Combat Memoirs

Col. Mark James Alexander was the only airborne officer to lead three different battalions into combat in World War II, successively commanding the 2nd and 1st Battalions, 505 Parachute Infantry Regiment, and the 2nd Battalion, 508 PIR, of the 82nd Airborne Division. A legend in his own time, he fought in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and France, and even after being seriously wounded in Normandy, insisted on playing a role in the Battle of the Bulge.

Raised in 1970s Spanish Harlem, Hector Camacho lived a life as fast as his fists flew in the ring. Handsome, flamboyant, and outspoken, Camacho electrified the boxing scene of the 1980s and, shouting his mantra "Macho Time!", beat some of the greatest fighters of his generation. His fast-lane life caught up with him eventually - and tragically - when he was shot dead outside a nightclub in Puerto Rico at the age of 50.

For 21 years, Dan Russell trained for four to six hours a day, six days a week in pursuit of winning an Olympic Gold medal in the sport of wrestling. He pushed his body to the limits, enduring brutal weight loss regimens, shattering injuries, personal tragedy, and constant inner battles with the voices from his past telling him that he wasn't good enough.

When most people think of the celebrated greatness that is Coach Dan Gable, they think of an almost mythic intensity toward wrestling. Gable breathes and bleeds the sport and faithfully applies lessons learned from both on and off the mat. Expanding upon Gable's first collection of stories, A Wrestling Life 2 goes a little deeper into the mindset and life events that have shaped the man, the wrestler, and the coach.

With a string of punishing victories and an undefeated record, the UFC has been left reeling, wondering where this MMA superstar came from. Coming from the independent state of Dagestan, Khabib has spent his whole life training for his career in MMA. From brutal training sessions in the mountains with his father to wrestling training starting at eight-years-old, Khabib’s style has been the result of a life devoted to one thing, becoming the most dominant MMA fighter on the planet.

Combat Talons in Vietnam is a personal account of the first use of C-130s in the Vietnam War. One night, John Gargus, a mission planner, oversaw an operation in which the aircraft - carrying 11 crew members - failed to return from a nighttime mission. For 30 years, a search for the missing aircraft remained in progress. When wartime mission records were declassified, Gargus embarked on a long journey of inquiry, research, and puzzle-solving to reconstruct the events of that mission and the fate of its crew.

Some men are born to be warriors, and Ed Shames is one of these men. His incredible combat record includes service at D-Day, Operation Market Garden, and Bastogne and finally in Germany itself.

A captain in 29 Commando, Johnny Mercer served in the army for 12 years. On his third tour of Afghanistan, he was a joint fires controller, with the pressurized job of bringing down artillery and air strikes in close proximity to his own troops. Based in an area of Northern Helmand that was riddled with Taliban leaders, he walked into danger with every patrol, determined to protect them. Then, one morning, in brutal close-quarter combat, everything changed....

Boxing has given Australian sport some of our most inspiring champions and captivating tales. Stories of underdogs overcoming heartbreaks and hurdles, of endless courage and dedication, triumph and tragedy. From the first brawls in old Sydney Town, the travelling boxing tents across the country and the first black world heavyweight champion to today's most celebrated fighters, Australia's pre-eminent boxing journalist and former assistant trainer to some of the ring's most talented champions presents our nation's greatest boxing stories.

In the early 1990s, Tommy Morrison, a young roughneck from Jay, Oklahoma, burst onto the boxing scene to become one of the most controversial fighters of his era. Handsome, eloquent, and dynamic, Morrison parlayed destructive knockout power and a homespun personality into celebrity status throughout middle America, where boxing rarely prospered. But it was his starring role in Rocky V alongside Sylvester Stallone that propelled him to stardom—and ultimately led to his tragic downfall.

Vietnam - There & Back: A Combat Medic's Chronicle is a candid account of the time when Jim Purtell and several other combat vets found themselves conducting operations in the jungles of Vietnam during and after the Tet Offensive. Purtell describes in gritty detail what it was like to live and fight with an infantry company only to return to anti-Vietnam sentiment so strong that he and his fellow veterans felt nobody cared about them or the sacrifices they made.

Running with Scissors meets Grey Gardens in this “vivid tragicomedy” (People), a riveting riches-to-rags tale of a wealthy family who lost it all and the unforgettable journey of a man coming to terms with his family’s deep flaws and his own hidden secrets. “Wake up, you filthy beasts...

Many regard Muhammad Ali simply as 'The Greatest' heavyweight of all time. Others admire his battles against racial injustice and religious intolerance. A few just call him 'Dad'. They are all here in this book - 50 men and women of note coming together to celebrate the man Sports Illustrated crowned 'Sportsman of the Century': Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer; Billy Crystal, actor; Sir Henry Cooper, former British and European heavyweight champion; Bert Sugar, journalist and boxing historian; and more.

"Corentine" ou l'histoire d'une revanche sur un avenir de malheur et de servitude. En 1890, une petite fille naît dans une famille de paysans bretons au cœur de ces montagnes noires où la misère pousse des milliers de gens à émigrer. Ses parents vont la placer, alors qu'elle n'a que sept ans, chez un riche propriétaire où, disait-elle, elle put enfin manger à sa faim.

John Arezzi was a lifelong Mets fan who dreamed of a job in baseball. In 1981, he took a job with the Mets Class A team in North Carolina. But Arezzi had another love: professional wrestling. Mat Memories is Arezzi's chance to hold the mic, and he holds nothing back - he names names and tells the untold behind-the-scenes stories: from the ring, the stage, and the diamond.

The story of Jeff Horn is like a fairy tale. Written with award-winning author, journalist and boxing aficionado Grantlee Kieza, The Hornet is the tale of a boy who, slapped around by bullies, saw through tears in his eyes a vision of himself as a hero, a champ, someone other people might one day look up to. Horn took up boxing after being tormented as a teenager. Fast-forward a dozen years and the former bullied schoolboy - now humble schoolteacher - became world boxing champion on 2nd July 2017 at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium.

In Muhammad Ali, Michael Ezra considers the boxer who calls himself “The Greatest” from a new perspective. Ezra’s incisive study examines the relationships between Ali’s cultural appeal and its commercial manifestations. Citing examples of the boxer’s relationship to the Vietnam War and the Nation of Islam - which serve as barometers of his “public moral authority” - Muhammad Ali analyzes the difficulties of creating and maintaining these cultural images, as well as the impact these themes have on Ali’s meaning to the public.

Joshua Shores was just nineteen years old when he deployed to Iraq in 2005. A Midwestern kid raised in a close-knit, supportive family, he had developed a strong sense of duty and honor. Both sides of his family had proudly served their country, fostering a legacy of service that would guide his own path. Serving in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Shores was a teenager among battle-hardened peers, far removed from the naïve assumptions of war that he had once held.

In this searing and beautifully written memoir, Marine Lieutenant and CNN Op-Ed contributor Mike Scotti charts a course from the front lines of Iraq back home to New York, showing how sometimes the hardest battle is the one after the war. Sometimes the hardest battle is the one after the war. As...

For just over 30 years Al Bernstein has been one of the most recognizable and respected sportscasters in America. In those three decades, the “voice of boxing” reported the funny, poignant, and bizarre events that helped shape sports television, ESPN, boxing, Las Vegas, and Showtime. With an eclectic cast of characters that includes every big name in boxing, including Marvin Hagler, Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao, as well as such names in the entertainment world as Rodney Dangerfield, Sylvester Stallone, Russell Crowe, Jerry Lewis, and Jack Nicholson, Bernstein's memoir will have you in stitches.