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Mark Isen #3
Firefall
Survival is not guaranteed…
Firefall sees the return of battle-hardened soldier Mark Isen, now a major with the Third Ranger Battalion, who finds himself and his Rangers in alliance with the German Army, fighting crazed right-wing radicals.
Isen and his men are tasked with what they believe to be a peaceful multinational training exercise, but, after parachuting into Germany on a winter night armed only with game plans and blanks, the deadly truth emerges…
The Rangers are unable to contact the German exercise controllers and find that the regular German army has been overtaken by the German People's Union, a xenophobic faction that intends to overthrow the German government and decimate the Rangers in a show of force.
Without air support and with faltering communications, they struggle to hold their positions while the politicians in Berlin and Washington posture and strategize.
Civilians and Rangers alike become casualties and unlikely heroes emerge amidst the panic and despair of an increasingly brutal and bloody battle.
Faced with an armed and hostile enemy, Isen must first procure some ammunition and then figure out a way to survive until U.S. reinforcements arrive.
Who will make it out alive?
Praise for Ed Ruggero:
‘A lively and gripping book’ – History Net
‘Ruggero's concentration on ground manoeuvres, focused tightly on the Rangers in their terrifying isolation, is a powerful indictment of the possible consequences of our current military draw-down.’ – Publishers Weekly
About the author:
Ed Ruggero is the author of the war hero series Mark Isen,Combat Jump, and Duty First. He was an infantry officer in the US Army for eleven years and is an experienced keynote speaker on leadership development. He lives in Wallingford, Pennsylvania.
Firefall sees the return of battle-hardened soldier Mark Isen, now a major with the Third Ranger Battalion, who finds himself and his Rangers in alliance with the German Army, fighting crazed right-wing radicals.
Isen and his men are tasked with what they believe to be a peaceful multinational training exercise, but, after parachuting into Germany on a winter night armed only with game plans and blanks, the deadly truth emerges…
The Rangers are unable to contact the German exercise controllers and find that the regular German army has been overtaken by the German People's Union, a xenophobic faction that intends to overthrow the German government and decimate the Rangers in a show of force.
Without air support and with faltering communications, they struggle to hold their positions while the politicians in Berlin and Washington posture and strategize.
Civilians and Rangers alike become casualties and unlikely heroes emerge amidst the panic and despair of an increasingly brutal and bloody battle.
Faced with an armed and hostile enemy, Isen must first procure some ammunition and then figure out a way to survive until U.S. reinforcements arrive.
Who will make it out alive?
Praise for Ed Ruggero:
‘A lively and gripping book’ – History Net
‘Ruggero's concentration on ground manoeuvres, focused tightly on the Rangers in their terrifying isolation, is a powerful indictment of the possible consequences of our current military draw-down.’ – Publishers Weekly
About the author:
Ed Ruggero is the author of the war hero series Mark Isen,Combat Jump, and Duty First. He was an infantry officer in the US Army for eleven years and is an experienced keynote speaker on leadership development. He lives in Wallingford, Pennsylvania.
414 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1994
18 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Ed Ruggero
14 books105 followersEd Ruggero remembers very clearly two ambitions he had early on: he wanted to be a soldier and he wanted to be a writer.
Ruggero graduated from West Point in 1980, fulfilling one of his professional dreams. He served as an infantry officer in the Army and later returned to West Point to teach literature and writing. While he was on the faculty at West Point that Ruggero got the idea that it would be great to invite a newly famous author named Tom Clancy for a visit.
“I knew Clancy was fascinated by all things military, and West Point is a great draw. I had no travel budget to offer him, but I cheekily wrote that if he made his way to New York, I’d let him talk to my upperclass cadets.”
Clancy’s visit became a big event for the Academy, and the author was a houseguest of the Superintendent, the three-star general who is essentially the president of a university. Ruggero made good on his promise and brought Clancy to class to speak to cadets in a writing course.
“He told the cadets that he’d waited until he was forty years old to even try writing, something he’d always wanted to do. He told them not to wait.”
Ruggero took Clancy’s advice to heart and got to work on a manuscript that would become his first novel, 38 North Yankee.
“I got up at 4:30—oh-dark-thirty in Army jargon—and wrote until it was time to leave for work at six. I had two young children at the time and didn’t want to sacrifice my time in the evenings with them.”
Ruggero has written fiction, military history and several titles on leadership; and has built a business running retreats for business executives to places like Normandy and Gettysburg.
“We use the history of these battles and the challenges facing the commanders, to figure out how we can better lead our modern organizations.”
On one visit to West Point Ruggero met a graduate of the Class of 1941, who became a guide for two of his books, both non-fiction accounts of American paratroopers in World War Two. Some of the hundred and fifty or so former paratroopers Ruggero interviewed fought in six major campaigns.
“Getting to know those men and capturing their stories for later generations has been a highlight of my professional career.”
While visiting Sicily to research his non-fiction Combat Jump, about the 1943 Allied invasion, Ruggero became intrigued by the question, ”What happens after the fighting moves on?”
“The Allies had somehow to restore law and order and recreate a civil society and all its functioning parts immediately in the wake of the most violent and chaotic of human endeavors: modern war. That must have been incredibly difficult.”
That musing led Ruggero to a new fiction series that kicks off in 2019 with Blame the Dead.
“The protagonist is a former Philadelphia beat cop, Eddie Harkins, who winds up investigating the murder of a US Army surgeon. Among other problems, Harkins learns that many of the victim’s colleagues think that the dead man—who was something of a low-life—pretty much got what he deserved.”
“But, as Harkins says, you can hardly blame the dead guy for his own murder.”
Ruggero and his wife, Marcia Noa, divide their time between Media, Pennsylvania and Lewes, Delaware. Ruggero spent seven years as a trustee of the Philadelphia Outward Bound School.
“I often think of Tom Clancy’s advice to my cadets, which helped me in no small way to find a job I love.”
Ruggero graduated from West Point in 1980, fulfilling one of his professional dreams. He served as an infantry officer in the Army and later returned to West Point to teach literature and writing. While he was on the faculty at West Point that Ruggero got the idea that it would be great to invite a newly famous author named Tom Clancy for a visit.
“I knew Clancy was fascinated by all things military, and West Point is a great draw. I had no travel budget to offer him, but I cheekily wrote that if he made his way to New York, I’d let him talk to my upperclass cadets.”
Clancy’s visit became a big event for the Academy, and the author was a houseguest of the Superintendent, the three-star general who is essentially the president of a university. Ruggero made good on his promise and brought Clancy to class to speak to cadets in a writing course.
“He told the cadets that he’d waited until he was forty years old to even try writing, something he’d always wanted to do. He told them not to wait.”
Ruggero took Clancy’s advice to heart and got to work on a manuscript that would become his first novel, 38 North Yankee.
“I got up at 4:30—oh-dark-thirty in Army jargon—and wrote until it was time to leave for work at six. I had two young children at the time and didn’t want to sacrifice my time in the evenings with them.”
Ruggero has written fiction, military history and several titles on leadership; and has built a business running retreats for business executives to places like Normandy and Gettysburg.
“We use the history of these battles and the challenges facing the commanders, to figure out how we can better lead our modern organizations.”
On one visit to West Point Ruggero met a graduate of the Class of 1941, who became a guide for two of his books, both non-fiction accounts of American paratroopers in World War Two. Some of the hundred and fifty or so former paratroopers Ruggero interviewed fought in six major campaigns.
“Getting to know those men and capturing their stories for later generations has been a highlight of my professional career.”
While visiting Sicily to research his non-fiction Combat Jump, about the 1943 Allied invasion, Ruggero became intrigued by the question, ”What happens after the fighting moves on?”
“The Allies had somehow to restore law and order and recreate a civil society and all its functioning parts immediately in the wake of the most violent and chaotic of human endeavors: modern war. That must have been incredibly difficult.”
That musing led Ruggero to a new fiction series that kicks off in 2019 with Blame the Dead.
“The protagonist is a former Philadelphia beat cop, Eddie Harkins, who winds up investigating the murder of a US Army surgeon. Among other problems, Harkins learns that many of the victim’s colleagues think that the dead man—who was something of a low-life—pretty much got what he deserved.”
“But, as Harkins says, you can hardly blame the dead guy for his own murder.”
Ruggero and his wife, Marcia Noa, divide their time between Media, Pennsylvania and Lewes, Delaware. Ruggero spent seven years as a trustee of the Philadelphia Outward Bound School.
“I often think of Tom Clancy’s advice to my cadets, which helped me in no small way to find a job I love.”
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 1, 2022
Good
I could not put the book down. Stayed up all night reading. Great job on story. Good luck on next
I could not put the book down. Stayed up all night reading. Great job on story. Good luck on next
May 31, 2012
good but all together not as good as 38 north yankee.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews