Ocean State Libraries

"The story of women serving in the United States military begins before the founding of the country. Though early laws prohibited women from becoming soldiers, they still found ways to serve, even disguising themselves as men in order to participate in active battle. Women Heroes of the US Army chronicles the critical role women have played in strengthening the US Army from the birth of the nation to today. These smart, brave, and determined women...

Nearly all of the Civil War's greatest soldiers were forged in the heat of Vera Cruz and Monterrey. The Mexican War has faded from our national memory, but it was a struggle of enormous significance: it was the first U.S war waged on foreign soil; and it nearly doubled our nation's land area. At this fascinating juncture of American history, a group of young men came together to fight as friends, only years later to fight as enemies. This is their...

"When John Wesley Powell became the first person to navigate the entire Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon, he completed what Lewis and Clark had begun nearly 70 years earlier--the final exploration of continental America. The son of an abolitionist preacher, a Civil War hero (who lost an arm at Shiloh), and a passionate naturalist and geologist, in 1869 Powell tackled the vast and dangerous gorge carved by the Colorado River and known today...

Norman Thomas and his brothers' upbringing prepared them for a life of service--but their calls to conscience threatened to tear them apart. Conscience is Louisa Thomas's account of the remarkable Thomas brothers in a time of trial, exploring the difficult decisions the four brothers faced with the advent of World War I. Sons of a Presbyterian minister and grandsons of missionaries, they shared a rigorous moral upbringing, a Princeton education, and...

"In October 1969, William Albracht, the youngest Green Beret captain in Vietnam, took command of a remote hilltop outpost called Fire Base Kate, held by only 27 American soldiers and 150 Montagnard militiamen. He found their defenses woefully unprepared. At dawn the next morning, three North Vietnamese Army regiments--some 6,000 men--crossed the Cambodian border and attacked. Outnumbered three dozen to one, Albracht's men held off repeated ground...

"Patrick Robinson, coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller Lone Survivor shares the gripping untold story of Mohammed Gulab, the Pashtun warrior who defied the Taliban and saved the life of American hero and Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell. Bestselling author Patrick Robinson helped Marcus Luttrell bring his harrowing story of survival in Lone Survivor : the eyewitness account of Operation Redwing and the lost heroes of SEAL Team 10 to the page and...

"A sniper in Haiti faces the repercussions of the shot he never took. A team of SEALs help rescue a kidnapped girl in the Philippines. Army interpreters in Iraq battle their toughest foe: the rats of Saddam's palace. A soldier on a late-night run surprises a motorpool saboteur. A young cavalry lieutenant, fresh off the Battle of Kamdesh, meets the Marine half-brother he's never known. A Navy ship reacts to an unexpected man overboard. And if you've...

An Irish-American coming of age story, this memoir shows what Teddy Fleming had to do to make himself a success to himself & what that cost him at home. A son comes of age in a fiercely political world "Thomas Fleming gives us an unforgettable story about an immigrant family-his family-as it struggles to find a place in the American century. "Inspired by the discovery of a ring once worn by his father during World War I, historian and novelist Fleming...

"The inspiring story of a US Special Forces soldier who was medically retired after stepping on an IED, and his incredible return to active duty. Sergeant First Class (SFC) Ryan Hendrickson is a brave, determined, and courageous soldier--a Green Beret clearing the way for his twelve-man team while conducting combat operations against the Taliban. As the "tip of the spear," his role is to insure the route taken by U.S. and Afghan troops are free of...