John Crouch – författare

From 1947 until 1994, the Navy ran an officer training and commissioning program at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. Outside the main academic building hung a wood sign with gold metal lettering. It read:"Through These Doors Walk The Future Of Naval Aviation"Between the covers of this book, A Marine Corps Drill Instructor presents a collection of stories, memories and recollections provided by now seasoned, U.S. Navy Officers. 240 stories are told with the same raw intensity as experienced decades earlier when the candidates were but young men and women trying to get past their Marine Drill Instructor to earn a commission that awaited them at the finish line. The insults, threats and even rare moments of enthusiastic support are all here. You won''t find examples of political correctness, generalizations or pulling punches in this book, or any coddling of the candidates; future naval aviators were prepared here, it was the most intense officer candidate school in the military.

After its victory at the Monocacy River in Maryland on July 9, 1864, Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Earlys Army of the Valley marched upon Washington, D.C. Three days later, President Abraham Lincoln is killed at Fort Stevens, one of the forts in Washingtons defense perimeter, while watching a skirmish between Earlys Confederates and Union defenders of the city. Lincolns death four months before the presidential election in November causes numerous political and military crises for his successor, Vice President Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. Could the Civil War have ended this way? If it had, what would America be like today?