Sneak Peek
The Sky Soldiers

The Sky Soldiers is a three-part, 16-month-long saga depicting the lives of five main characters (all helicopter pilots), who experience the travesty of warin the Republic of Vietnam. The events of the story take place during the period October 1967 through January 1969. The setting is the Mekong Delta as well as several Army training locations across the United States.

WO1 Sandy Adamsonyoung, idealistic, Sandy joins the army directly out of high school to fulfill a long awaited dream: to learn to fly helicopters and to use his hard-won skills to do battle above the treetops in Vietnam. Through his character the reader is afforded a firsthand view of flight school as he and his classmates endure a nine-month-long training regimen designed to feed the Vietnam war machine. Once his silver aviator wings are awarded, Sandy faces the rigors of combat flying as a scout pilot assigned to an air cavalry squadron. There he learns quickly that he is every bit as expendable as the man fighting on the ground. Meantime, Sandy struggles with his emotions as he tries to re-capture the heart and soul of his beloved high school sweetheart, who has joined the peace movement at the college she attends, bent on doing her part to disrupt and derail Americas commitment to the war.

CW2 Derek Justenlaconic, aloof, Derek fights a desperate psychological battle to remain in Vietnam. His purpose is to be as near as possible to a brother he believes is a captive of the Viet Cong, held in a POW camp somewhere in the U Minh Forest, the largest, most isolated enemy sanctuary in Vietnam. He also strives to maintain the hopes of Valerie, his brothers lovely wife, who for a good portion of the story knows nothing about her husband, whether he is dead or alive. Midway through the story, a chance event causes Derek to return prematurely to the United States. And then a visit with Valerie finds each in an emotional struggle that promises to turn their individual worlds upside downor meld them together as one.

1LT Mike Nolanan experienced ground combat soldier, Mike chooses to fly as a way to advance his military career. But he soon learns that his heart is still with the grunt, the lowly foot soldier. And then one day his wish to reconnect with the man on the ground comes true: he is given command of an aero-rifle platoon of light-weapons infantrymen in an air cavalry squadron. Mike is a no-nonsense, died-in-the-wool bachelor, whose whole life is the military, until one day he meets a woman, in Vietnam, employed by the American Red Cross, who shakes his foundation to the bones.

WO1 Kip Slaterdisappointed with college, Kip joins the army to fly. Along the way he learns that his true goal in life is to write; and as grist for the mill what better activity or place is there to be than flying helicopters in Vietnam. Kips sidekick is WO1 Leo Tannah. The two men are former flight school classmates and are paired together in the same units in Vietnam, first as pilots assigned to an assault helicopter company based deep in the Mekong Delta; and then later as pilots assigned to an air cavalry squadron, also based in the Delta. During their time together, Kip and Leo confront the Viet Cong each on his own terms.

The Sky Soldiers races toward a dramatic conclusion when all main characters come together under one banner, as pilots assigned to Charlie Troop, 7th Squadron, 1st Air Cavalry. Eventually, Charlie Troop is ordered to support a 4,000-man Mobile Riverine Force tasked to penetrate the dreaded U Minh, Forest of Darkness. Mission: to locate any Viet Cong operational bases, weapons factories, or prisoner-of-war camps believed hidden within. The Sky Soldiers builds to a crescendo when all main characters focus on one goal: to locate and repatriate a lone American soldier who has escaped from his captors. After a desperate search, the American is finally found and rescuedyet at high costas the story rushes headlong toward an inevitable bloody and tragic end.