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“A profound and riveting story of courage and friendship against the backdrop of the bloodiest military campaign in aviation history.” —Chris Wallace, anchor of Fox News Sunday and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Countdown Bin Laden

Kevin Maurer is an award-winning journalist and three-time New York Times best-selling co-author of No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama bin LadenNo Hero: The Evolution of a Navy SEAL and American Radical: Inside the World of an Undercover Muslim FBI Agent.

Maurer is the author of nine books, including The Gentlemen Bastards, which chronicled an unprecedented ten week embed with a Special Forces team in southern Afghanistan. His other books include Hunter Killer, a behind-the-scenes look at America’s drone war and two books with Pulitzer Prize Winner Mitch Weiss. One covered the battle of Shok Valley in Afghanistan that led to the award of ten Silver Star medals and two Medals of Honor and the other chronicled the hunt for Che Guevara through the eyes of the American operatives.

Maurer’s first World War II narrative, Rock Force, was published in 2020. It is the thrilling story of the American airborne soldiers who captured a Japanese-held island fortress. Drawn from firsthand accounts and personal interviews with the battle’s surviving veterans, Maurer delves into this extraordinary tale, uncovering astonishing accounts of bravery and heroism during an epic, yet largely forgotten, clash of the Pacific War. Rock Force is an intimate story of uncommon soldiers showing uncommon courage, and winning, through blood and sacrifice. His latest book, Damn Lucky, will be published in April, 2022.

For the last eleven years, Maurer has also worked as a freelance writer covering war, politics and general interest stories for the Atlantic, Men’s Journal, GQ, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, and numerous other publications. Maurer has been embedded with the Special Forces in Afghanistan six times. He spent a month in 2006 with special operations units in east and central Africa, and he was embedded with U.S. forces in Iraq and Haiti.

Kevin's Featured Titles

Damn Lucky: One Man’s Courage During the Bloodiest Military Campaign in Aviation History

St. Martin’s Press |
Nonfiction

From Kevin Maurer—the #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning coauthor of No Easy Day—comes the true story of a World War II bomber pilot who survived twenty-five missions in Damn Lucky, “an epic, thrillingly written, utterly immersive account of a very lucky, incredible survivor of the war in the skies to defeat Hitler” (New York Times bestselling author Alex Kershaw).

“We were young citizen-soldiers, terribly naive and gullible about what we would be confronted with in the air war over Europe and the profound effect it would have upon every fiber of our being for the rest of our lives. We were all afraid, but it was beyond our power to quit. We volunteered for the service and, once trained and overseas, felt we had no choice but to fulfill the mission assigned. My hope is that this book honors the men with whom I served by telling the truth about what it took to climb into the cold blue and fight for our lives over and over again.”

—John “Lucky” Luckadoo, Major, USAF (Ret.) 100th Bomb Group (H)

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was a world away from John Luckadoo’s hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. But when the Japanese attacked the American naval base on December 7, 1941, he didn’t hesitate to join the military. Trained as a pilot with the United States Air Force, Second Lieutenant Luckadoo was assigned to the 100th Bomb Group stationed in Thorpe Abbotts, England. Between June and October 1943, he flew B-17 Flying Fortresses over France and Germany on bombing runs devised to destroy the Nazi war machine.

With a shrapnel torn Bible in his flight jacket pocket and his girlfriend’s silk stocking around his neck like a scarf as talismans, Luckadoo piloted through Luftwaffe machine-gun fire and antiaircraft flak while enduring subzero temperatures to complete twenty-five missions and his combat service. The average bomber crew rarely survived after eight to twelve missions. Knowing far too many airmen who wouldn’t be returning home, Luckadoo closed off his emotions and focused on his tasks to finish his tour of duty one moment at a time, realizing his success was more about being lucky than being skilled.

Drawn from Luckadoo’s firsthand accounts, acclaimed war correspondent Kevin Maurer shares his extraordinary tale from war to peacetime, uncovering astonishing feats of bravery during the bloodiest military campaign in aviation history, and presenting an incredible portrait of a young man’s coming-of-age during the world’s most devastating war.

Rock Force: The American Paratroopers Who Took Back Corregidor and Exacted MacArthur’s Revenge on Japan

Dutton Caliber |
Nonfiction

From the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of No Easy Day comes a thrilling World War II story of the American airborne soldiers who captured a Japanese-held island fortress

Rock Force is a beautifully told story of war: the friendships, the courage and despair, and the terror… One of the most exciting books ever written about the Pacific War.”—Mitch Weiss, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Countdown 1945

In late December 1941, General Douglas MacArthur, caught off guard by the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, is forced to retreat to Corregidor, a jagged, rocky island fortress at the mouth of Manila Bay. Months later, under orders from the president, the general is whisked away in the dark of night, leaving his troops to their fate. It is a bitter pill for a fiercely proud warrior who has always protected his men. He famously declares “I shall return,” but the humiliation of Corregidor haunts him, even earning him the derisive nickname “Dugout Doug.”

In early 1945, MacArthur returns to the Philippines, his eyes firmly fixed on Corregidor. To take back the island, he calls on the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, a highly trained veteran airborne unit. Their mission is to jump onto the island—hemmed in by sheer cliffs, pockmarked by bomb craters, bristling with deadly spiky broken tree trunks—and wrest it from some 6,700 Japanese defenders who await, fully armed and ready to fight to the death.

Drawn from firsthand accounts and personal interviews with the battle’s surviving veterans, acclaimed war correspondent and bestselling author Kevin Maurer delves into this extraordinary tale, uncovering astonishing accounts of bravery and heroism during an epic, yet largely forgotten, clash of the Pacific War. Here is an intimate story of uncommon soldiers showing uncommon courage and winning, through blood and sacrifice, the redemption of General MacArthur.

No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden

Dutton |
Nonfiction

The #1 New York Times bestselling first-person account of the planning and execution of the Bin Laden raid from a Navy SEAL who confronted the terrorist mastermind and witnessed his final moments.

From the streets of Iraq to the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips in the Indian Ocean, and from the mountaintops of Afghanistan to the third floor of Osama Bin Laden’s compound, operator Mark Owen of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group—known as SEAL Team Six—has been a part of some of the most memorable special operations in history, as well as countless missions that never made headlines.

No Easy Day puts readers alongside Owen and his fellow SEAL team members as they train for the biggest mission of their lives. The blow-by-blow narrative of the assault, beginning with the helicopter crash that could have ended Owen’s life straight through to the radio call confirming Bin Laden’s death, is an essential piece of modern history.

In No Easy Day, Owen also takes readers into the War on Terror and details the formation of the most elite units in the military. Owen’s story draws on his youth in Alaska and describes the SEALs’ quest to challenge themselves at the highest levels of physical and mental endurance. With boots-on-the-ground detail, Owen describes several missions that illustrate the life and work of a SEAL and the evolution of the team after the events of September 11.

In telling the true story of the SEALs whose talents, skills, experiences, and exceptional sacrifices led to one of the greatest victories in the War on Terror, Mark Owen honors the men who risk everything for our country, and he leaves readers with a deep understanding of the warriors who keep America safe.

Gentlemen Bastards: On the Ground in Afghanistan with America’s Elite Special Forces

Berkley Caliber, |
Nonfiction

The Green Berets a legendary corps of soldiers whose exploits made military history. But now, their very identity and role as a fighting force may be forever changed
Until the war in Iraq, Special Forces were the military’s counterinsurgency experts. Their specialty was going behind enemy lines and training insurgent forces. In Afghanistan, they toppled the Taliban by transforming Northern Alliance fighters into cohesive units.
But in the almost nine years since, Special Forces units have forgone their previous mission, instead focusing on offensive raids. With time running short, the Green Berets are going back to their roots and have started to focus on training Afghan security forces and building an Afghan government one village at a time.
Award-winning journalist Kevin Maurer traveled with a Special Forces team in Afghanistan, finding out first hand the inside story of the lives of this elite group of highly trained soldiers. He witnessed the intense brotherhood built upon the Special Forces rigorous selection process and arduous training that makes them the smartest soldiers on the battlefield. He also discovered the boredom of chasing an elusive enemy and managing third world cops and the infighting between teammates and other units.
Nine years after the start of the Afghan war, Maurer delivers a compelling account of modern warfare and of a fighting force that is doing everything in its power to achieve victory on a complex twenty-first century battlefield.

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