In this book, Ambassador Martinus L. Johnson, Sr. recounts his experiences growing up in Liberia, obtaining an education in the United States, and ultimately representing his beloved country on four continents. Ambassador Johnson represented the Republic of Liberia for more than 25 years in some of the world's greatest countries as they underwent significant political change: Germany, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, and the former Crown Colony of Hong Kong. During his years as a diplomat, he also served as the First Secretary to the Permanent Mission of Liberia to the United Nations in New York. In reflecting on his career, Mr. Johnson expresses awe at the destruction of Germany during World War II and pride in the United States' Marshall Plan in developing Germany following the war. He clarifies the historical relationship between Liberia and the United States and points to an estrangement in that relationship when Liberia established diplomatic relationships with USSR and China. Born in Edina, Liberia, Mr. Johnson is uniquely qualified to chronicle the struggles of his beloved country. His grandfather was a great grandson of Elijah Johnson who was among the early settlers who immigrated to this small West African country under the auspices of the American Colonization Society. Within the context of Liberia's political engagements, Mr. Johnson weaves his personal recollections from childhood of significant political and sociological events. Mr. Johnson also presents readers with his personal thoughts and first-hand accounts of the major political, historical, economic, and social movements that led to the Liberian civil war, the almost complete destruction of the nation, and the major impediments facing the Liberian Nation today in its struggle toward recovery.

Erik Bloodaxe and Egil Skallagrimsson came to the fore, both for their narrative possibilities and examples of how events of the Viking period have come to be distorted and misunderstood. The eventual result is this book. The life of Erik begins with his background and career in Norway followed by his overseas adventures. After seizing power in northern England, he met a violent death there. Also covered is much of the life of the Icelander Egil Skallagrimsson, who tried his best to be a thorn in the side of Erik and his wife Gunnhild. After Erik fell, his kin fought desperately to maintain eminence. The western Viking movement was due to revive in a more organised form, but after sporadic outbursts of warfare eventually subsided to emerge as modern nations, whose folks were still to be culturally productive like their Viking forebears, but without their collective tendency to violence. To obtain a complete account, the sources were ransacked. Certain anomalies showed up, involving the identities of some of the characters and the places where events are said to or are believed to have taken place. Attention was directed to solving these problems. Discrepancies in the relationship between three English kings in the midtenth century and Scandinavians are particularly serious, but can be resolved with certain adjustments. For instance, students of these times have long disputed the location of the important Battle of Brunanburh. Yet another site is proposed, this being not so very far from York. Cover design is by Luke Pearson who graduated from Loughborough University and is the author’s grandson. He has since been in demand as an illustrator.

I was born in the Royal Naval and Marine Maternity Hospital, Portsmouth on the 1st of October 1938. Our family moved to No 2 Cottage Bletchley Park in 1940 until 1949. After we left the Park Mum and Dad moved in to The Plough Inn at Simpson, near Milton Keynes. It was in 1950 through to 1955 I attended the Royal Hospital School in St. Vincent house at Holbrook. I joined the R N and served on HMS Birmingham in the Med and HMS Dryad as a RADAR and Voice Radio Operator at HMS Tamar in H K on C.WS. After the RN I had various jobs eventually I took a job as a Radiologist and became a QA/QC P/Engineer in Industrial N.D.E and Industrial Efficiency, working all over the world for 50 years, now we live in South Africa in a beautiful wooden house with a tree growing through the roof. When I retired my Sisters (The Mighty Twine) asked me to put together something about our lives in Bletchley Park during WWII, this was the beginning of my starting to write and gave me a hobby I had never thought of taking up. During my life, I have had a few hobbies’, which included drawing Cartoons and photography as a semi-pro taking pictures of Weddings, Portraits’ and Models, happy to say I did manage to make a living doing these and enjoyed what I was doing.

Largely forgotten by history, Thomas Riley Marshall served as Vice President in the administration of President Woodrow Wilson.  Born and raised in Indiana, Marshall came from a prominent local family and was well-educated, but struggled against his own personal demons.  Rescued from professional oblivion by his devoted wife Lois, Marshall began a meteoric political career that in less than five years took him from the life of a small town lawyer to the Vice Presidency of the United States.

 

It was in that position that Marshall faced one of the most difficult choices to confront an American politician.  With the fate of the world resting on the success or failure of the Treaty of Versailles and the proposed League of Nations, President Woodrow Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke that undoubtedly qualified as the type of disability that, under the United States Constitution, should have led Marshall to assume the powers of the presidency.

 

Marshall’s decision is just one aspect of the fascinating life of Vice President Thomas Riley Marshall.

This first story is about the historic missions done by Combat Airmen in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Fredoom II in 2004. These Airmen went into Iraq untrained under the control of the U.S. Army for the first time since WW II. However, they perservered and overcame the many barriers they were constantly faced with in a war ravaged country. Although these Airmen felt as if they were at times abandoned by both branches of military they were called to serve, they pulled together and fought for each other in hopes of returning home to their country and loved ones.