Weapons of the Navy SEALs (Battle Gear) [Hardcover]

Fred J. Pushies (Author)

Book Description

Series: Battlegear | Publication Date: July 31, 2004

Of all the U.S. military's special forces, none carry the same name recognition nor capture the public imagination like the U.S. Navy SEALs. From their intense training in San Diego to their land, air, and, of course, sea operations the SEALs are feared and respected around the globe. This installment in the MBI Battle Gear series, like the previously published Weapons of Delta Force (0-7603-1139 0), will detail in 150 photographs all of the weapons, vehicles, gear, and high-tech gadgets that the SEALs use in their operations. Photographs show SEALs utilizing weapons, watercraft, aircraft, SCUBA equipment, and more in live-action exercises, bringing the reader into the midst of the action. In Battle Gear fashion, the book also includes a chapter describing the techniques SEALs use, as well as glossaries of terms and military abbreviations.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

“A remarkable story, long overdue, of the treatment of POWs captured by Japan.”

—Arthur L. Maher, Rear Admiral, USN,

Senior officer to survive sinking of the USS Houston,

POW of the Japanese in World War II

 

“In World War II, to move materials and troops from Japan to Burma by avoiding the perilous sea route around the Malay Peninsula, the Japanese military built a railroad through the jungles of Thailand and Burma at great human cost to its prisoner laborers. Last Man Out is an effective addition to the history of this tragedy.”

—Library Journal

From June 1942 to October 1943, more than one hundred thousand Allied POWs who had been forced into slave labor by the Japanese died building the infamous Burma-Thailand Death Railway, an undertaking immortalized in the 1957 film Bridge on the River Kwai. One of the few who survived was American H. Robert Charles, who describes the ordeal in vivid and harrowing detail in Last Man Out: Surviving the Burma–Thailand Death Railway. The story mixes the unimaginable brutality of the camps with the inspiring courage of the men, including a Dutch Colonial Army doctor whose skill and knowledge of the medicinal value of wild jungle herbs saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow POWs, including the author.

 

About the Author

H. Robert Charles was born in Pitcher, Oklahoma, Charles grew up on a wheat farm and cattle ranch near Hutchinson, Kansas, and enlisted in the Marine Corps in June 1940. He was a machine gunner aboard the USS Houston at the time it was sunk by the Japanese in Sunda Strait, March 1, 1942. He swam nine hours, was picked up off the coast of Java by the Japanese, and held forty-three months in slave labor camps in Burma, Thailand, and Saigon.

Repatriated at the end of the war by British paratroopers and Office of Strategic Services personnel, Charles spent time at a hospital in Calcutta before returning home.

After graduating from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Charles later joined Parents Magazine in New York, serving as family home editor.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Zenith Press; 1st edition (July 31, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760317909
• ISBN-13: 978-0760317907
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,334,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars kick-a** book, November 15, 2006

By 

Valued Guest "Navy SEAL bob" (your mom, U.S.A) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Weapons of the Navy SEALs (Battle Gear) (Hardcover)

If anyone is interested in becoming Navy SEAL, then buy this book. (p.s. I never really bought this book.)