The first time I attended a National Guard family event, I felt like I had been abducted by aliens " recalls Mary Corbett, author of National Guard 101: A Handbook for Spouses. "I didn't understand anything I had never been in an armory before. I didn't know the difference between an officer and an enlisted soldier. I didn't even know how to address the commander or his wife " Corbett decided to "wing it," rationalizing that since her husband was "just" a Guardsman she wasn't a "real" military wife. After all, military spouses lived on bases, operated within a strict structure of rank, and dealt with long deployments. Thank goodness she didn't have to worry about those things On September 11, 2001, everything changed. Since that horrific act of war, virtually every unit of the National Guard--a force the size of the entire active Army--has served on active duty for one or more deployments at home or abroad. The last time the entire National Guard had been mobilized was during World War II. Corbett realized that she and others like her had been "real" military spouses all along. National Guard 101 is the only military lifestyle book written specifically for the National Guard audience. Corbett's unique book covers a broad range of topics, from practical knowledge about the history of the National Guard and understanding rank to softer subjects like social life in the Guard and family programs. Corbett also details the benefits and assistance resources available to Guard families and guides readers through the process of setting up a Personal Assistance League (PAL) to provide support during deployment. Written in a lively and informal style, National Guard 101: A Handbook for Spouses demystifies the Guard's unique hybrid civilian-military lifestyle. It is a must-read book for every National Guard family member. About the Author: Mary Corbett is a professional writer and National Guard wife. She has appeared on The Today Show, Fox News Channel, local television affiliates, and nationally syndicated radio. Her first book, The List, was published in 2006. Mary lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, with her husband Major Jon Roscoe, ARNG, their children Holly and William, and their dog Rumsfeld. Visit her website www.marycorbett.com.

"DIVIDED WE FALL delivers cover-to-cover action, intrigue and suspense, all with a gut-punch of an ending that'll leave you begging for the next installment." -- Brad Thor, author of THE LAST PATRIOT Danny Wright never thought he'd be the man to bring down the United States of America. In fact, he enlisted in the Idaho National Guard because he wanted to serve his country the way his father did. When the Guard is called up on the governor's orders to police a protest in Boise, it seems like a routine crowd-control mission ... but then Danny's gun misfires, spooking the other soldiers and the already fractious crowd, and by the time the smoke clears, twelve people are dead. The president wants the soldiers arrested. The governor swears to protect them. And as tensions build on both sides, the conflict slowly escalates toward the unthinkable: a second American civil war.With political questions that are popular in American culture yet rare in YA fiction, and a provocative plot that asks what happens when the states are no longer united, Divided We FAll is Trent Reedy's very timely YA debut.

There is a clear conspiracy to deny the existence of UFOs.The mainstream media has misinformed us for years about UFO studies conducted by highly regarded scientists associated with some of the finest universities in the country. There is significant evidence that the U.S. government has covered up the alien presence through misinformation, distortion, obfuscation, and ridicule. Some prominent, politically connected scientists have engaged in the cover up. And a few professional writers have helped to successfully label any scientists who have been persuaded by the evidence and brave enough to take a stand as unscientific charlatans, fanatics, and kooks.Fact, Fiction, and Flying Saucers examines the wealth of archival documents that clearly demonstrate this cooperative disinformation effort and refute the false claims made by these professional scoffers. Friedman and Marden set the record straight by examining politically motivated misinformation and presenting the compelling evidence that separates fact from fiction. They reveal:The most compelling UFO evidence, including a variety of large-scale scientific studies.The current state of UFOlogy and what the future holds.The media’s role in disclosure and denial.The government scientists whose job it is to deny.The Air Force, FBI, CIA, and NSA’s involvement.

"Forging a Total Force traces the evolution of the Guard and reserve from the Revolutionary War-era militias to today's operational reserve, an integral part of the nation's total force. In the early republic, the ideal of a citizen-solider, capable of taking the field with little or no training, predominated. The realities of modern combat slowly made it clear that a more professional force was required, but policy changes failed to keep up with that changing necessity. The nation struggled to provide adequate training and equipment to the reserve component throughout the Cold War until the idea of a Total Force, which integrated regular and reserve components, emerged and was achieved. It wasn't until the defense buildup of the 1980s that the ideal of a combat-ready reserve became reality. The core of this book focuses on what came next, from 1990 to 2011, with particular emphasis on the decade after 9/11. The Persian Gulf War demonstrated both the effectiveness of the reserve and the challenges it continued to face. The post-Cold War drawdown during the 1990s made the smaller active component more dependent on the reserves than it had been since the nation's founding. The reserve component proved itself yet again in the wars following 9/11, but also became strained as it became clear just how much the nation depended on its Guard and reserve. Finally, the authors detail the policy changes made midstream in an attempt to address issues with the overextended force, such as balancing training and deployment with civilian lives and careers, providing health care to reservists, and integrating the active and reserve components. The authors conclude by detailing the issues policymakers will face as they forge ahead with citizen-soldiers serving as an operational force."--Provided by publisher.

So you're walking out of school and parked at the gate is a new, bright red Ford Mustang with a hulk of a man in the front seat. He's sporting a razor cut and wraparound shades. Before you can pass he's out of the car and blocking your path. “Mind if I take a minute”—he has you by the arm now—“to tell you about the great life in today's Army and why you should seriously think about signing up?” The armed forces are having a tough time attracting new recruits lately, in no small part due to the mess in Iraq. Young people are getting wise to the many excellent reasons not to join the U.S. Military, and this handy book brings them all together, combining accessible writing with hard facts and devastating personal testimony. Contributors with firsthand experience point out the dangers facing soldiers, describe the tricks used by recruiters, and emphasize that there really are other options, even in a sluggish economy. It's essential reading for anyone thinking of signing up.

“A raw, intimate look at the impact of combat and the healing power of friendship” (People): the lives of three women deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, and the effect of their military service on their personal lives and families—named a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly. “In the tradition of Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Richard Rhodes, and other masters of literary journalism, Soldier Girls is utterly absorbing, gorgeously written, and unforgettable” (The Boston Globe). Helen Thorpe follows the lives of three women over twelve years on their paths to the military, overseas to combat, and back home…and then overseas again for two of them. These women, who are quite different in every way, become friends, and we watch their interaction and also what happens when they are separated. We see their families, their lovers, their spouses, their children. We see them work extremely hard, deal with the attentions of men on base and in war zones, and struggle to stay connected to their families back home. We see some of them drink too much, have affairs, and react to the deaths of fellow soldiers. And we see what happens to one of them when the truck she is driving hits an explosive in the road, blowing it up. She survives, but her life may never be the same again. Deeply reported, beautifully written, and powerfully moving, Soldier Girls is “a breakthrough work...What Thorpe accomplishes in Soldier Girls is something far greater than describing the experience of women in the military. The book is a solid chunk of American history...Thorpe triumphs” (The New York Times Book Review).