About Storm Rider: The Book
STORMRIDER. It is an Intense and unstinting detailed account regarding the hero's combat missions and his rescue (after being shot down in the A Shau Valley in June 1972) and his attempt to deal with the problems that returning veteran experienced after fighting in the Vietnam War. This story takes one through the gambit of fear, triumph, highs, lows, betrayals and the integral friendships that framed life before, during and after Viet Nam.
A thrilling, but humorous, storyline weaves through very personal relationships, the choice to enter the war voluntarily while giving up a disability pension from surviving a cancer operation at age 27. This novel also deals with the emotional tribulations of a combat veteran returning from a war scorned. A targeted audience of realistic/historical fiction will obtain a better understanding of how that war was fought and lost.
Why I Wrote This Book
I lived a very unusual life. My son, Joshua, heard some of the stories and told me that they needed to be written down and available to others. As I started to consider my life in the war that I fought, I came to realize just how much misinformation regarding Vietnam was accepted as fact. A perfect example was the 10-part series on Vietnam released by PBS. I can tell you with certainty that the last two episodes contained false conjectures, bad assumptions and completely erroneous so-called facts. I know because I was there. My last mission that I flew for the active-duty United States Air Force was the aborted attempt to rescue hostages in Iran. That ended in total disaster. Before I left service in June 1980, my squadron received a 15-minute brief from Gen. James A Hill who was second in command overall of the United States Air Force. His briefing is contained in my book and will explain to the reader exactly what happened on the night of April 25, 1980. To my knowledge, the only place that you will find out the true history of that awful event is in the book, STORMRIDER.
It is essential for a functioning democracy to have a well-informed electorate. As one historian put it, “If you do not know your own history, you were doomed to repeat it.” We made the same mistakes in Iraq that we made in Vietnam because the American voters and the people they elected did not know the full story regarding Vietnam. My book will give the reader a much clearer picture of what happened that last year than anything else that comes to mind.
The Emma Effect
The central figure in the story is a young man named Mitch Lavin. He was raised by his great aunt when his parents were killed when he was six years old. At seventeen years of age, Mitch received a full scholarship to Widmark College where he played center midfielder on the school's soccer team. In his senior year, two beautiful coeds so severely mistreated him that he fled the school to take a job with Mining Consortium International (MCI) as an overseas mining expert. Mitch was sent primarily to northern Afghanistan to find potential mining sites for ore containing the rare elements needed for national defense. The story revolves around his interactions with his boss Gen. Creighton Wheeler, and his administrative assistant, Miss Emma Waterson.
Emma is an attractive woman who projects a strong and mystical sense of serenity to those who come into her milieu. Mitch, a very good-looking young man, is attracted to this young lady because his soul is in turmoil. His feelings toward Emma significantly deepen as he gets to know her. He knows he has to overcome his past, and he turns, at the suggestion of Gen. Wheeler, to MCI’s in-house psychiatrist, Dr. Linda House, for counseling. The narrative details Mitch’s long struggle to find mental balance and some happiness in life by overcoming what was done to him in the past and how it affected his ability to deal with problems in the present.
If you wish to purchase a signed copy of either Stormrider or The Emma Effect or both, please send a check or money order for $30 per book with your return address to the following:
