Read from the introduction to In the School of War by Roger J. Spiller:

"After artillery deploys for battle, arranges itself into batteries, a commander usually orders a ranging shot, a round or two meant to estimate how far his guns will reach. Or so it was before modern science intervened. Although we don’t know for sure, someone among Henry V’s archers at Agincourt—masters of the lethal, indirect firepower that would turn that day in his favor—must have fired such a shot, adding one more tactical detail to the King’s picture of the field where he and his men were about to fight. Centuries later, Robert E. Lee reserved to himself the order for the first shot as he looked over the open fields at Fredericksburg and General Burnside’s Grand Divisions forming for their attack. In those days, after throwing a few cannonballs in the enemy’s direction, a commander could see for himself just when the enemy’s advancing troops might fall under the shadow of his imaginary artillery fan. Then he could decide whether to open up his artillery to spoil the attack or, waiting longer, to kill it outright—the “it” being hundreds or even thousands of other human beings.

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Read the beginning of the Prologue, "Realization of a Dream of Ages" by Colin Burgess from Footprints in the Dust: The Epic Voyages of Apollo, 1969-1975:

"It was the spring of 1961, and the United States was in desperate need of some good news. The nation was experiencing considerable pain and undergoing an inescapable insight, with a mounting number of civil rights protests highlighting a desire for profound attitudinal change. At the heart of this movement was the spreading use of nonviolent “sit-ins,” for the most part courageously led by young black college students protesting against enforced segregation in department stores, supermarkets, theaters, libraries, and elsewhere. Over the next few years these demonstrations would escalate in size and turmoil, often marred by violence, deaths, and bloody divisions across the nation.

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Read from "Skiing Walhalla" in Where the Rain Children Sleep: A Sacred Geography of the Colorado Plateau by Michael Engelhard with new essays and a new preface by the author:

"I awaken to dishwater light and the SHUSHing of snow sliding down the tent fly. Poking my head through the entrance I find our campsite muffled by cloudbanks. Already, Kate hovers near the canyon rim, eager to capture the sweet light of morning with her camera. By the time I’ve wriggled into my ski pants—condensation showering me from the domed ceiling—and coffee is steaming on the stove, there is movement in the abyss. Wet shrouds drag across ponderosa-clad slopes. Where the fabric thins, the sun bleeds through in an amorphous smear. Elsewhere, gashes reveal Toroweap ridges and pinnacles perched atop raw-boned Coconino scarps. To the northeast, a thick broth spills across the Painted Desert, barely contained by the glowing rim of Vermilion and Echo cliffs.

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