US Air Force Forward Air Controllers (FACs) bridge the gap between air and land power. They operate in the grey area of the battlefield, serving as an aircrew who flies above the battlefield, spots the enemy, and relays targeting information to control close air support attacks by other faster aircraft. When done well, Air Force FACs are the fulcrum for successful employment of air power in support of ground forces. Unfortunately, FACs in recent times have been shunned by both ground and air forces, their mission complicated by inherent difficulty and danger, as well as by the vicissitudes of defense budgets, technology, leadership, bureaucracy, and doctrine. Eagles Overhead is the first complete historical survey of the US Air Force FAC program from its origins in World War I to the modern battlefield. Matt Dietz examines their role, status, and performance in every US Air Force air campaign from the Marne in 1918, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and finally Mosul in 2017. With the remaking of the post-Vietnam US military, and the impact of those changes on FAC, the Air Force began a steady neglect of the FAC mission from Operation Desert Storm, through the force reductions after the Soviet Union’s collapse, and into the post 9-11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Eagles Overhead asks why FACs have not been heavily used on US battlefields since 2001, despite their warfighting importance. Dietz examines the Air Force FAC’s theoretical, doctrinal, institutional, and historical frameworks to assess if the nature of air warfare has changed so significantly that the concept and utility of the FAC has been left behind. From these examinations, Eagles Overhead draws conclusions about the potential future of Air Force FACs.

The turmoil within the world, as well as within oneself, the storms both within and without, can be checked and brought to a calm before they rage out of control, set on a path of destruction. Prejudice is a storm of life that can be overcome by reminding ourselves that individualism is a God-given right to be set apart, to be different. We must learn to look for the "good salt" in others, to see their spirit. With courage, boldness, a keen hindsight, like our brother; the eagle, we can overcome; lifting ourselves above adversity to soar Where Only Eagles Dare to Fly! Amelia Malone is a divorced, middle-aged woman, who has lived her life in a sheltered corner of the world in rural America. With her children now grown, she has plenty of time to follow the innate desire to search out the roots of her Indian ancestry. Though she has never experienced prejudice, or violence, other than thru the windows of television or newspapers, they both will now come to rest on her as she steps out of her norm into reality. It is there she finds her greatest enemy, herself. Amelia moves to the city where she is plagued by the presence of an evil spirit and encounters a young Indian man whose been sent on a vision quest by spirits of tribal elders past. Showing up unexpected on her camping trip allows him the opportunity to save her from smorgasbord for a mountain lion. With the developing of their friendship, Amelia learns she is a valuable component in his vision being fulfilled, A vision of a legend that eyes of Indians of many generations past have waited to see fulfilled. After shes been presented with a sacred eagle claw necklace from the spirit of an elderly Indian woman, and she and her new friend find themselves adorned with identical ceremonial chokers, they part, not knowing when theyll meet again. Amelia is afforded a chance to go west to watch a western filmed that shes been corresponding with. On the train journey she must overcome prejudice when she befriends a Mexican that a rich white woman tells her to beware of cause he has a black eye and a yet open gash on his lip. She faces prejudice again when she befriends a full-blooded Indian who at first pierces her thru with fiery darts as he glares at her and calls her the average white woman. They quickly overcome the wall of prejudice and find their destination is one and the same; as he is an actor in the western shes to watch filmed. That week she finds herself caught up in the Legend of Great Bear, trying to overcome her Great Bear within, her insecurities, and her Great Bear without, a bold-legged cowpoke who has vowed to have her. At the ranch she comes across the Indian shed encountered in the city and finds he is best friends with her new Indian friend from the train. They find themselves at odds over her as she spends her week scaling Eagle Rock, saving her friends from two kinds of serpents, a knife throwing renegade and a rattlesnake, and helping the ranch owner overcome a 30- year vengeance hes had against his best friend over a woman they had both loved. She helps her Indian friend, who had save her life, overcome a false sense of pride, helps him accept the truth about his real father so he wont take his own life, comforts a friend the cowpoke attempted to rape when he thought it was Amelia in Amelias bed, persuades an adversary to allow Crystal Creek Waterfall to be used to authenticate a scene, brings out the hidden truth about Indian people, discovers unsought love and finds her destiny Where Only Eagles Dare to Fly. I love to write, though writing this book wasnt planned, but rather inspired. I have a voice and was told a truth needed to unfold that many generations past have waited and needed to hear about the Indian people.

Based on the behavior of American pronghorn antelope--which exhibit certain unexplainable "defense" characteristics--zoologist John A. Byers theorizes the animals' mystifying behaviors evolved in response to dangerous predators of their ancient past. Byers's provocative hypothesis suggests that other species' adaptations also are haunted by ghosts of predators past. 41 photos. 111 line drawings.

The fifty-seven original essays in this book provide a comprehensive overview of the interdisciplinary field of animal cognition. The contributors include cognitive ethologists, behavioral ecologists, experimental and developmental psychologists, behaviorists, philosophers, neuroscientists, computer scientists and modelers, field biologists, and others. The diversity of approaches is both philosophical and methodological, with contributors demonstrating various degrees of acceptance or disdain for such terms as "consciousness" and varying degrees of concern for laboratory experimentation versus naturalistic research. In addition to primates, particularly the nonhuman great apes, the animals discussed include antelopes, bees, dogs, dolphins, earthworms, fish, hyenas, parrots, prairie dogs, rats, ravens, sea lions, snakes, spiders, and squirrels. The topics include (but are not limited to) definitions of cognition, the role of anecdotes in the study of animal cognition, anthropomorphism, attention, perception, learning, memory, thinking, consciousness, intentionality, communication, planning, play, aggression, dominance, predation, recognition, assessment of self and others, social knowledge, empathy, conflict resolution, reproduction, parent-young interactions and caregiving, ecology, evolution, kin selection, and neuroethology.

"Dragoneers were normal human beings before they started to fight with the Sons of the Sun." When the dauntless, ever-adventure-seeking daughter of a king, goes in search of her runaway love, not only does she discover his secret, but a whole new and weird world opens up and engulfs her. It is a world full of challenges and dangers, in a land of creatures under a 'curse". Transform is a timeless story of love and hate, danger and daring, wisdom and folly, thrill and humor, and above all, naturally, of transformations.

What draws us to the beauty of a peacock, the flight of an eagle, or the song of a nightingale? Why are birds so significant in our lives and our sense of the world? And what do our ways of thinking about and experiencing birds tell us about ourselves? Birdscapes is a unique meditation on the variety of human responses to birds, from antiquity to today, and from casual observers to the globe-trotting "twitchers" who sometimes risk life, limb, and marriages simply to add new species to their "life lists." Drawing extensively on literature, history, philosophy, and science, Jeremy Mynott puts his own experiences as a birdwatcher in a rich cultural context. His sources range from the familiar--Thoreau, Keats, Darwin, and Audubon--to the unexpected--Benjamin Franklin, Giacomo Puccini, Oscar Wilde, and Monty Python. Just as unusual are the extensive illustrations, which explore our perceptions and representations of birds through images such as national emblems, women's hats, professional sports logos, and a Christmas biscuit tin, as well as classics of bird art. Each chapter takes up a new theme--from rarity, beauty, and sound to conservation, naming, and symbolism--and is set in a new place, as Mynott travels from his "home patch" in Suffolk, England, to his "away patch" in New York City's Central Park, as well as to Russia, Australia, and Greece. Conversational, playful, and witty, Birdscapes gently leads us to reflect on large questions about our relation to birds and the natural world. It encourages birders to see their pursuits in a broader human context--and it shows nonbirders what they may be missing.

Best Books of the Month: Wall Street Journal, Kirkus Reviews From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Gulf, a sweeping cultural and natural history of the bald eagle in America. The bald eagle is regal but fearless, a bird you’re not inclined to argue with. For centuries, Americans have celebrated it as “majestic” and “noble,” yet savaged the living bird behind their national symbol as a malicious predator of livestock and, falsely, a snatcher of babies. Taking us from before the nation’s founding through inconceivable resurgences of this enduring all-American species, Jack E. Davis contrasts the age when native peoples lived beside it peacefully with that when others, whether through hunting bounties or DDT pesticides, twice pushed Haliaeetus leucocephalus to the brink of extinction. Filled with spectacular stories of Founding Fathers, rapacious hunters, heroic bird rescuers, and the lives of bald eagles themselves—monogamous creatures, considered among the animal world’s finest parents—The Bald Eagle is a much-awaited cultural and natural history that demonstrates how this bird’s wondrous journey may provide inspiration today, as we grapple with environmental peril on a larger scale.

Knute "Skip" Berger is one of the most recognized commentators on politics, culture, business, and life in the Pacific Northwest. He’s the Mike Royko/Jimmy Breslin of this part of the country. As Timothy Egan describes him in the Foreword to Pugetopolis, he is the region’s "crank with a conscience…a contrarian" thinker who calls out the folly and hubris of mayors, governors, presidents, and gazillionaires. In his signature Mossback column, which ran for years in the Seattle Weekly and now on Crosscut.com, Knute Berger comments on politics (the 50-year odyssey of mass transit), cultural matters (we got art out here in the provinces), the big natural world (what’s left of it), enterprise (as in the Microsoft-Starbucks Industrial Complex), and odd local behavior (car-less living that allows mooching rides). As a third-generation Seattle native, he has the perspective to take the long view, so he knows there was a life without jackasses on jet ski, bear attacks in the suburbs, and not so many millionaires. Gathered in Pugetopolis are Knute Berger’s best commentaries that provide grist for anyone’s mental mill who wants to understand why the Pacific Northwest is a quirky place that is sometimes too liberal for its own good; strangely conservative at other times; blindly does the bidding of the richest guy around so he can make even more money; and is able to jump on the bandwagon of one dumb pubic-works fiasco after another. And then we complain about the rain like it’s some new form of insult. You gotta love this place—warts and all. Berger shows you how with this sharp-witted and observant book.

The Eagles Nest will encourage and empower you to push beyond your current limitations to become bigger and better. The best way to experience a different level of living is to create and enforce new paradigms. The know-how and determination to do this will result in an enhanced lifestyle. An Eagle does not allow adversity to hinder its journey and destination. In complete confidence, it does not retreat from the challenge to fly directly through the eye of each storm. Are you ready to fly?

Identifying hawks in flight is a tricky business. Across North America, tens of thousands of people gather every spring and fall at more than one thousand known hawk migration sites--from New Jersey's Cape May to California's Golden Gate. Yet, as many discover, a standard field guide, with its emphasis on plumage, is often of little help in identifying those raptors soaring, gliding, or flapping far, far away. Hawks from Every Angle takes hawk identification to new heights. It offers a fresh approach that literally looks at the birds from every angle, compares and contrasts deceptively similar species, and provides the pictures (and words) needed for identification in the field. Jerry Liguori pinpoints innovative, field-tested identification traits for each species from the various angles that they are seen. Featuring 339 striking color photos on 68 color plates and 32 black & white photos, Hawks from Every Angle is unique in presenting a host of meticulously crafted pictures for each of the 19 species it covers in detail--the species most common to migration sites throughout the United States and Canada. All aspects of raptor identification are discussed, including plumage, shape, and flight style traits. For all birders who follow hawk migration and have found themselves wondering if the raptor in the sky matches the one in the guide, Hawks from Every Angle--distilling an expert's years of experience for the first time into a comprehensive array of truly useful photos and other pointers for each species--is quite simply a must. Key Features? The essential new approach to identifying hawks in flight Innovative, accurate, and field-tested identification traits for each species 339 color photos on 68 color plates, 32 black & white photos Compares and contrasts species easily confused with one another, and provides the pictures (and words) needed for identification in the field Covers in detail 19 species common to migration sites throughout the North America Discusses light conditions, how molt can alter the shape of a bird, aberrant plumages, and migration seasons and sites User-friendly format