This Collection Consists of 6 Stories $29.95

Story 1

The Coward of Song Ta
Here is that war story which every fighter knows and abhors … Where a close buddy is killed by friendly fire. This is a true account of how I experienced this in Vietnam, and I was the 'friendly fire' … worse, if possibly, I could not bring myself to admit it … even in official reports.

The story narrates this misfortune from the cockpit of my fighter. Then it traces my inability to admit that I had violated a basic rule of war in the heat of combat and killed my wingman.

Finally, as the years pass, the story shows how, for a warrior, one has to learn to make the most of each day's happenings … both good and evil … learn the lessons, feel the pride or shame … and then put the memory away. Get over it and get on with one's life.

Story 2

South China Sea Sortie
I suppose every fighting man who has been in active combat has experienced that moment of 'near-death' where he knows his life-left-on-earth is only a matter of minutes … or perhaps seconds.

I guess because I'm such a lousy swimmer, these crisis moments always have come to me in the water … This one, the South China Sea. It's an Old Fisherman kind of story … Remember Hemingway's story of the Old Fisherman? On an 'Under Flares' mission, I got shot down and spent the night in a one-man life raft floating the South China Sea.

This is a true story of the private war a man has maintaining control of himself and his tiny environment when he is called to survive among the sharks at night.

Story 3

Night Flight Whispers
When my RAF buddy, John Gillespie McGee, wrote the inspiring poem 'High Flight,' he challenged me to tell the 'rest-of-the-story': namely, about 'Night Flight.'

Here is my 'prose-verse' effort to describe from a fighter cockpit during combat, the intense awe, joy and terror … the special mystic majesty of doing it in the dark.

Story 4

Hero's Kid Brother
One of my most exciting but tragic adventures of the Vietnam War was that dealing with the little brother of astronaut Ed White and his dad.

This is the very real and true but mystical story of how a combat commander must treat each of his pilots fairly and equally. Whether he is the son or daughter of a king or a slave, whether he or she is a popular hero or a selfish rat, I was expected to give each the same chance for medals, the same chance to die, and I did.

Story 5

The Shadow of Dak To
The Battle of Dak To, arguably the bloodiest battle of the Vietnam War raged over Thanksgiving Day, 1967.

War correspondent Peter Arnett won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature describing the gruesome struggle for Hill 875. I was shot down and taken prisoner on a sortie bombing that same ridge.

This is my story of mixed heroics and cowardice as I struggle to survive that awful battle in the air, on the ground, captured, imprisoned and escape.

Story 6

Mia Angela Nina
This is the heart-wrenching, post-war story typical of the struggle for freedom that literally hundreds of us Vietnam Warriors had to fight upon our return from the war zone.

Mine was against alcoholism, others struggled with drugs, Agent Orange Cancer, Post-Trauma Syndrome, deep anger and destroyed moral values.