Ebook: Hog pilots, blue water grunts: the American military in the air, at sea, and on the ground

Prologue: The better they fought, the better relief workers they became -- America's African rifles -- Alaska to Thailand: the organizing principle of the Earth's surface -- A civilization unto itself, swishing through the crushing void -- Geeks with tattoos: the most driven men I have ever known -- NATO's ragged Southern edge -- The Gurkha standard -- Tribal mafias -- A dependable blue-collar plane -- Timbuktu, Soviet Stonehenge, and gnarly-ass jungle -- The big glider and the jagged boomerang -- The morbid tyranny out of antiquity -- Afterward: The non-warrior democracy.;Foreign affairs journalist Kaplan lets readers experience up close the American military worldwide in the air, at sea, and on the ground: flying in a B-2 bomber, living on a nuclear submarine, and traveling with a Stryker brigade on missions around the world. Provided unprecedented access, Kaplan moves from destroyers off the coast of Indonesia to submarines in the central Pacific, from simulated Iraqi training grounds in Alaska to technology bases in Las Vegas. He goes deep into their highly technical and exotic worlds, and tells this story through the words and perspectives of the enlisted personnel and junior officers themselves--men and women who, as he writes, have "had their national identities as Americans engraved in sharp bas-relief." He not only conveys the vast scope of America's military commitments, but also shows us astonishing and vital operations as they unfold--from the point of view of the troops themselves.--From publisher description.