1950s action adrenaline adventure aerial-combat aerial-warfare afghanistan afghanistan-war air-combat air-force al-qaeda ambition american-history american-literature american-soldiers anti-war army atmospheric autobiography aviation battle betrayal biography black-operations bravery brotherhood brutality camaraderie character-driven cia classified classified-information classified-missions classified-operations combat coming-of-age competition comradeship conflict counterinsurgency counterterrorism courage covert-missions covert-operations danger death determination disillusionment drama duty emotional espionage fear fiction fighter-jets fighter-pilots first-hand-account firsthand-account flying friendship frontline frontlines government gripping gritty guerrilla-warfare guilt helicopter helicopters heroism historical historical-fiction history honor humanity infantry insider-account insurgency intelligence intelligence-analysis intelligence-gathering intelligence-officer intelligence-operations intense intensity james journalism jungle jungle-warfare korean-war leadership literary-fiction literature loss love loyalty marine-corps marines masculinity memoir middle-east military military-fiction military-history military-intelligence military-memoir military-operations military-strategy military-tactics mission morality national-security non-fiction nonfiction novel obsession operation-dark-heart passion path-to-victory patriotism perseverance personal-account personal-experience personal-narrative pilots politics post-traumatic-stress-disorder psychological psychological-effects psychological-impact psychological-trauma ptsd pulitzer-prize realism redemption reflection relationships resilience risk rivalry romance sacrifice salter secret-missions self-discovery soldier soldiers soldiers-perspective southeast-asia special-forces special-operations special-ops spy spycraft strategy struggle surveillance survival suspense suspenseful tactical-operations taliban terrorism the-hunters thrill thrilling top-secret tragedy trauma triumph true-story undercover undercover-operations us-army us-marines veteran veterans victory vietnam vietnam-veterans vietnam-war vietnam-war-literature violence war war-atrocities war-correspondent war-experience war-experiences war-fiction war-journalism war-literature war-memoir war-novel war-on-terror war-stories war-strategy war-zone warfare world-war-ii