"A single company of US paratroopers-calling themselves the "Chosen Few"-arrived in eastern Afghanistan in late 2007 hoping to win the hearts and minds of the remote mountain people and extend the Afghan government's reach into this wilderness. Instead, they spent the next fifteen months in a desperate struggle, living under almost continuous attack, forced into a slow and grinding withdrawal, and always outnumbered by Taliban fighters descending...

Humanity has finally found a new home, but the price is blood … After a long, perilous journey, Hell Divers Xavier Rodriguez and Magnolia Katib discover the Metal Islands, a sunny habitable zone where thousands of people live by fishing and farming. But this ''paradise'' is really a violent warrior society ruled by the cannibal king el Pulpo. For the first time in X's life, he is forced to lay down his arms and surrender. Back on the airships, the...

"The war for the Metal Islands is over, but the search for survivors has just begun. After a long and bloody battle, legendary Hell Diver Xavier Rodriguez reigns as the dutiful but reluctant new king of the islands. Advised by a council of former sky citizens as well as Cazadores, he works to assimilate the two societies peacefully. But not all Cazadores have accepted the new order. While X tries to ease tensions at home, a rookie team of divers,...

In 1944, a group of American soldiers known as "The Filthy Thirteen" was becoming an increasing problem for their superiors, disobeying orders, bathing infrequently and often going AWOL from their barracks. But the rebellious men are allowed to atone for their behavior when they are selected to be the first unit to parachute behind German lines during the invasion of Normandy. Their goal is to move through enemy territory on foot and destroy Nazi...

From the windows of a high school classroom, students see paratroopers land on the varsity football field. The invasion of the United States has begun. As their town in overrun by foreign nationals, eight teenagers escape to the mountains. Taking the name of their high school football team, the Wolverines, they wage an unremitting guerrilla action in defense of their parents, their friends and their country.

When Nick Nardini enlists in the Marine Corps' new paratrooper combat unit at the start of World War II, he has to talk his best friend, Zachary Klecko, into joining him in what he sees as an adventure--but from boot camp on it is clear that Zach is much more serious about the war than Nick is, at least until they are assigned to one of the POW recovery teams on the Japanese mainland.

From World War II to today, men and women have undertaken roles that involve overwhelming peril, seemingly unbeatable odds, and almost certain death. From lumberjacks in remote forests to truckers on an ice road to tank crews and pathfinders in war zones. Witness terrifying assignments as paratroopers land behind enemy lines, Navy demolition units clear obstacles before D-Day, British battalions take out German gun batteries, just to name a few.