"The U.S. Marines are a powerful force. But there is more to these elite fighters than you might imagine. These surprising facts about the U.S. Marine corps will amaze you"--

A brief introduction to a Marine's life in the Marine Corps, including training, jobs, and life after service.

On April 1, 1945 with the battle of Okinawa beginning, fourteen-year-old native Okinawan Hideki, drafted into the Blood and Iron Student Corps, is handed two grenades and told to go kill American soldiers; small for his age Hideki does not really want to kill anyone, he just wants to find his family, and his struggle across the island will finally bring him face-to-face with Ray, a marine in his very first battle--and the choice he makes then will...

Peter Ash came home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: what he calls his ���white static,��� the buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him to spend a year roaming in nature, sleeping under the stars. But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man���s widow with some home repairs. Under her dilapidated porch, he finds more than...

"Last Christmas Marcie Sullivan said a final goodbye to her husband, Bobby. This Christmas she wants to find the man who saved his life and gave her three more years to love him. Fellow marine Ian Buchanan dragged Bobby's shattered body onto a medical transport four years ago, then disappeared once their unit arrived stateside. Since then, Marcie's letters to Ian have gone unanswered. Marcie tracks Ian to the tiny mountain town of Virgin River and...

Chester Nez, the last surviving member of the original twenty-nine code talkers, discusses his life growing up in the Checkerboard Area of the Navajo reservation, and shares the story of how he helped the United States develop and implement a secret military language based on his native language during World War II that became the only unbroken code in modern warfare.

Wanted: Midwife/nurse practitioner in Virgin River, population six hundred. Make a difference against a backdrop of towering California redwoods and crystal-clear rivers. Rent-free cabin included. When the recently widowed Melinda Monroe sees this ad, she quickly decides that the remote mountain town of Virgin River might be the perfect place to escape her heartache, and to reenergize the nursing career she loves. But her high hopes are dashed within...

War tears people apart, but it can also bring them together. Through the unpredictability of war and its aftermath, a decorated Marine sergeant and a world-trotting war photographer became friends, their bond forged as they patrolled together through the dusty alleyways of Helmand province and camped side by side in the desert. It deepened after Sergeant T. J. Brennan was injured during a Taliban ambush, and both returned home. Brennan began to suffer...

US Marine Rob Kugler not only gave a year of his life in service to his country, but he had also lost a brother in the fighting. Lost in grief, Rob found solace and relief in the one thing that never failed to put a smile on his face: his chocolate lab Bella. When Bella developed cancer, the prognosis wasn't good. Instead of waiting at home for the cancer to spread after amputating the cancer-riddled leg, Rob and Bella packed their bags and hit the...