“Now, therefore, I, Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States of America, do hereby call upon all of our citizens to observe Thursday, November 11, 1954, as Veterans Day. On that day let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.”
So wrote the then-president on the first official Veteran’s Day. Though the commemoration had been celebrated for decades prior, beginning with the very first anniversary of the end of World War I in 1919, it was then known as “Armistice Day.” Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, which became a national holiday in 1938, but all the pieces came together in 1954 when Eisenhower gave it the current title. Over the years, Americans have honored those who served in various ways, from memorial services to moments of silence.
Meanwhile, at BookTrib, we’re honoring some of our authors who are also veterans. It’s the least we can do to express our gratitude for their courage in fighting for our country, and their courage in writing a book!
Back to Serve by Cesare Giannetti
Cesare Giannetti is a retired chief army officer with 24 years of service, including 10 years in Germany, two combat tours in the Middle East and a peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. Now, he has a career in the area of services and support for soldiers and their families. His novel is a fictional memoir laced with all the authenticity brought in by his own experience.
The protagonist is Army Captain Nico Corretti, who is coming to the final chapter of a highly honorable career in the U.S. Army. But expect the unexpected, because his life’s trajectory takes him back to military service again … and again. First, a mysterious Russian woman informs him that his life is in danger, and that news sets off a string of chain reactions that force him to test his courage and face the demons of survivor’s guilt. Also, there’s a mind-blowing postscript to the story that only materialized recently. Read our review here.
Oldogs by Kip Cassino
This man is a jack-of-all-trades globetrotter; he has run micro-tool factories in Israel and Hong Kong, studied art in Munich and assembled nuclear weapons in South Korea. Last but in no way least, he is a Vietnam veteran. This knowledge pool is practically begging to be recounted in a story! It fits that he’d write his lead characters to have a similar level of life experience. They’ve earned it from both war and just life itself; because they’re, to be honest, old.
Budget cuts hit the CIA hard and the men in power have to get creative. Enter the “Oldogs,” veterans who can’t shake the need to be of service to their country even when simply volunteering out of the goodness of their hard-guarded hearts. The men just want the sort of action that will make life meaningful again, and gosh darn it if an international political espionage scheme doesn’t deliver. Read our review here.
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The Road King Chronicles: Blue Ridge Run by Harry Harrigan
Harrigan’s military career included service as an officer in the Army and the Commission Corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Before retiring as a Commander, Harry qualified as a Ranger and helicopter pilot, and now he more than qualifies as an author. Fast-paced and full of adventure, readers have compared the series to books by James Patterson, Dean Koontz and Lee Child. The praise is earned through the breakneck pacing and adventure that comprises the spirit of Harrigan’s fiction.
Roman Keane has been with his ride-or-die, meaning his beloved Road King motorcycle, for the last four months, taking on the nation’s landscape. He was looking homeward with contentment, but some old friends have asked him for a favor: would he help them deliver a collection of vintage motorcycles? How can an aficionado like him say no? He doesn’t, and he has no qualms whatsoever until the crew nearly dies. It’s lucky Roman has wheels because trouble’s afoot. How far will he go to save his friends? Read our review here.
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Untamed Equality by Todd A. Weiler
This author is a combat veteran, national security leader and activist in the gay community. His work has raised awareness of major equality issues in an effort to allow more people the opportunity to serve. Weiler entered the senior ranks of the Pentagon at only 28 and has been helping service members and their families ever since. He is the recipient of numerous military and civilian decorations and is a graduate of Texas Christian University. Somehow, amidst all this outreach, he had a minute to himself, which he used to write a book about it all.
He sheds light on the paradigm shift that is required for true equality to prevail with a deep dive into what it means to truly tackle leadership. His multileveled experience as a veteran of the battlefield, and the internal battlefield that is the Pentagon, means that his perspective is unique and well worth writing down. He details a seemingly paradoxical concept; to ensure safety and security in the future we must embrace a life “untamed.” We need leaders who resist peer pressure and, instead, work to defend the marginalized and facilitate some necessary shifts within the structure of the military. Read our review here, and our author interview here.
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November 400CP Is Missing by Anderson Harp
Anderson Harp is a veteran of the US Marine Corps and was stationed all around the globe. As a Marine, he taught arctic survival and mountaineering. Additionally, he served as an officer in charge of the Marine’s Crisis Action Team during the invasion of Afghanistan. Once a Marine, always a Marine, and what’s a logical next step? Writing military thrillers! This is the sixth adventure featuring his dashing hero Will Parker.
When Will hears the news that a former Marine buddy and his exploration team disappeared en route to a newly discovered Indonesian oil reserve — and that the FBI and the CIA don’t seem to care all that much about it — he assembles a rogue team and heads to the islands. So launches a page-turning novel of hot pursuit that expertly juggles three perspectives: Parker and his team, the imprisoned crash survivors who await a near-certain death likely to be televised around the world unless they escape and, perhaps most intriguingly, some terrorists. Along the way, you’ll get a rich education in the politics, culture and geography of Indonesia. Read our review here.
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The Feathery and The Reunion Bomber by Bill Flynn
Author Bill Flynn is an Air Force vet and a retired aerospace engineer, and we’re proudly featuring two of his novels. The Feathery, published back in 2017, combines concepts that, on the surface, might seem quite dissimilar: murder thrillers and the game of golf. The narrative revolves around one very valuable golf ball, known in days past as a “feathery,” and the people who want to make it their own.
The Reunion Bomber, which came out this year, sees former FBI agent Ronan Ryan not thinking much of his high school reunion. He’s looking forward to reconnecting with his old basketball teammates — and his high school sweetheart — but after a high-stakes career, seeing old classmates doesn’t make him too nervous. Well, until the restaurant hosting the reunion is bombed. Suddenly Ronan is helping survivors out of the building and wondering who the killer is. Things get complicated when he discovers that Jennifer, his old flame, is the number-one target. Tension mounts and blood is shed in a race against time as he deals with his most dangerous case yet. Read our reviews here and here, respectively.
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Red Hotel and Red Deception by Ed Fuller and Gary Grossman
Fuller, now a hospitality industry leader, was a Captain in the U.S. Army and was awarded the Bronze Star and Army Commendation Medal for service during missions in Vietnam and Germany. Grossman is an acclaimed TV producer and author. Their first book together, Red Hotel, is an incredibly timely globetrotting thriller that is entirely fictional but borders eerily on reality. A hotel in Tokyo is bombed and dozens are killed and injured, so why is one man walking away from the massacre with a smile on his face? Former Army intelligence officer Dan Reilly utilizes all the tricks in his book to solve the mystery … and learns something he never suspected.
Meanwhile, Red Deception explores a trenchant question: what would happen if all the major bridges in the U.S. were bombed, all commerce came to a dead stop, and the nation’s natural resources, like our water supply, were cut off? The importance of protecting America’s critical infrastructure has rarely been depicted so powerfully as in this incredibly fast-paced thriller, a worthy follow-up that delivers double the trouble. Read our reviews here and here, respectively.
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Serving to Lead by (Sergeant Major) Keith Craig
“Leadership is … about taking care of the group first and serving yourself last — mission, people and then self.” So goes the philosophy of service, strategy and leadership cultivated to perfection by Sgt. Major Keith L. Craig (R) through his 32 years in the Army — and a stint in professional football and a corporate career. Clearly, he has wisdom in spades, so we’re happy to read it all in this “memoir slash leadership primer.” Craig recounts his long, hard road from an impoverished childhood in the South to the Army, where he became one of the highest-ranking non-commissioned officers.
He served in six combat tours under six presidents and later had a spot on the record-breaking theatrical distribution team at Disney. What a resume, right? He guides us through a detailed system purposefully designed to help would-be leaders define their mission, make a plan, set the tone, rehearse the plan and pre-execute it. Sneak peek: it’s all about preparation. Included are plentiful personal and historical anecdotes that solidify lessons in the readers’ minds. The author’s journey is an inspirational and impressive example of what can be accomplished by following an intelligent, structured and productive course. Read our review here.
The President’s Dossier by James A. Scott
The author draws from a deep well of insider knowledge and life-altering experiences, including 20 years of living in and traveling throughout Europe and the Far East as well as service in the Pentagon involving oversight of military intelligence operations. He is a Purple Heart veteran and served in combat with the 101st Airborne Division, with the 3rd Infantry Division in Europe and as a battalion commander. Thus, he commands our attention with his firecracker books.
Here’s another novel that poises that tantalizing “what if?” to readers thanks to its slightly terrifying proximity to our current reality. Operative Max Geller, just fired from the CIA, is then approached to secure firsthand evidence to prove some illicit activities chronicled in The Ironside Dossier. His assignment takes him on a dangerous covert-ops trip to Russia, tangled in the messy, incomprehensible world of Putin’s regime. Read our review here.
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Silver Wings, Iron Cross by Tom Young
“I learned how it feels when you realize the lights coming up at your airplane are rocket-propelled grenades and antiaircraft artillery fired by people trying to kill you.” Those are the words of author Tom Young, who spent 20 years in the Air National Guard as a flight engineer on missions to Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. His real-life flight experience provided the necessary fuel for his fascinating novel.
Readers will enjoy sinking into the expedition of an unconventional dream team: an American pilot and German U-boat officer. The frenemies find themselves collaborating to survive in the final days of World War II as the Third Reich finally, thankfully, collapses. Their temporary alliance is put to the ultimate test when they reach the end of the line: a POW camp. Read our review here.
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Switched On: The Heart and Mind of a Special Agent by Eric J. Caron
Former U.S. Special Agent Eric J. Caron has taken on missions that span the globe during his 25-year career. More than a memoir, Caron relates survival lessons he’s learned in the field, including a state of well-prepared and in-the-moment awareness he calls being “switched on.” It’s “a coat of armor,” he says, “that protects you from all types of threats, in all aspects of life.” In his narrative, Caron jumps seamlessly from tales of his upbringing and difficult family matters to finding himself in the thick of — and often heading up — security and intelligence cases.
His investigations were wide-ranging: terrorist threats to transnational crime, the illegal drug trade, U.S. defense contractors and a rogue CIA, and the WMD programs of Iran, China and Russia. His most challenging case would be a mere mile from his family home. It made for an exciting and dangerous life, but beneath it all, Caron says he powered through by following core personal values instilled in him as a boy. This memoir is an incredible ride that takes us behind the scenes for a close look at one of our country’s seldom-publicized guardians. Read our review here.
PowerPoint Ranger: My Iraq War Logs by Kelly J. Galvin
CPT Kelly J. Galvin, USA (RET) enlisted in 1975 and served as an infantryman, cavalry scout and medic in squad leader, platoon sergeant and platoon leader positions. The Army recalled him back to active duty in 2009 and deployed him to Iraq as part of the surge of forces strategy, an experience that provided the inspiration for this fictional memoir in which the Army asks Captain Matt Jerome, a retired signal corps captain, to come back on active duty and add his critical skills to the surge of forces in Iraq.
This account is all about the incredible determination, perseverance and sacrifice necessary to conquer the challenges of returning to military service and then deploying to a combat zone. The author shares that “it will resonate with the 100’s of thousands of briefing officers, who’ve slaved over presentations. This is THEIR story, too.” It will definitely appeal to military members and their families, but also with people intrigued with what really happens inside a military operations center during wartime; so basically, it’s a perfect pick for Veteran’s Day, and a singular military adventure novel.
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