Lookout

A page-turning memoir about a young woman's grueling, revelatory summers working alone in a remote lookout tower and her eyewitness account of the increasingly unpredictable nature of wildfire in the Canadian north. While growing up in Peace River, Alberta, Trina Moyles heard many stories of Lookout Observers--strange, eccentric types who spent five-month summers alone, climbing 100-foot high towers and watching for signs of fire in the surrounding boreal forest. How could you isolate yourself for that long? she wondered. "I could never do it," she told herself. Craving a deeper sense of purpose, she left northern Alberta to pursue a decade-long career in global humanitarian work. After three years in East Africa, and newly engaged, Trina returned to Peace River with a plan to sponsor her fiance, Akello's, immigration to Canada. Despite her fear of being alone in the woods, she applied for a seasonal lookout position and got the job. Thus begins Trina's first summer as one of a handful of lookouts scattered throughout Alberta, with only a farm dog, Holly--labeled "a domesticated wolf" by her former owners--to keep her company. While searching for smoke, Trina unravels under the pressure of a long-distance relationship--and a dawning awareness of the environmental crisis that climate change is producing in the boreal. Through megafires, lightning storms, and stunning encounters with wildlife, she learns to survive at the fire tower by forging deep connections with nature and with an extraordinary community of people dedicated to wildfire detection and combat. In isolation, she discovers a kind of self-awareness--and freedom--that only solitude can deliver. Lookout is a riveting story of loss, transformation, and belonging to oneself, layered with an eyewitness account of the destructive and regenerative power of wildfire in our northern forests.

In July 1864, while hemmed in by Grant at Richmond, General Robert E. Lee conceived a bold plan designed not only to relieve Lynchburg and protect the Confederate supply line but also to ultimately make a bold move on Washington itself. A major facet of this plan, with the addition of General Jubal Early's forces, became the rescue of the almost 15,000 Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout, a large Union prison camp at the confluence of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. With international recognition hanging in the balance for the Confederacy, the failure of Lee's plan saved the Union and ultimately changed the course of the war. This work focuses on the many factors that contributed to this eventual failure, including Early's somewhat inexplicable hesitancy, a significant loss of time for Confederate troops en route, and aggressive defensive action by Union General Lew Wallace. It also discusses various circumstances such as Washington's stripped defenses, the potential release of imprisoned Southern troops and a breakdown of Union military intelligence that made Lee's gamble a brilliant, well-founded strategy.

This true story will keep you captivated from beginning to end. It's about my relationship with my older brother who I idolized and the influence he had on my normally gentle spirit. I will tell you stories about my unorthodox life as a kid in a small town and take you into the crazy, fascinating, world of my brother where I learned about money, expensive cars, clothes, and promiscuous women. I traveled a dangerous road by assisting my brother in his lust for easy money and excitement while developing into a young man at the hands of a group of women who loved, cared, and helped me at the top-of-the-world whorehouse. After my brother and his partner pulled off one of the most difficult and dangerous burglaries imaginable, I was left with the task of finding buried money at the Kings Ranch in the Arizona desert with the help of my lady friends. Often times frightening, this book will keep you turning the pages with a mixture of adventure, humor, and tenderness.

INTRODUCTION TO LOOKOUT TRAINING In this United States Navy with its nuclear-powered warships, computerized guidance systems, and the most accurate search radars in the world, you, the lookout, play a critical role in safe ship operations. Your trained human eye is far superior to the most sophisticated equipment. As a lookout, you are the eyes and ears of the ship, and your alertness and skill ensures the safety of the ship. In the naval service there is probably no Rule of the Road more conscientiously observed than Rule 5 of the Navigation Rules, Commandant Instruction M16672.2, which states: “Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and sound as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.” In this manual, we will discuss visual search and contact reporting procedures, ship/aircraft recognition, Rules of the Road, buoy systems, special sea detail, restricted visibility steaming, man-overboard procedures, and Marine Species Awareness, along with other material which will assist you in your capacity as a lookout.