Tiger Force

At the outset of the Vietnam War, the Army created an experimental fighting unit that became known as "Tiger Force." The Tigers were to be made up of the cream of the crop-the very best and bravest soldiers the American military could offer. They would be given a long leash, allowed to operate in the field with less supervision. Their mission was to seek out enemy compounds and hiding places so that bombing runs could be accurately targeted. They were to go where no troops had gone, to become one with the jungle, to leave themselves behind and get deep inside the enemy's mind. The experiment went terribly wrong. What happened during the seven months Tiger Force descended into the abyss is the stuff of nightmares. Their crimes were uncountable, their madness beyond imagination-so much so that for almost four decades, the story of Tiger Force was covered up under orders that stretched all the way to the White House. Records were scrubbed, documents were destroyed, men were told to say nothing.But one person didn't follow orders. The product of years of investigative reporting, interviews around the world, and the discovery of an astonishing array of classified information, Tiger Force is a masterpiece of journalism. Winners of the Pulitzer Prize for their Tiger Force reporting, Michael Sallah and Mitch Weiss have uncovered the last great secret of the Vietnam War.

For the past 15 years, members of Tiger Force, an elite group of American paratroopers serving in Vietnam, have been branded in the press as a rogue unit of rampaging GIs. Finally, additional research reveals the confusing rules of engagement, recorded statistics, and many previously untold personal accounts regarding this combat force's unique character and adventures. For military and history buffs alike, the memoir explains the structure of this highly decorated unit operating in the jungles of Vietnam. It also sheds light on the complicated issues of warfare, and how choices made by the press can have life-long effects on individuals. Written by a seasoned Tiger who served in this unit for 17 months, the book provides insight into the daily challenges and personal exploits of the men. Whether facing off with a water buffalo, sleeping in the middle of a stream, crawling into a VC tunnel, discussing Latin with a monk, walking into a minefield, or watching friends fall in battle, Leo makes you feel like you are right there with his team. He introduces you to many distinctive and memorable personalities who have proudly worn the Tiger Force Badge. Contents include: Battles of Tiger Hill and Tiger Valley Discussion of free-fire zones, press coverage, and agent orange Daily routines and combat patrols in the jungle Patrols with indigenous allies Life at base camp Liberation of POW camps Clarification of relevant military operations, i.e. Hawthorne, Malheur, Wheeler Map and extensive glossary of military terms "Leo Heaney is a storyteller. His personal memories of that time (in Tiger Force) are both heartbreaking and hilarious...kept me entertained from beginning to end."--K Evans "Perhaps the most vivid of the many books I've read on that war."--K McKeehen "Tiger Force is nothing less than a total immersion in the experiences of a line soldier serving in a unit created to suit the unique nature of the Vietnam War."--P Gross

"We live together under the thick canopy, each searching for the other; the same leeches and mosquitoes that feed on our blood feed on his blood." John Edmund Delezen felt a kinship with the people he was instructed to kill in Vietnam; they were all at the mercy of the land. His memoir begins when he enlisted in the Marine Corps and was sent to Vietnam in March of 1967. He volunteered for the Third Force Recon Company, whose job it was to locate and infiltrate enemy lines undetected and map their locations and learn details of their status. The duty was often painful both physically and mentally. He was stricken with malaria in November of 1967, wounded by a grenade in February of 1968 and hit by a bullet later that summer. He remained in Vietnam until December, 1968. Delezen writes of Vietnam as a man humbled by a mysterious country and horrified by acts of brutality. The land was his enemy as much as the Vietnamese soldiers. He vividly describes the three-canopy jungle with birds and monkeys overhead that could be heard but not seen, venomous snakes hiding in trees and relentless bugs that fed on men. He recalls stumbling onto a pit of rotting Vietnamese bodies left behind by American forces, and days when fierce hunger made a bag of plasma seem like an enticing meal. He writes of his fallen comrades and the images of war that still pervade his dreams. This book contains many photographs of American Marines and Vietnam as well as three maps.

"The fielding of automated flight controls and weapons systems in fighter aircraft from 1950 to 1980 challenged the significance ascribed to several of the pilots' historical skillsets, such as superb hand-eye coordination--required for aggressive stick-and-rudder maneuvering--and perfect eyesight and crack marksmanship--required for long-range visual detection and destruction of the enemy. Highly automated systems would, proponents argued, simplify the pilot's tasks while increasing his lethality in the air, thereby opening fighter aviation to broader segments of the population. However, these new systems often required new, unique skills, which the pilots struggled to identify and develop. Moreover, the challenges that accompanied these technologies were not restricted to individual fighter cockpits, but rather extended across the pilots' tactical formations, altering the social norms that had governed the fighter pilot profession since its establishment. In the end, the skills that made a fighter pilot great in 1980 bore little resemblance to those of even thirty years prior, despite the precepts embedded within the "myth of the fighter pilot." As such, this history illuminates the rich interaction between human and machine that often accompanies automation in the workplace. It is broadly applicable to other enterprises confronting increased automation, from remotely piloted aviation to Google cars. It should appeal to those interested in the history of technology and automation, as well as the general population of military aviation enthusiasts."--Provided by publisher.

The #1 New York Times bestseller-updated with additional information on the current Iraq War-now in trade paperback. General Chuck Horner commanded the U.S. and allied air assets-the forces of a dozen nations- during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and was responsible for the design and execution of one of the most devastating air campaigns in history. Never before has the Gulf air war planning, a process filled with controversy and stormy personalities, been revealed in such rich, provocative detail. In this edition of Every Man a Tiger, General Horner looks at the current Gulf conflict and comments on the use of air power in Iraq.

This book addresses issues of monitoring populations of tigers, ungulate prey species and habitat occupancy, with relevance to similar assessments of large mammal species and general biodiversity. It covers issues of rigorous sampling, modeling, estimation and adaptive management of animal populations using cutting-edge tools, such as camera-traps, genetic identification and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), applied under the modern statistical approach of Bayesian and likelihood-based inference. Of special focus here are animal survey data derived for use under spatial capture-recapture, occupancy, distance sampling, mixture-modeling and connectivity analysees. Because tigers are an icons of global conservation, in last five decades,enormous amounts of commitment and resources have been invested by tiger range countries and the conservation community for saving wild tigers. However, status of the big cat remains precarious. Rigorous monitoring of surviving wild tiger populations continues to be essential for both understanding and recovering wild tigers. However, many tiger monitoring programs lack the necessary rigor to generate the reliable results. While the deployment of technologies, analyses, computing power and human-resource investments in tiger monitoring have greatly progressed in the last couple of decades, a full comprehension of their correct deployment has not kept pace in practice. In this volume, Dr. Ullas Karanth and Dr. James Nichols, world leaders in tiger biology and quantitative ecology, respectively, address this key challenge. The have collaborated with an extraordinary array of 30 scientists with expertise in a range of necessary disciplines - biology and ecology of tigers, prey and habitats; advanced statistical theory and practice; computation and programming; practical field-sampling methods that employ technologies as varied as camera traps, genetic analyses and geographic information systems. The book is a 'tour de force' of cutting-edge methodologies for assessing not just tigers but also other predators and their prey. The 14 chapters here are lucidly presented in a coherent sequence to provide tiger-specific answers to fundamental questions in animal population assessment: why monitor, what to monitor and how to monitor. While highlighting robust methods, the authors also clearly point out those that are in use, but unreliable. The managerial dimension of tiger conservation described here, the task of matching monitoring objectives with skills and resources to integrate tiger conservation under an adaptive framework, also renders this volume useful to wildlife scientists as well as conservationists.

Shortly before 8 am on 16 March 1968, C Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Regiment, 11th Brigade, Americal Division, on a search-and-destroy mission in Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam, entered the hamlet of My Lai. By noon more than 400 women, children and old men had been systematically murdered. To this day, the My Lai massacre has remained the most shocking episode of the Vietnam War. Yet this infamous incident was not an exception or aberration. Based on extensive research and unprecedented access to US Army archives, and tracing the responsibility for these atrocities all the way up to the White House and the Pentagon, War Without Fronts reveals the true extent of war crimes committed by American troops in Vietnam and how a war to win hearts and minds soon became a war against civilians.

This original and wide-ranging work examines historical perceptions of nature in China and the relationship between insider and outsider, state and village, top-down conservation policy and community autonomy. After an introduction to the history of wildlife conservation and nature reserve management in China, the book places recent tiger conservation efforts in the context of a two-thousand-year gazetteer of tiger attacks--the longest running documentation of human-wildlife encounters for any region in the world. This record offers a unique perspective on the history of the tiger as a dynamic force in the political culture of China. While the tiger has long been identified with political authority, the Chinese pangolin and its earthly magic have exerted a powerful influence in the everyday lives of those working and living in the fields and forests. Today the tiger and the pangolin, government officials and village communities, must work together closely if wildlife habitat conservation programs are to succeed. Extensive fieldwork in the Meihuashan Nature Reserve and other protected areas of western Fujian have led the author to advocate a landscape ecological approach to habitat conservation. By linking economic development to land use practices, he makes a strong case for integrating nature conservation efforts with land tenure and other socio-ecological issues in China and beyond.