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“Jimmy Hatch is a personal hero of mine.” —Anderson Cooper “Irresistible. . . . A wounded SEAL’s shame becomes a salvation.” —J. Ford Huffman, Military Times James Hatch is a former special ops Navy SEAL senior chief, master naval parachutist, and expert military dog trainer and handler. On his fateful final mission in Afghanistan, his SEAL team was sent to recover Bowe Bergdahl—the soldier who deserted his post and fell into the hands of Al-Qaida and the Taliban. The mission went south, and Hatch was left with a shattered femur from an AK-47 round and the SEAL dog who fought alongside him was dead. As a result of his horrific leg wound, his twenty-four-year military career came to an end—and with it the only life he’d ever known. In Touching the Dragon, we witness his long road to recovery. Getting well physically required eighteen surgeries, twelve months of recovery, and learning to walk again. But getting well mentally would prove to be much tougher, as he fought through the depths of despair, alcoholism, and the pull to end his own life. What emerges is a different kind of hero’s journey, one in which Hatch shows the courage it takes to confess, confront, and overcome his own brokenness. Through the love of family, friends, and his military dogs, Hatch learned remarkable tools and found his purpose, and now he wants to share this wisdom with the rest of us because we all have wounds.

Born the ninth child of a poor Brooklyn family, Owen Dodson (1914-83) rose to a life of stunning achievement. A scholarship student at Bates College, where his classmates included John Ciardi and Edmund S. Muskie, Dodson went on to advanced study at Yale. His poetry and first novel were widely hailed by critics and general readers; during his career, he wrote or directed more than 300 dramatic presentations, and for twenty-five years he was a professor of drama at Howard University. James Hatch draws on extensive interviews with Dodson, his family, and his friends, and on access to private papers, placing Dodson in a social and literary context that will help readers understand Dodson's struggle with arthritis, alcohol, race, and homophobic prejudice.

Business has long struggled with the notion of "human capital," but do companies really know the value of their people? All too frequently, companies lay off thousands of workers to boost share price while, at the same time, their annual reports promise that "people are our greatest asset!" Now, for the first time, human capital experts Brian Friedman, James Hatch, and David M. Walker show how companies can deliver on this promise. They reveal how Arthur Andersen's breakthrough five-stage framework, "Human Capital Appraisal," enables managers to measure, manage, and leverage their companies' investment in people. The authors describe specifically how managers can evaluate the current effectiveness of a firm's human capital strategies and the efficiency of its current Human Resources programs. They explain how to measure the amount of time and money management spends to recruit, develop, and manage human resources. Then they focus on how a firm can assess the return on this investment, minimize risk, and leverage the value of its human capital resources. Finally, the authors demonstrate how such leading companies as Colgate Palmolive, The Chicago Tribune, Mobil Oil, The Body Shop, Holy Cross Hospital, Hyatt Hotels, IBM, and British Petroleum are realizing the value of their people through human capital programs. This unique, proven, and proprietary methodology makes this invaluable book required reading for every chief executive, human resources director, and line manager.

Story of how military photographers got their shots while storming beaches and assaulting pillboxes with combat troops.

After receiving a liberal arts education at the Munro Academy in Elbridge, New York, and a stint in the U.S.-Mexican War, James Henry Martineau spent his life as a surveyor, civil engineer, clerk, mapmaker, and pathfinder in Zion. After becoming a Latter-day Saint in 1850, Martineau went with Apostle George A. Smith to settle Parowan in southern Utah, with a commitment to building God's kingdom in the West. As a leader in the Utah Territorial Militia he conducted military drills, witnessed events surrounding the Mountain Meadows Massacre and the legal trials of its perpetrators, explored wilderness areas, submitted reports, and drew maps to record his travels throughout the entire Mormon corridor. These journals document his exploration of virgin lands in southern Utah, his laying out of townsites and farmland in Cache Valley, his participation in canal building and water projects in Arizona, and his near-death experiences while surveying rough, mountainous areas. His work for the Union Pacific Railroad through Weber Canyon and across the Salt Lake Promontory and Humboldt Desert in 1868 is one of the very few complete records of its kind.

"This enjoyable, evocative memoir of the early ranching days in and around California's Solano and Napa counties paints vivid images of its times and places. James Noble Hatch recounts his childhood in the early days in and around Vacaville, California. Hatch, born 1868 near St. Helena, California, lived on farms near Napa and in the Berryessa Valley before his family settled near Vacaville. Jim movingly describes late nineteenth-century rural life, from attending local schoolhouses to plowing fields, planting fruit trees, going on a cattle round-up, and hunting in the nearby hills. His colorful descriptions, poetry, and timeless bits of wisdom help bring the story to life. Jim traces the circumstances and decisions that would result in his later success in engineering, from his humble, challenging beginnings working on the family farm to his hard-won battle with his father to attend university. Along the way, Jim brushes shoulders with several locals now notable in the history of Vacaville and its surroundings"--Back cover.

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