vassals. Only a handful of die-hard regimes still hangs on to Marxism-Leninism, grasping at power with the grip of those who are about to die. One of these nations is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which rules the northern half of the Korean peninsula with uncommonly fanatical dedication to socialism and the discredited theories now being discarded by Eastern Europe and even the cradle of World Revolution, the USSR.

With a population of less than 20 million, North Korea has the largest per capita standing army in the world, with some 784,000 men under arms. It is also a poor country, has little contact with the outside world, is heavily into the "personality cult" of the Great Leader Kim Il Sung and his succesor, Kim Jong Il, the Dear Leader.

Now, with South Korea once again embroiled in a cycle of student riots and apparent political instability, and with a power struggle between two factions within the Communist party in Pyongyang, the North Korean Army suddenly and deliberately attacks its southern neighbor -- an invasion that the United States has hoped to forestall ever since the July 1953 cease-fire agreement that ended the first Korean War.

Caught up in the horrors of war are Captain Mark Isen and the men of Charlie Company, part of the 25th Light Infantry Division. Deploying quickly from their base in Oahu, Hawaii in the largest such operation since Vietnam, the 25th LID arrives in Korea in the wake of several guerrilla attacks against American personnel and a huge buildup of North Korean military forces across the 38th Parallel. And no sooner has Charlie Company reached its assembly point when the radio crackles with the code phrase "38 North Yankee," meaning the North Koreans have indeed crossed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and that American forces are committed to combat.

Ed Ruggero, a captain in the Infantry branch and assistant professor at West Point at the time, made his writing debut with this engrossing novel that truly captures the heart and soul of the American soldier. Each character is described so well that he or she seems to be a living, breathing human being, and Ruggero takes us into the mind-numbingly terrifying and bloody battlefields of the Korean peninsula, describing night patrols, ambushes against armored columns, air assaults, and harrowing firefights in an amazingly realistic and honest fashion.

Ruggero went on to write a second Mark Isen novel, Common Defense, but for some reason he hasn't found the same literary success as Larry Bond, Stephen Coonts, or Harold Coyle, all former officers turned novelists. Pity, because he writes amazingly vivid prose that is at once both elegant and realistic.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Novel worth a reread, January 8, 2002

By 

Kevin Agnew (Philadelphia, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 38 North Yankee: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book when it first came out in paperback. I have really liked it and was disapointed to see it dropped from publishing. Good writing and technical considerations. This book also shows how some of the best military plans are reused over and over with the same results through out history.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Written and A Good Scenerio, February 19, 2000

By 

Shogun Len "tokieyasu" (Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 38 North Yankee: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

A 2nd Korean War is unfortunately a scenerio that could very well happen. Red Phoenix and 38 North Yankee are two excellent fictional attempts at depicting this scenerio. If you like Military fiction, you will enjoy this book.