Mike Guardia
Author of American Guerrilla: The Forgotten Heroics of Russell W. Volckmann
About the Author
Mike Guardia is an internationally recognized author and military historian. A veteran of the U.S. Army, he served six years on active duty as an Armor Officer. He has twice been nominated for the Army Historical Foundation's Distinguished Book Award and is an active member in the Military Writers show more Society of America. He holds a BA and MA in American History from the University of Houston. He currently lives in Minnesota. show less
Image credit: Book signing with LT GEN Hal Moore and Mike Guardia at the Books-A-Million in Opelika, AL
Works by Mike Guardia
Shadow Commander: The Epic Story of Donald D. Blackburn―Guerrilla Leader and Special Forces Hero (2011) 40 copies, 1 review
US Army and Marine Corps MRAPs: Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (New Vanguard) (2013) 26 copies
Hal Moore: A Life in Pictures 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- male
- Education
- University of Houston (BA|History)
University of Houston (MA|History)
University of St. Thomas (MA|Education) - Agent
- Jill Corcoran
- Short biography
- Mike Guardia is an internationally recognized author and military historian. A veteran of the United States Army, he served six years on active duty as an Armor Officer. He is the author of the widely-acclaimed "Hal Moore: A Soldier Once...and Always," the first-ever biography chronicling the life of LTG Harold G. Moore, whose battlefield leadership was popularized by the film "We Were Soldiers," starring Mel Gibson.
He has twice been nominated for the Army Historical Foundation's Distinguished Book Award and is an active member of the Military Writers Society of America.
As a speaker, he hosts the lecture series "Hal Moore: Lessons in Leadership," which is available for presentation at schools, businesses, and civic organizations worldwide. Mike Guardia has given presentations at the US Special Operations Command and the International Spy Museum. His work has been reviewed in the Washington Times, Armchair General, ARMY Magazine, DefenceWeb South Africa, and Miniature Wargames UK.
He holds a BA and MA in American History from the University of Houston. He currently lives in Texas. - Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Minnesota, USA
Texas, USA
Hill Valley, California, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
Short but interesting overview of the development of self propelled anti aircraft guns in Soviet Union and Russia post WW2.
Du to the size of the book it is obvious not many details can be provided, but in my opinion it is very good introduction to the topic.
Overview of systems stop with Tunguska gun and missile system, and only on the last page we are introduced to some newer systems like Pantsir, but without much of a detail. Considering that at the time when this book came out there should show more have been more information on Pantsir it is weird that only general information is provided without more details on the system.
In any case, as an very good general overview, very interesting. show less
Du to the size of the book it is obvious not many details can be provided, but in my opinion it is very good introduction to the topic.
Overview of systems stop with Tunguska gun and missile system, and only on the last page we are introduced to some newer systems like Pantsir, but without much of a detail. Considering that at the time when this book came out there should show more have been more information on Pantsir it is weird that only general information is provided without more details on the system.
In any case, as an very good general overview, very interesting. show less
Donn Starry is a man who, while not a household name, certainly deserves a biography, and this is not a bad one. The fortunate thing is that Starry left a long paper trail taking one from his formative days as a cadet at West Point to his creation of of the "Air-Land" battle doctrine that still informs how the U.S. Army goes to war; inasmuch as the General was not fit enough to participate in the creation of the study. The best chapters deal with the care and feeding of military show more organizations. If there is one thematic matter which I find problematic it's that this book is informed by the belief that Tet '68 was a victory thrown away and I don't believe that's a tenable position anymore. show less
I finished Hal Moore: A Soldier Once and Always by Mike Guardian. A fascinating whole life biography on Hal Moore best known by many of us from the movie/book We Were Soldiers on the battle of the Ia Drang Valley with the 1st Air Cav in Vietnam.
A West Pointer was part of the class of 1945 that attended only 3 not 4 years at the point. He graduated too late for World War II but served with distinction in both Korea and Vietnam.
He rose to rank of Lieutenant General and was tapped to be show more Commanding General U.S. Army Japan when he retired.
A short read at a little over 400 pages, filled with maps and pictures which helped bring greater life to his story. A solid 4 star read. show less
A West Pointer was part of the class of 1945 that attended only 3 not 4 years at the point. He graduated too late for World War II but served with distinction in both Korea and Vietnam.
He rose to rank of Lieutenant General and was tapped to be show more Commanding General U.S. Army Japan when he retired.
A short read at a little over 400 pages, filled with maps and pictures which helped bring greater life to his story. A solid 4 star read. show less
The F-14 Tomcat fighter plane, made famous by the movie "Top Gun", was a workhorse of the US military for 30 years. Here is its story.
Made by Grumman Aerospace in New York, it rolled off the assembly line in the mid-1970's. It was intended as a carrier-based bomber replacement for the F-4 Phantom, which had reached the end of its lifespan. It was involved in the tail end of the Vietnam War, mostly in a recon and support capacity.
The F-14 got its first taste of combat in 1981's Gulf of Sidra show more incident. Muammar Qaddafi declared the entire Gulf to be Libyan territorial waters. The problem was that the entire Gulf was many times bigger than what can be declared territorial waters, according to international law.
The Shah of Iran was a good friend of America. He needed modern weapons to counter Iraq, so he bought many F-14's, along with spare parts. After US-Iranian relations collapsed, and America backed Iraq in the Iran/Iraq war, America cut off all access to F-14 spare parts, forcing Iran to cannibalize their planes to keep some of them in the air.
The F-14 was not used very much during Operation Desert Storm, but it made up for it in Afghanistan and Iraq, flying thousands of sorties. It, too, reached the end of its lifespan, and, in 2006, the F-14 was retired. All surviving planes and spare parts were intentionally destroyed to prevent rogue nations, like Iran, from getting their hands on them.
This is a very specialized book. For those with any sort of military connection, whether historian, veteran or enthusiast, this book is a Must Read. The military jargon is kept to a reasonable level. show less
Made by Grumman Aerospace in New York, it rolled off the assembly line in the mid-1970's. It was intended as a carrier-based bomber replacement for the F-4 Phantom, which had reached the end of its lifespan. It was involved in the tail end of the Vietnam War, mostly in a recon and support capacity.
The F-14 got its first taste of combat in 1981's Gulf of Sidra show more incident. Muammar Qaddafi declared the entire Gulf to be Libyan territorial waters. The problem was that the entire Gulf was many times bigger than what can be declared territorial waters, according to international law.
The Shah of Iran was a good friend of America. He needed modern weapons to counter Iraq, so he bought many F-14's, along with spare parts. After US-Iranian relations collapsed, and America backed Iraq in the Iran/Iraq war, America cut off all access to F-14 spare parts, forcing Iran to cannibalize their planes to keep some of them in the air.
The F-14 was not used very much during Operation Desert Storm, but it made up for it in Afghanistan and Iraq, flying thousands of sorties. It, too, reached the end of its lifespan, and, in 2006, the F-14 was retired. All surviving planes and spare parts were intentionally destroyed to prevent rogue nations, like Iran, from getting their hands on them.
This is a very specialized book. For those with any sort of military connection, whether historian, veteran or enthusiast, this book is a Must Read. The military jargon is kept to a reasonable level. show less
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 25
- Members
- 382
- Popularity
- #63,244
- Rating
- 4.2
- Reviews
- 9
- ISBNs
- 56
