Drivers Books

Hollywood tends to portray conflicts by making an icon of the weapon involved. Think of the Colt Peacemaker of the Western gunslinger. Or the Tommy gun of the Thirties gangster. Or the Huey helicopter gunbird that has dominated our vision of American wars starting in Vietnam and continuing right on through this evening's news broadcast. Talk about your icons.
Yet until now not a lot has been written about the UH-1E, the Bell helcopter with its Lycoming engine and with its side-mounted M-60 machine guns and its nose-aimed rockets. Less still is known about the people who wielded them for the first time as a serious weapon of war in Vietnam. Author David A. Ballentine's book is noteworth because it can be read on several levels. it is a memoir to be sure, but unlike the standard issue series of anecdotes that come from military retirees. What it is, instead, is a back porch conversation, with plenty of saltiness and lots of appropriate expletives such as what one might get listening to the man himself.
The story line covers Ballentine's time as a young Marine lieutenant pilot flying a Huey with an observation squadron during 1966-1967, a year before the Tet Offensive. The book is an easy read for the ordinary civilian despite the military acronyms and technical idiosyncrasies of the Huey as a piece of machinery. Ballentine gives the aircraft its own personality, one with plenty of foibles and flaws, but also with a certain workmanlike solidness that makes both machine and the men it carried understandable and admirable.
The more military oriented reader can find plenty of action and adventure to his taste. Ballentine and his unit provided suppressing fire when troops went into operations and when they came out again. It covered for medical evacuation helicpoters that took out the casulaties. Counter-fire was a constant hazard and Ballentine's craft caught its share. One of the more interesting facets of this book is that even if you've never ridden in a helicopter, his portrayal of the Huey makes the reader confident he could sit in the second seat and know right where the dials and pedals were located, perhaps even to take the stick if hostile gunfire equired. This is no mean feat of writing.
This is a book worth reading and pondering. Vietnam may have been a long time ago but the story is still going on.
James Srodes, author, Washington, DC

David Ballentine's book brought home to me the reality of the life of a Viet Nam Marine in the mid '60s. The "non-PC" language gives it relevance, and thanks for that. I am amazed at the dedication he and those he wrote about have for the job they did. To go to work with the knowledge that it may end badly made me question every complaint I ever had during my professional life. He says that after one has been the target in a life and death challenge, ordinary life is rather ordinary. If you ever wanted to experience a true "realty show", this is a must read. Thanks, David, for writing this extraordinaty personal history of a true American Hero.

[[ASIN:1591140196 Gunbird Driver: Gunbird Driver is a remarkable autobiography. Former Marine Corps helicopter pilot, David Ballentine, looks back on his 1966-67 tour of duty in Vietnam, flying the UH-1E (Huey) on a variety of missions, from supporting drops of ground troops into hostile territory, evacuating wounded and dead Marines, to flying high ranking officers around on inspection tours. On one mission, enemy gunfire severs his oil lines and he is forced down. On another, he watches with fascination as a stunningly accurate rocket fired from his ship explodes within a foot of its target-- a luckless man in black-pajamas running for his life through a rice paddy. Lt. Ballentine sees the fellow wobble to his feet and disappear into the underbrush. Ballentine doesn't stop there. He also lays bare the ordinary and wacky details of military life, such as the use of makeshift urinals called "piss tubes" and the hazard of splash-back, "hooch rats" nesting in his helmet, and the stress of finding himself laboring to make small-talk alongside a high-ranking officer inside a crude latrine. Reading this, I often found myself smiling, and occasionally, laughing out loud. This account could not have been authentically written without use of the Marine Corps' incomparable array of four-letter words, and it is not for the faint of heart. No subject is overlooked. Ballentine, who after the war earned a PhD in history, is both sensitive and introspective but understandably proud of his air crewmembers. No macho here. His story is one of a humble young officer's adaptability to the demanding circumstances of war and his emergence as a man. This is a perfect gift for any ex-Marine or anyone, civilian or military, man or woman, who has wondered what it was like to be in combat.

Herman and the Mini-bus With Soul is an excellent readaloud multi-cultural story for preschool and primary children. The setting of the story is near a large city. Herman is a friendly bus driver who always has a smile and a cheerful "hello" for everyone he meets. His bus route is in the inner-city and his passengers can call him for a ride. He is known as the Bus Driver with Soul because he helps everyone who tells him about their problems. Children enjoy this story and learn a little about life in a big city.

Mrs. Bland, the author was one of the first African American educators to attend OSU. She jumped through many barriers: such as not being allowed to live in the dorms and so forth. Despite the hardships, she endured she taught for over thirty years and touched many lifes. Her books reveals such an rich understanding of love and care and I personally gave one to the Mayor of her city, Columbus, Ohio. If you are a teacher, this book is a must!! I have used it often for the rich graphics and the story line that can be extended into a semester's teaching.

Shelley Powell

This unique treatise, written so that readers of all ages can climb into the fur of our best friend and see the world at knee-level, is an extraordinary step towards reconciliation of the love-hate relationship between our two species; Ms Mendoza, from her lengthy experience and keen insight and empathy with dogs of all nations, has made a giant first step for mankind towards co-existence with our canine companions, who are unequalled in their capacity for unconditional love and loyalty, humans coming in a distant second... :>)

I am so glad to have this book. I thought it was a cute idea but I had no idea of how informative and helpful it is. I have always enjoyed the dogs I have owned over the years and I thought I knew a lot about them, but this book gets you thinking and aware of so much more and it increases your joy of having a dog. I think it is a great book for new dog owners, especially if you have a dog for the first time. This book will often be a gift I give in the future.

I really love this book and especially love giving it as a gift to new drivers.

This book is so funny. It would probably be even funnier if it wasn't true that so many people drive crazy like this. Even though I live in Los Angeles, there were many things in the book that I've never even thought of. I'm a bad driver, but now I can be even worse!

We all go to our doctor with a mind full of things to ask, but somehow we never get to them and can come out of the office feeling just as confused as when we went in or even worse--we hated the entire experience. This book can alleviate those fears and help you and your doctor achieve the satisfaction and productive visit you both want. I found the book helpful and informative about various issues regarding patient care.

If you've ever felt hurried and dissatisfied in dealing with your too-busy doctor but don't know what else to do, then How to Talk to Your Doctor: Getting the Answers and Care You Need is for you: it tells how to get the information needed from a doctor to make informed medical decisions, from understanding prescriptions and tests to assessing the value and necessity of procedures. From using the Internet to gather information to making special needs known, How to Talk to Your Doctor is the perfect consumer's advocate in book form, and general-interest libraries should find it a popular pick.

This book hits the bulls-eye. IT isn't about bits and bytes, servers and up-time anymore - we need to move on up. These are the real tools to help any company's IT group make a concrete business contribution.

I was told by my colleagues who read this book before me, that this is a VERY controversial book. Inspiring to some, scary to others. I'm not kidding about "scary".

A favorite business associate of mine sent it to several of his company's contacts (me included) as a Christmas gift. Using this book as a corporate gift was a suggestion by one of the very bright people at his company (I say "bright" not just based upon her recommendation to make the book a gift, but because I met her years ago and was impressed). So I read the book right away.

This book is the best business gift I have ever received.

What you read next is not an explanation of what is in the book. You can read that elsewhere. It's an explanation of why you probably need to read this book right away as opposed to later.

If you are a senior executive who job involves creating company growth or making decisions, or if you work in IT, you should know that this book describes the inevitable future of IT. But I must caution you: if you read it, you will not be able to get this vision of IT out of your mind.

What's worse, if you believe that your company cannot move towards this vision, you will be stuck with another thought, a frightful one--what if your competitors do?

I think I understand why this book would be so controversial. It's because we already know the power that information technology has. It has already significantly transformed many aspects of our lives. We know that accomplishing the vision in Arussy's book IS technologically possible.

After all, the implementation involves writing computer programs and putting them to work. But the DESIGN of those programs is the challenge, for that's a HUMAN task.

This means that accomplishing this vision, which is the inevitable future of IT, depends much less upon technology that it does upon people. Not upon a few people here and there, but many people throughout our companies, figuring this all out and working together on it. That thought could be a little scary in itself, depending upon how well we're doing generally on working together these days.

It could also mean a great opportunity for you and your colleagues. But maybe not an easy one.

Figuring out what our businesses really need--what's of critical importance--and designing that is the real challenge. We would have to face the fact that we don't know many aspects of our businesses and our business colleagues well enough to pull it off. At least not yet.

Just because Arussy's vision, at this moment, seems impossible doesn't mean that it's not inevitable.

In 1980 (before the PC), a restaurant that seated 100 people would have had 2 or 3 wall-mounted pay phones on the wall. Today at most restaurants I've been to, the pay phones are gone. Why? Out of 100 customers, nearly all of them have carried their own telephones into the restaurant with them. If in 1980 someone had told you that pocket phones were going to make pay telephones practically extinct in 20 years, you wouldn't have thought that to be very relevant to your life, maybe because you'd be thinking that the technical and financial challenges involved would be practically insurmountable. Science fiction stuff. You may have believed that it would be inevitable, but you probably would not have concluded that the idea would significantly impact your life. But it did.

Yet that's not the most important point.

The funny thing with cell phones is that even though cell phone technology doesn't work that well yet ("Can you hear me now?"), and even though we know the advertising claims about coverage areas are exaggerated, and even though we know we won't be 100% satisfied with the service, we buy and continue to upgrade our cell phones anyway and wouldn't be without them.

To me this means (and I think this is the most important point) that we don't have to get Arussy's vision 100% right. If cell phones are any indicator, we only have to be pretty effective most of the time on this vision to revolutionize our businesses, and to get our return on investment. We can tweak it from there.

So--who will be first? You and your company, or your competitors?

Thank you, Steve, for writing this fabulous book! Not only will I be much more sympathetic to police officers whenever I see them, I'll also pay closer attention to the way I drive and I'll put myself in other drivers' shoes instead of instantly getting a severe case of road rage. You've enlightened me with words that really sunk in, you made me laugh multiple times, and you've made me understand how to properly communicate with police officers (not that I'll ever be pulled over again). Everyone should read this--especially teenagers.

This is a great book. Not only do you get some practical tips to apply during traffic stops, but the book is smartly written as well. Officer Pomper blends helpful hints with funny anecdotes. I'd recommend this quick read to anyone.

It is not a large book by any means, but it does roughly go over Jeff Gordons racing career, starting from the age of five up until his 1998 Winston Cup Championship. It's great for people who have little knowledge about Jeff's life on and off the track, and it's also a fine book for people who like full color photos. If you live in an area like I do where Nascar is not really considered a sport and you have heard of the name Jeff Gordon, and you would like to know more about him, try this book.

This is a beautiful book for fans of NASCAR and esp. fans of Jeff Gordon. It is well written and the photography is very outstanding. It would be a great addition to any library.

This was a great book. Excellent information. A must read for a Jeff Gordon fan. Easy reading.

I bought this book for my son, and I ended up reading it first. I found it very informative in both aspects (Jeff's personal endeavor and the world of racing as a whole)and would highly recommend it to all.

I was born a Formula 1 fan. NASCAR is good, INDY IRL is good, but Formula 1 Grand Prix is the purest form of racing. Jim Clark was the world's greatest driver of all time!!! End of debate. He was killed in a crash during the Grand Prix of Germany on April 7th 1953, my 15th birthday. Ever since then I watch the movie "Grand Prix" on my birthday and remember a great man. This book is a collection of the memories of others in the sport of this greatest of all drivers who sadly had to leave us early.

Graham Gauld was a personal friend of Jim Clark, who was probably the second best race-car driver of all-time (only Mario Andretti was better in my opinion). Jim Clark won the 1965 Indianapolis 500 and the 1963 and 1965 Formula 1 World Championships while driving for Colin Chapman and the Lotus team. Jim is also the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 with a rear-engine race car. I have three of Graham Gauld's book including "Jim Clark: The Legend Lives On", "Jim Clark Remembered" and Jim Clark: Portrait of a Great Driver". All three books rate as 5-star books in my opinion. If you like the glory days of the Indianapolis 500 or the Formula 1 World Championship, you will love these 3 books. My oldest son is named after Jim Clark.