Böcker av Robert Hays

Oscar Koch's sterling performance as Gen. George S. Patton Jr.'s intelligence chief, G-2, was a critical element of Patton's success in World War II and earned Koch the reputation as arguably the most brilliant intelligence officer in U.S. Army history.His collection and analysis of information in early winter 1944 led him to issue stern warnings of the German buildup preceding the Battle of the Bulge and let Patton be prepared, but higher headquarters refused to listen. Today, intelligence specialists cite that work as a model for combat intelligence training. After the war, Koch went on to help overhaul the CIA and, in retirement, earned a coveted Guggenheim Fellowship to support research and writing on intelligence in combat.His unlikely friendship with Robert Hays, a young journalist who also happened to be a veteran of Koch's beloved U.S. Third Army, led to a book that has become a crucial source for military historians. Now, Robert Hays offers a deeply personal account of their relationship, reveals the general's astonishingly gentle and caring nature, and describes Koch's philosophy and concerns about the intriguing field of intelligence. Overarching all is the poignant story of Koch's valiant battle with terminal cancer. The reader will understand why Hays grants Oscar Koch the eminent rank of personal hero and feels an obligation to help assure his place in history.

In the tranquil solitude of a darkened Room 12 in the ICU on the sixth floor of Memorial Hospital's Wing C, a mortal existence is drawing to an end. His head and torso swathed in bandages, his arms and legs awkwardly positioned in hard casts and layers of heavy gauze, he's surrounded by loved ones yet unable to communicate, isolated within his own thoughts and memories.He does not believe himself to be an extraordinary man, simply an ordinary one, a man who's made choices, both good and bad. A man who was sometimes selfish, sometimes misguided, sometimes kind and wise. A man who fought in a war in which he lost a part of his soul, who then became a teacher and worked hard to repair the damage.When faced with the end, how does one reconcile the pieces of an ordinary life? Does a man have the right to wish for wings to carry him to a summit he believes he doesn't deserve to reach?