They Were My Heroes

Knitted by verses indulged with tempo, Mohul Bhowmick's latest offering- They Were My Heroes- is a pre-eminent contribution to the domain of Indian poetry in English. Sporadically merged with manoeuvres that carry the enterprise past the realm of common comprehension, it is laced with both joy and pain. The course of a vigorous dalliance, now ended, rears its head and in mitigation, Bhowmick probes into the anguish that he suffers. Like the majority of his work in poetry, this book too is semi-autobiographical; the obsessions, evasions and fixations that it unveils are a sight to behold. Coming a year after his highly acclaimed debut in travel writing, Bhowmick is back to doing what he does best- asking questions of himself with subtle nudges. Arriving a long time after it was first conceived, this collection consists of a hundred poems. It is divided into four sections: Travel Capers, Demons, Romantic Leftovers and Residues of the Heart. Each resists its own intricacies with sophistication, touching the reader with every note and chord. In the process, national-level cricketer Bhowmick finds himself facing a wall that no sunrise can erase or obliterate.

My Men Are My Heroes introduces its readers to a living standard of Marine Corps esprit de corps and military decorum. Sergeant Major Bradley Kasal, the pride of Iowa, is a small town boy who wanted to be a United States Marine even before a poster perfect Marine recruiter marched into his high school gym and offered him a challenge Kasal couldn’t resist. Two decades later Kasal stood stiffly at attention, one leg literally shot in half, while the Navy Cross was pinned to his chest. Kasal is currently the Sergeant Major of the Infantry School at Camp Pendleton, CA until he retires in May, 2012. After a brief visit to his childhood Kasal’s story quickly gathers steam, introducing the reader to his early Marine career; adventure filled years that earned him the name “Robo-Grunt” from men who don’t offer accolades easily. Kasal uses his experience climbing the ranks to illustrate how Marines grow, and how they are shaped by the uncompromising attitudes of the officers and non-coms charged with turning young Marines into tigers. Kasal’s adventures culminate in Iraq. By now he is 1st Sergeant Kasal, ramrodding Kilo Company, 3/1, a rifle company in 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, the mighty “Thunder Third” that would cover itself with glory in 2004. Two days into Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003 Kilo is ordered to hold open a critical road between two bridges that Saddam’s fierce Fedayeen Saddam were just as determined to take away. Kasal makes in his stand on that road, literally standing tall amidst fierce gunfire, demonstrating the kind of leadership Kilo Company needed to get the job done. Kilo’s fight was part of the first big test of Marine Corps combat capabilities in the second Iraqi War and the only major engagement the Marine Corps fought during the heady days of the “Drive Up” to Baghdad. When it was over the so-called “Ninjas” of the Fedayeen Saddam were smashed. A week later Kasal was in Baghdad, welcomed with open arms by the exuberant population. A year later 3/1 was back to Iraq, in Anbar Province, the epicenter of the brutal war now raging in the former tribal stronghold of Saddam and his henchmen. The smiling faces that had greeted 3/1 the year before were gone. Kasal is the 1st Sergeant of Weapons Company, 3/1, the armored fist of a light infantry battalion. After four months of ambushes, IEDs, and deadly skirmishes 3/1 is ordered into Fallujah, to take the ancient city back from Al Qaeda and the foreign fighters who had turned the ancient “City of Mosques” into a fortress. It is there, in November, 2004 that the “Thundering Third” entered into Marine Corps legend and Kasal into the Pantheon of Heroes for his actions during the most savage battle the Marines fought in the Iraq War. At a non-descript house in a walled neighborhood in Fallujah Kasal, at the time accompanying a squad of Kilo’s riflemen into a contested house, becomes involved in a close-quarter duel with fanatical Chechen fighters. The fight rages throughout the house, at times Marines and the foreign fighters were exchanging rifle fire and grenades at ranges of less than 10 feet. For almost two hours the squad is trapped inside the house. During the brawl Kasal is shot seven times, almost loses his leg when it is nearly severed from his body, and sustains 47shrapnel wounds when he used his body to shield a wounded Marine laying next to him from an enemy grenade. In the skirmish, forever known as the “Hell House” fight, Kasal was awarded the Navy Cross, the nation’s second highest award for heroism."

Sergeant Major Devaney’s They Were Heroes presents moving portraits of warriors who have not been fully celebrated. His stories recognize the heroism of those who fought in these deadly conflicts and placed their lives at risk to assure the safety of their fellow Marines. For these Marines, no Medal of Honor is enough for their bravery. Nonetheless, though not his main purpose, Devaney calls attention to the practice of awarding medals itself, that often these warriors received awards that were below what their deeds merited. No less disturbing is the revelation that medals were often awarded by rank, and not always by action. The lives presented in Devaney’s book call attention to the fact that many heroes of these deadly conflicts have gone unrecognized.

I t’s a humbling thing to write about persons who have greatly impacted your life. I am reminded that we cannot live alone without the influence of an individual (s) or a higher deity to affect our lives. There has always been someone who came before us and influenced us in a way that greatly mattered to us. They came with equal talents and gifts (of the Spirit) that guided us along the way. We must take heart and humbly seek guidance of our Creator. He will send a mentor or hero to help us whenever we are experiencing frustration or exhaustion. Our Savior God calls us to endure the pain and hurts as well as the successes. He will keep his promise to work in and through us. We must follow Him with exacting diligence to uphold our responsibility to be generous with a faithfulness, justice and a joyful heart.

Teenage Ellie has always had romantic ideas about drug addicts. The tragic, artistic souls drawn to needles and pills have been an obsession since the death of her junkie mother ten years ago. But when Ellie lands in an upscale rehab clinic where nothing is what it appears to be, she'll find another, more dangerous romance and find out how easily drugs and murder go hand-in-hand. MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN JUNKIES is a seductive coming-of-age story, a pop and drug culture-fueled tale of a young girl seeking darkness and what she finds there. This gorgeous, must-have hardback is the first original graphic novel from ED BRUBAKERand SEAN PHILLIPS, the bestselling creators of CRIMINAL,KILL OR BE KILLED, THE FADE OUT, FATALE, and INCOGNITO.

As I look back over my life, it was a good ride. I experienced many potholes along the way. I'm not tired yet. The last thing I think about is death. I am not afraid of it. Why should I be? I can't do anything about it. It's just a sleep. I can't move as fast as I once did, but I can still dance. This may be surprising to some; I still have fun with my wife. Someone may ask, "How often?" I will say to them, "Stop hating." It would be foolish to ignore the bad, the good, and the ugly in my life. Those experiences caused my faith in Christ Jesus to be stronger. My faith in Jesus made it possible for me to be here seventy-five years as of January 17, 2014. I hear what I want to hear, see what I want to see, and remember what I want to remember. I realize that I am only important to myself. And to preserve whatever life I have left, I must be cooperative with matters of confrontation. Exhaustion will kill you before old age. I refuse to call myself old. I call myself blessed. To those people who think that they are too old to enjoy life and that they are walking through one of life's valleys: Perhaps you are trusting in your exhaustion, not in God. And you are thinking this is how you are supposed to feel as years pass you by. You don't have to be older than you are. When your load gets too heavy to carry, don't give up-this is an opportunity for God, in Christ Jesus's name, to take charge of you. There is no competition or stereotypes in God; just be who you are. Refuse to give up your happiness because you are older and instead think about your accomplishments and enjoy all of your abilities. The thought of loneliness and bitter disappointments brings self-pity and fear. When you dwell too long on bad circumstances, it will make you feel old and rob you of peace of mind. Respond to the love of God-you no longer need to speculate upon the quality of your life. It is good because God is good.

The Jazz Masters: Setting the Record Straight is a celebration of jazz and the men and women who created and transformed it. In the twenty-one conversations contained in this engaging and highly accessible book, we hear from the musicians themselves, in their own words, direct and unfiltered. Peter Zimmerman’s interviewing technique is straightforward. He turns on a recording device, poses questions, and allows his subjects to improvise, similar to the way the musicians do at concerts and in recording sessions. Topics range from their early days, their struggles and victories, to the impact the music has had on their own lives. The interviews have been carefully edited for sense and clarity, without changing any of the musicians’ actual words. Peter Zimmerman tirelessly sought virtuosi whose lives span the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The reader is rewarded with an intimate look into the past century’s extraordinary period of creative productivity. The oldest two interview subjects were born in 1920 and all are professional musicians who worked in jazz for at least five decades, with a few enjoying careers as long as seventy-five years. These voices reflect some seventeen hundred years of accumulated experience yielding a chronicle of incredible depth and scope. The focus on musicians who are now emeritus figures is deliberate. Some of them are now in their nineties; six have passed since 2012, when Zimmerman began researching The Jazz Masters. Five of them have already received the NEA’s prestigious Jazz Masters award: Sonny Rollins, Clark Terry, Yusef Lateef, Jimmy Owens, and most recently, Dick Hyman. More undoubtedly will one day, and the balance are likewise of compelling interest. Artists such as David Amram, Charles Davis, Clifford Jordan, Valery Ponomarev, and Sandy Stewart, to name a few, open their hearts and memories and reveal who they are as people. This book is a labor of love celebrating the vibrant style of music that Dizzy Gillespie once described as “our native art form.” Zimmerman’s deeply knowledgeable, unabashed passion for jazz brings out the best in the musicians. Filled with personal recollections and detailed accounts of their careers and everyday lives, this highly readable, lively work succeeds in capturing their stories for present and future generations. An important addition to the literature of music, The Jazz Masters goes a long way toward “setting the record straight.”

I Walked with Heroes is an autobiographical book written by Carlos P. Romulo, a former Philippine general, journalist, poet, story writer, diplomat, former resident commissioner to Washington, D.C., former Philippine ambassador to the United States, and former President of the United Nations General Assembly. In I Walked with Heroes, Romulo personally reviewed his boyhood, early life, school days, and career in which he presented the facts and events with "frankness, intimacy, sense of person-to-person communication". It included Romulo's memories of his parents and the first time he met the Americans in the person of soldiers stationed in Camiling, his native town in Tarlac. The time was during the Philippine War of Independence. The nameless soldier taught Romulo and other Filipino boys how to read and write in English using Edward Baldwin's Primer. Romulo also narrated his life in Manila when he was both a morning-time student and an evening-time news reporter. A part of the book mentioned how Romulo was praised by then President of the Philippine Senate Manuel L. Quezon after writing a news item against Quezon's political opponents. In the pages of the autobiography, the reader would find that Romulo was comfortable in employing humor such as "telling jokes on himself", particularly in reference to his height to make the reader enjoy his writing. The book revealed Romulo's "unfailing faith in mankind".