Fate Stalks The Pacific Sky

Lieutenant David Miller has all the right credentials: Annapolis graduate, the gold wings of a naval aviator, and the recent completion of the Navy's counterintelligence school. But he is lacking the most important ingredient in the real and deadly world of espionage-experience. His clandestine assignments use the luxurious Boeing 314 flying boat, operated by Pan American, as a cover and on this trip he is to assure the safe passage of a Chinese Envoy, who is to deliver a secret document from President Roosevelt to Premier Chiang Kai-shek. The new four-engine 'Pacific Clipper' arrives in San Francisco in June 1941, to start the first leg of its 8,000-mile journey to the orient and Miller begins an unintended relationship with one of the passengers, a Japanese-American. His prejudice is tempered by her decidedly 'American' culture and personality but he is unsure of her loyalty to America. While aware of his shortcomings in espionage, Miller is totally unsuspecting of how ill prepared he is for a first serious encounter with a young lady who is aggressive for his affections. Will this relationship compromise the mission?

In a grand sweeping narrative, Pacific Air tells the inspiring story of how, despite initial disastrous defeats, a generation of young naval aviators challenged and ultimately vanquished a superior Japanese air force and fleet in the Pacific. The instruments of the United States aviators' triumphs were the elegantly designed F4F Wildcat, F6F Hellcat, as well as the lethal TBF Avenger torpedo bomber. With superbly trained U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviators at their controls, these planes became the most successful aerial weapons in naval history. A majestic portrait of a proud era from dual perspectives--the inventive minds of young aeronautical engineers and the deadly artistry of even younger combat pilots -- Pacific Air brings this important yet underappreciated chapter of World War II vividly to life.

Learning how to carry out research projects using participant observation and in-depth interviews has become a priority for scholars in a wide range of fields, including anthropology, sociology, education, social work, nursing, and psychology. This book, a collection of well-known fieldwork accounts covering the qualitative research process, aims to help undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars in the social sciences understand common problems in the research process and learn strategies for resolving them.Unlike methods books that treat research issues in a superficial or prescriptive fashion, this book realistically portrays, through researchers own accounts, the process of discovery and resolution of conflicts involved in fieldwork. It also shows the costs involved in the choice of solutions. Students and seasoned scholars alike will find the collection a source of knowledge, inspiration, and comfort concerning the complexity of conducting fieldwork. }Learning how to carry out research projects using participant observation and in-depth interviews has become a priority for scholars in a wide range of fields, including anthropology, sociology, education, social work, nursing, and psychology. This book, a collection of well-known fieldwork accounts covering the qualitative research process, aims to help undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars in the social sciences understand common problems in the research process and learn strategies for resolving them.Unlike methods books that treat research issues in a superficial or prescriptive fashion, this book realistically portrays, through researchers own accounts, the process of discovery and resolution of conflicts involved in fieldwork. It also shows the costs involved in the choice of solutions. Students and seasoned scholars alike will find the collection a source of knowledge, inspiration, and comfort concerning the complexity of conducting fieldwork. }

In what may be the last memoir to be published by a living veteran of the pivotal invasion of Guadalcanal, which occurred almost seventy years ago, Marine Jim McEnery has teamed up with author Bill Sloan to create an unforgettable chronicle of heroism and horror McErery’s Rifle Company—the legendary K/3/5 of the First Marine Division, made famous by the HBO miniseries The Pacific—fought in some of the most ferocious battles of the war. In searing detail, the author takes us back to Guadalcanal, where American forces first turned the tide against the Japanese; Cape Gloucester, where 1,300 Marines were killed or wounded; and bloody Peleliu, where McEnery assumed command of the company and helped hasten the final defeat of the Japanese garrison after weeks of torturous cave-to-cave fighting. McEnery’s story is a no-holds-barred, grunt’s-eye view of the sacrifices, suffering, and raw courage of the men in the foxholes, locked in mortal combat with an implacable enemy sworn to fight to the death. From bayonet charges and hand-to-hand combat to midnight banzai attacks and the loss of close buddies, the rifle squad leader spares no details, chronicling his odyssey from boot camp through twenty-eight months of hellish combat until his eventual return home. He has given us an unforgettable portrait of men at war.