BUD/S: Part of the Making of a SEAL

If any of you have watched the BUD/S classes train on the beach at Coronado, you already know what kind of a grueling course this is. It is the part of the training where more recruits drop out, DOR (Drop On Request). The men that make it to the BUD/S training have already proven themselves strong and worthy. Now they get to perform tasks with almost no sleep over a nearly week-long period of time.

Recruits will carry boats on their heads in different groups, and the groups change almost daily. You will have the tall ones, the smurfs, or any other groupings the instructors wish to make. There is always a healthy dose of what we might consider "disrespect" launched at the recruits in order to find out if, with sleep deprivation, they are going to snap. And if they choose to DOR, they usually have to ring the bell, which is mounted on the back of a pickup truck and driven down the beach while they run behind and try to catch it. Then you can quit. Not before the instructors level cat calls. Not before your whole class sees you begging to quit.

Part of the training involves carrying rubber boats, brought in from the surf, to the beach when the signal is given from shore. They carefully lift these boats over sharp jutting boulders as a team. They do it over and over again. All day long. Men fall, cut themselves, break ankles and shins, or just have the misfortune to come in last or next to last in the drill. Sometimes broken bones are not even mentioned so a recruit will continue to train and not have to roll back to another class. They can get pneumonia, mono, shin splints and sores from uniforms and wetsuits, worn for 5-6 days without removal, and their feet often turn green because they don't remove their shoes.

It's easy to identify a class that has made it through the training. They often walk hunched over, like crab-like creatures emerging from the surf. I've been told it sometimes takes a year for the hair on the top of their heads, often rubbed off from carrying those little rubber boats, to grow back.

Some men come into BUD/S with a strategy. Some have a swagger and confidence in themselves through positive self talk. Some men go through the training just to find out what their own limits are, not necessarily to become a SEAL, but just to see if they could do it. In the end it is the personal battle each recruit has to weather. Each recruit has their own separate way they come to accept that either they can't do it, or they can.

When they graduate from this phase, they still have other major obstacles to overcome. Their training, in a way, begins after BUD/S. An instructor once told me that by the time they are done, they'll do just about anything, including jumping off a 3 story building, without thinking about it. We've all heard the stories about those like Michael Monsoor, who landed on a grenade, sacrificing his own life to save those of his Teammates. The SEAL training takes a good man and makes him a true warrior, a hero.

Those of us who are lucky enough to write military romance have to do things every day we don't necessarily want to. We have to make choices and some sacrifices. But they don't come anywhere close to some of the sacrifices these men make every day as they train and become U.S. Navy SEALs. I celebrate their focus and dedication. I cherish my life today because of the sacrifices some have made, some the ultimate sacrifice.

As we look at the flags waving on Memorial Day, let's remember these brave men, and the women who are lucky enough to love them.

God Bless them all.

Sharon Hamilton

May Monthly Wrap Up

Hello, everyone! We had a lot of stuff going on this past month and in case you were busy, this is what you missed:

Our Guests

Denise Agnew

Bella Juarez

Donna Michaels

RELEASES

Kaylea Cross

THE VACANT CHAIR

Sharon Hamilton

SEAL SERIES BOX DIGITAL SET

Cat Johnson

NOW IN PRINT

Heather Long

WHAT PART OF MARINE DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND

Melissa Schroeder

LEONARDO

MARCO

GIANNI

VICENTE

Spy Rings, Ghost Armies and Military Intelligence.

Gah! I think if I hear this one more time, when someone asks me what I did in the Army, I’m going to scream. “Military Intelligence is a contradiction of terms.” Yeah, the famous *MASH* line that anyone who served in Military Intelligence has heard one time or another.  If you’re MI, or former MI, you know what I’m talking about. Stop for a moment, and listen to one of the brilliant reasons this isn’t true.

As we approach Memorial Day weekend and we think about the heroes of the past who have fought and died for our country, there are many you may not know about, many who fought as ghosts.

Now we all know about the CIA’s memorial that has 103 stars for fallen agents, omitting names, and bears the inscription, “IN HONOR OF THOSE MEMBERS OF THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY”, but what of the 1100 men who pulled off one of the greatest deceptions in history? There are many heroes you don’t hear about until their missions have become declassified, as is the case with the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, aka, The Ghost Army.

When I say Military Intelligence, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Cloak and dagger? Gathering intelligence with drones or spy planes? How about spies behind enemy lines?

How about ghost armies? No, and I'm not talking about the Army of dead from Lord of the Rings. I'm talking about a true, blue ghost army.

I bet you didn’t think of them, but they are part of the cloak and dagger operations of our military in WWII, and a lot of what they did, saved thousands of lives and turned the war in the United States favor.

Military Intelligence has a deep rooted history, going back as far as the Revolutionary War in America, and Washington’s Culper Spy Ring. Washington understood two very important things about spying. One, that it was about gathering intelligence on enemy movements and processes, and two, it was about deception. By planting false information, Washington manipulated the enemy into doing things they might otherwise not do. From those roots, military intelligence has grown. But nothing demonstrates deceptive tactics better than the once top secret mission of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops.

Inflatable tanks, artillery and convoys were planted, camouflaged with nets and moved around battlefields to give the appearance of larger forces in the area. Much thought was put into how much and what could be seen from above by enemy planes, as well as spotters and spies on the ground. Tank tracks created with bulldozers, a slip of net, exposing the corner of a tank. Unit patches painted or sewn onto uniforms, unit designations painted on military vehicles, and men driving said vehicles up and down the roads to give the appearance of a certain division occupying an area. They changed their patches like we change our undies.

 A perfect example of this “seen from above deception” is a munitions factory in Baltimore that appeared from above as farm fields, painted by members of the ghost army to hide its true nature, and protect it from potential bombings.

But where did the Army find men with such creative minds? They recruited them from art schools throughout the United States, and these artists brought the art of war to a completely new level.

The second part of the Ghost Army consisted of speakers on mobile vehicles, with recordings of troop movements, tanks and convoys, even engineers setting up a bridge to cross the Rhine. These recordings gave authenticity to an otherwise silent inflatable army. They called it sonic warfare.

The third part of the Ghost Army was the radio operators, whose chatter, mimicked the movements of the inflatable divisions. So good at the deception, they fooled German radio operators that had never been tricked before, resulting in the drawing live fire, and repositioning of German forces.

What’s amazing is that fifty-mile gaps in the front line were filled with armies that didn’t exist, keeping the Germans from flanking US troops by going through the holes. That the trickery manipulated the Germans into moving away from where we didn’t want them and to where we did. This ghost army also drew the fire away from real divisions, as in the case of the crossing of the Rhine. So certain we were building a bridge to cross the river, the ghost army diverted the attention of German forces away from where our troops were really crossing.

So, I hope you’ve developed a new appreciation for Military Intelligence and the art of gathering and planting information, as well as the previously unknown heroes who pulled off one of the greatest deceptions of all time.

Hmm, I'm thinking a little modern-day ghost army story just might be in my future.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend.

 

D. L. Jackson

Meet Marco Viero from Her Forbidden Hero

By Laura Kaye

Hey everyone! I'd like to introduce you to Marco Vieri, the hero of my contemporary romance, Her Forbidden Hero, the first book in my Heroes series. Marco is one of my favorite characters I've written, maybe because there's a lot of me in him. Like Marco, I've also suffered from a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that left me with a long period of recovery, so I truly felt for his struggles in this book. Here's Marco at one of his more tortured moments, reflecting on the unexpected arrival to his small hometown of Alyssa Scott, his best friend's little sister and someone he helped protect when they were kids from her abusive father.

The Scotts’ experience, wanting to stand up for other people who couldn’t stand up for themselves—that’s what made him want to join the military. Now who did he stand up for?

“Aw, hell.” A headache flared up under his left ear. He sank to his knees and closed his eyes, concentrating on the breathing exercises he’d been taught. In for two. Out for two. Over and over until his head stopped swimming.

Opening his eyes, he found himself kneading at his left arm, the one that had been torn apart from bicep to wrist by a booby-trapped explosive he barely remembered. Surgeons had rebuilt his arm as good as could be expected, especially since the nerve damage was so extensive they’d initially doubted he’d have coordinated use of his hand, but the tendon transplant never healed right. His fingers remained weak, and his elbow was stiff as hell.

But the shit with his brain was worse. It blanked out a big spot in his memory and tormented him with haunting nightmares and frustrating apraxia, the occasional inability to say a word and communicate his thoughts. And surgeons didn’t have a fix for those.

All of which gave him a one-way ticket to separation and retirement.

Do not pass go.

Do not collect two hundred dollars.

Marco ripped the box open and removed the bottles, lining them up next to him. Seeing Alyssa again made him feel trapped between two worlds but not fully a part of either. In those few short moments they’d spoken, her very presence had pulled him back in time to when he knew who he was and what he wanted. When he believed he could do or be anything.

And then she’d said how glad she was that he was home, and it was like a sucker punch to the gut—because all he’d wanted for ten long months was to be back out there, doing what he’d trained to do. Which was never going to happen.

Letting go of that man and those dreams… He’d never find his way to being okay with that.

On a curse, Marco tossed the empty box behind him.

This right here was the problem. Twenty minutes of Alyssa’s presence had him all up in his head, thinking about things he really didn’t want to be thinking about. Stack. Count. Beer. Wine. On tap. By the bottle. Red. White. These were the thoughts he could handle. These were the thoughts he wanted to handle.

Not how he could barely stand the sight of his own reflection.

Not how he’d succumbed to the pain and weakness.

Not how every fucking thing had changed.

And sure as hell not how three deaths lay at his feet.

About Her Forbidden Hero:

You always want what you can't have...

She's always been off-limits...

Former Army Special Forces Sgt. Marco Vieri has never thought of Alyssa Scott as more than his best friend's little sister, but her return home changes that...and challenges him to keep his war-borne demons at bay. Marco's not the same person he was back when he protected Alyssa from her abusive father, and he's not about to let her see the mess he's become.

...but now she's all grown up.

When Alyssa takes a job at the bar where Marco works, her carefree smiles wreak havoc on his resolve to bury his feelings. How can he protect her when he can't stop thinking about her in his bed? But Alyssa's not looking for protection--not anymore. Now that she's back in his life, she's determined to heal her forbidden hero, one touch at a time...

There will ultimately be four books in the Heroes series, so stay tuned for more! Did you have a favorite line from the excerpt?

Thanks for reading!

Laura

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Guest Author Donna Michaels

Hello everyone,

Thank you so much FTLOMR for allowing me to Guest Blog today.

My name is Donna Michaels. I’m an author of Romaginative Fiction. I write from sweet to very hot, short to epic and my work can be found in eBook and Print. My print books deploy the 3 H’s—Hot, Humorous and Heartwarming.

It seems the more books I write, the harder it is for me not to make one or more of the characters military. Hero, heroine, doesn’t matter. Okay, same goes for tattoos. I don’t have a tattoo but I do have a military hero. My husband is full time Army National Guard. In four years, he’ll be able to retire with twenty years in on the full time side. And it’s even more for his part time. We started dating when he was eighteen years old in boot camp. I knew him in high school, but it wasn’t until he was in boot camp that he wrote to me asking for my phone number. His name is Michael, and yep, you guessed it, that’s where the ‘Michaels’ comes from in my penname. I respect what he does and what the men and women of the military do and am proud to use his name in my writing. After all, most of my books contain a military character or two.

My first ever self published novel is also my first ever time travel. CAPTIVE HERO (Time-shift Heroes Series-Book One) is also a nominee in the 2012 RONE Awards for Indie excellence and received the Crown Jewel of Excellence by InD’tale Magazine.

Tagline:    Test flying an invisible plane—unreal. Time-shifting to WWII—unbelievable. Capturing a hero—unavoidable.

Blurb:

When Marine Corps test pilot, Captain Samantha Sheppard accidentally flies back in time and inadvertently saves the life of a WWII VMF Black Sheep pilot, she changes history and makes a crack decision to abduct him back to the present. With the timeline in jeopardy, she hides the handsome pilot at her secluded cabin in the Colorado wilderness.

But convincing her sexy, stubborn captive that he is now in another century proves harder than she anticipated—and soon it becomes difficult to tell who is captor and who is captive when the more he learns about the future, the more Sam discovers about the past, and the soul-deep connection between them.

As their flames of desire burn into overdrive, her flying Ace makes a historical discovery that threatens her family’s very existence. Sam’s fears are taken to new heights when she realizes the only way to fix the time-line is to sacrifice her captive hero...or is it?

Can love truly survive the test of time?          
 

Amazon Buy Link

My current release from The Wild Rose Press has received a 4 star rating from Romantic Times and is part of their Honky Tonk Hearts Series. COWBOY-SEXY is spicy novella and has a 4.5 rating out of 62 reviews at Amazon.

Blurb:

Finn Brennan was used to his brother playing practical jokes, but this time he’d gone too far--sending him a woman as a ranch hand, and not just a woman, but a Marine.

When Lt. Camilla Walker's CO asks her to help out at his family's dude ranch until he returns from deployment, she never expected to be thrust into a mistaken engagement to his sexy, cowboy twin--a former Navy SEAL who hates the Corps.

The Corps took Finn’s father, his girlfriend and threatened his naval career. He’s worked hard for another shot at getting back to active duty and won’t let his brother’s prank interfere. The last thing he needs is the temptation of a headstrong, unyielding, hot Marine getting in the way.

Amazon Buy Link  | The Wild Rose Press | Barnes and Noble

Coming Soon:

I’m currently writing the third book in my Harland County cowboy series HER UNIFORM COWBOY.  Kade Dalton is my military cowboy. He’s a Captain in the Texas Army National Guard, a horse rancher and a temporary sheriff. Busy guy. Releasing in October.

I am also revamping and re-releasing my romantic comedy suspense Meet Your Mate. It is now called SHE DOES KNOW JACK. Jack is a former Army Ranger in charge of set security when his brother starts receiving threats on a bachelor style reality TV show. The heroine is undercover as a contestant. Releasing in July.

You can find more of my military heroes or heroines at my website and also sign up for my newsletter to keep up with my military goings on, latest news and exclusive contests.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Blog | Pinterest | Goodreads | LinkedIn | Google+

Just another quick thank you to the ladies of FTLOMR for hosting me here today. It is nice to have a blog to go to for my military romance fix. May you all have a great Memorial Day.

Thanks for reading,

~Donna

May Military Madness

The month of May is only half done and so far, it's been crazy in my little corner of the world. What's happening? Here's a rundown.

I started the month off in Kansas City, MO at the Romantic Times 30th Anniversary Booklovers Convention. There I sported in public for the first time on a grand scale my combat boots in support of the BootCampaign.com (a not-for-profit that raises awareness and funds for organizations who support our military). Check out the website for more details on the organization but in a nutshell, their goal is to put as many pairs of combat boots on civilians, in all walks of life and all situations, as there are active duty military. For example, there were folks running the Boston Marathon while wearing their BootCampaign combat boots. You get the idea. So in Kansas City, I wore mine as well. First for the formal gala with my American Flag corset and full-length red ball skirt, and then again for the big Saturday book signing with, I was thrilled to find and buy these in a shop across from our hotel, these fab lace socks I found. The girly-girl in me wanted to fem up the combat boots, what can I say! Here's a close-up pic of the boots/socks from the book signing and my "Ask Me About My Boots" T-shirt purchased from the BootCampaign.com site. For more on the saga of my boots, including the breaking in process, see http://catjohnson.net/fun-stuff/the-boot-campaign/ .

As it turns out, it was good I had those boots with me since though it was in the 80s when we landed in Kansas City, and I wore flipflops outside the second day we were there, but Thursday, May 2, it was snowing sideways in some freak storm that lasted for hours. Though being a New Yorker, I knew it wasn't sticking, not with the ground so warm from the past hot days, the California folks were on the phone with their spouses freaking out that we'd never be able to fly home on Sunday because of this snow and the Aussies were outside playing in it, tears in their eyes because it was the first snow they'd ever seen in their lives. All in all, a memorable event all around.

Next, I arrived home to more military madness. Copy edits on my Kensington 83K words Oklahoma Nights series, Book 2, TWO TIMES AS HOT, about my hero from that series Lieutenant Colonel Logan Hunt. And waiting for me as well was proofing of the final print galleys for the print release of my Samhain Red, Hot & Blue series A PRINCE AMONG MEN. While working on those, guess what else arrived in the inbox? Edits on not one but 2 more Red, Hot & Blue stories--BULL and MATT. Along with the corresponding cover copy and cover art request forms for both. So that was my life from Monday thru Friday afternoon, when I finally finished all the above and, almost a week late, got to unpack my suitcases from RT on Saturday. But the good news is, I have a sneak peek for you of what some of that work yeilded--the cover for BULL! Bull, Matt and The Commander are scheduled to release from Samhain in October, November and December in eBook, to be bundled together in paperback as True Blue sometime in 2014. 

Stay tuned!

Cat

Guest Author Bella Juarez

What is so alluring about a man in uniform?

Oh! Let me count the ways!

(1)   Authority:  Who doesn’t love a big strong alpha man in uniform? The air of authority that comes with a uniform makes us women weak at the knees.  The basic instinct of being protected and secure in a big strong alpha man’s presences is warm and inviting.  And it helps that most of them are in pretty damn good shape. 

(2)   Command and Control.  Need I say more?  How about those handcuffs?  That water hose that could never douse the flame of desire these men set racing through you.  The aggressive, hungry, way the come home after months on a warfront.  There is also a tenuous vulnerability in these men that is sweet and attractive. 

(3)   What about those big guns… *le sigh*

(4)   Rescue me!  What woman hasn’t dreamt of a knight coming to rescue her?  Doesn’t matter of it’s a street wise Sampson, GI Joe or just plain Officer/Fireman Joe. Who doesn’t want to be carried off and rescued?  Show of hands please?  You know they play as hard as they work.

(5)   Sensitivity to a cause greater than themselves:  These big guys have an even bigger heart.  They understand what’s at stake.  They know that dedicating themselves to a higher purpose is not just a job but a calling.  The need to be heroic isn’t their motivation.  The desire to protect and serve is their driving force. 

Let’s not stop at number five… Give me six, seven, eight, nine, ten, etc…

Bella Juarez is originally from San Antonio, Texas and now lives and writes on a small ranch in South Central Texas. She draws inspiration from the real-life heroes and heroines of the United States military and her many experiences in the twelve years she worked within that world as well as from her life in the civilian world. Her love of thrill and adventure is reflected in her stories. When she’s not writing, Bella runs a business and is active in the business community. She also runs half marathons and loves to be in the kitchen whipping up something special.

Minefield – Book five in the BlackOps Brotherhood series:

http://www.bookstrand.com/minefield

Dr. Isabel Vasquez joins Doctors Without Borders, insisting on serving in post-Taliban Afghanistan. She hates the pain and devastation caused by her country’s actions in that war-stricken land and openly protests US global militarism. While treating injured and sick Afghanis, she is captured and held prisoner by terrorists. Navy SEAL Senior Chief Alex “Doc” Richards must find the war-protesting doctor who witnessed the effects of a deadly pathogen known to be in the hands of the same terrorists. He doesn’t count on finding a tempting dusky beauty.  As a powerful attraction grows, Izzy and Alex find themselves working to stop terrorists from turning Afghanistan into a lifeless wasteland.  A mysterious Turkish wanderer reveals a secret to Izzy that Alex has hidden since joining the SEALs. Can Izzy submit to Alex’s dark desires? When Alex is faced with an impossible choice, can he save the woman he adores from terrorists who have her in their crosshairs? 

Visit Bella on the web at www.bealljuarez.com