Recent Books & Films

Events & Meetings

  1. 07May—Chapter Event – Field Trip Grand Cayman!
  2. 06Aug—Chapter Meeting & Presentation
  3. 03Dec—Chapter Event – Meeting & Holiday Party

Recent Books/Films

Here are some recent books or films that might be of interest to you…

Come Up and Get Me: An Autobiography of Colonel Joe Kittinger
By Joe Kittinger and Craig Ryan, Foreword by Neil Armstrong

A few years after his release from a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp in 1973, Colonel Joseph Kittinger (Medalist’63) retired from the Air Force. Restless and unchallenged, he turned to ballooning, a lifelong passion as well as a constant diversion for his imagination during his imprisonment. His primary goal was a solitary circumnavigation of the globe, and in its pursuit he set several ballooning distance records, including the first solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1984. But the aeronautical feats that first made him an American hero had occurred a quarter of a century earlier.

By the time Kittinger was shot down in Vietnam in 1972, his Air Force career was already legendary. He had made a name for himself at Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, New Mexico, as a test pilot who helped demonstrate that egress survival for pilots at high altitudes was possible in emergency situations. Ironically, Kittinger and his pre-astronaut colleagues would help propel Americans into space using the world’s oldest flying machine—the balloon.

Kittinger’s work on Project Excelsior–which involved daring high-altitude bailout tests–earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross long before he earned a collection of medals in Vietnam. Despite the many accolades, Kittinger’s proudest moment remains his free fall from 102,800 feet during which he achieved a speed of 614 miles per hour.

Encyclopedia of Florida Shipwrecks, Volume I: Atlantic Coast
By Michael C. Barnette (FN’09)

Volume I of the Encyclopedia of Florida Shipwrecks includes over 1,300 indexed entries on shipwrecks and all major artificial reefs (vessels, excluding barges) resting along the Atlantic coast of Florida. This work, spanning almost 320 pages, also includes more than 330 archival and underwater images and 1,000 Atlantic coast shipwreck coordinates.

ISBN: 978-0-9743036-1-1
8.5 x 11 inch format, 318 pages, perfect bound.

RETAIL PRICE: $29.95 Available from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, or direct from the author via the Association of Underwater Explorers website (http://uwex.us)

The Lady and the Sharks,
By Dr. Eugenie Clark (Medalist’85)

The Lady and the Sharks…Filled with the Engaging Explorations and the Adventures of a Remarkable Woman, The Lady and the Sharks is about the joys of diving, exploring, and discovering the world that lives beneath the sea-about the pleasure and power of curiosity. This updated 4th edition recounts the birth and growth of a major marine science laboratory, and describes Genie Clark’s fascinating tales about the behavior and physiology of sharks, fish and marine life. Genie’s stories have inspired a continually growing audience of readers, scientists; students have inspired a continually growing audience of readers, scientists, students, collaborators, friends, children, and admirers.

Eugenie Clark is an explorer, marine biologist, and teacher; she is a perfect example of the heights women can attain in scientific study. In 1955, she founded a small marine laboratory that grew to become the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida, now a national center for shark and marine mammal research.