Description
These short stories from the author of Last Flight and Ashen Skies of Vietnam are works of fiction, although some involve real events and some take place in real places. Names and characters are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental; however, there was a truly fine dog named Billy.
Several stories take place in foreign countries; others in the author's native New Hampshire or next door in Maine; some involve school reunions. Most of these stories take place before mobile communications came into use.
Several stories involve bird watching; some occur before the Audubon Society began capitalizing bird names, others after.
Having spent many hours in airplane cockpits during twelve years as an Air Force/AF Reserve pilot followed by twenty-five years with Trans World Airlines (now just a treasured memory for its thousands of former employees), it follows that several stories involve pilots.
In recent years thousands of American men and women have served in the Middle East, but Vietnam—where the author flew hundreds of cargo missions—was his generation's war. It was the major topic of newspapers and nightly newscasts, and because of the military draft, the war affected every community, and nearly every family with draft-age young men.
Two of these stories previously appeared in other publications, and two are excerpts from the author's novels, Last Flight and Ashen Skies of Vietnam.