Haboob Wind by Tommy Anderson

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MWSA Review

Haboob Wind is a thriller depicting a scenario where terrorist groups come together to destroy the United States of America. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), North Korea, Iran, and even Mexican drug cartels join forces bringing different capabilities to the fight against a common enemy: freedom. The rogue coalition exploits the U.S. dependence on technology and strikes that weakness fast and hard. Employing sleeper agents, domestic terrorism, cyber attacks, U.S. politics, and long-term planning, the terrorists deliver one massive blow known as the “Haboob Wind.”

Author Tommy Anderson’s knowledge of both the military and law enforcement allowed him to create scenes that put the reader at the characters’ sides. Besides describing the tactical details with precision and accurate language, Anderson shows the turf battles often present between Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and military authorities, even under dire circumstances. Anderson shares with readers the camaraderie among National Guard units built through fighting together overseas among fellow neighbors, coworkers, and family, all returning to the same hometowns. He crafted a story of hope of so many Americans coming together when all odds were against them.

After the terrorists take out all U.S. communications and electronic with an Electronic Pulse Weapon (EPW), America is left blind, deaf, and dumb against their unknown enemy. The three main characters, military veterans, come up with a plan to use vintage aircraft that do not rely on modern communications systems to fight back, looking to the past to save the future. An FBI team comprised largely of military veterans joins the task force and all-American ingenuity and military planning finds a way to save the country. But will they win? Has the global dependence on technology created a weakness for the enemy too powerful to overcome? You will have to read the book to find the answer to that question.

This book is an excellent choice for those who enjoy police, crime, and military novels and who like to sit on the edge of their seats wondering what might happen if such a scenario did take place. The tactical details made the book appear realistic and accurate. MWSA recommends professional editing to improve this important and impactful book.

Review by Valerie Ormond (June 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

A day of celebration and dedication to the heroes and survivors of 9/11 is suddenly disrupted by a long-planned terrorist attack. From the tumultuous battlefields of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi deserts to the unsuspecting shores of the United States, Tommy Anderson brings to life an unsettling account of what could actually happen when thousands of sleeper warriors infiltrate the very fabric of American military and public safety agencies. Fueled by increasing acts of seemingly unrelated terrorism by ISIS militants, and unfettered over a couple decades of political unpreparedness, the Haboob Wind furiously builds to a suspenseful, violent climax. Don’t miss the page-turning, twist of events as three retired war buddies join forces to battle the storm.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1513634234
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 98

Taps: The Silent Victims of the Vietnam War - The Families Left Behind by George Motz

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MWSA Review Pending
 

Author's Synopsis

“Taps” tells the story of a young Army officer from New York assigned as the Casualty Notification and Survivors Assistance Officer for a large portion of South Carolina – rich and poor, black and white, inner-city and country, during the racially-charged, antiwar environment of the mid-1960’s.

ISBN/ASIN: 978109043489
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 206

All Blood Runs Red by Phil Keith and Tom Clavin

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MWSA Review

In the biography of Eugene Bullard, All Blood Runs Red, authors Phil Keith and Tom Clavin give us an excellent glimpse into the life of a truly fascinating individual. At first glance, Bullard's life story seems to be more of what creates legends or movies than what a single person could experience. He may be one of the most important Americans who lived in the twentieth century, but most of us today have little or no knowledge of him.

Born in Georgia in 1895, the grandson of a slave and son of a laborer, Bullard ran away from home during his early teen years and somehow managed to work his way to France over the next couple of years. For the next forty years, he lived for the most part in Paris before returning to the United States. Bullard fought for the French in World War I, first in the infantry and then—after being injured—as a fighter pilot. Before and after that war, he was a boxer, a musician, and a night club owner. He became friends with a plethora of celebrities to include Hemmingway, Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, Fred Astaire, and more. As World War II approached, he spied on the Germans for the French intelligence service. When the Germans reached Paris, he returned to the front and fought again with the French infantry. Bullard received numerous French medals to include the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. This is a good book that I recommend you read.

Review by Bob Doerr (May 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

Eugene Bullard lived one of the most fascinating lives of the twentieth century. The son of a former slave and an indigenous Creek woman, Bullard fled home at the age of eleven to escape the racial hostility of his Georgia community. When his journey led him to Europe, he garnered worldwide fame as a boxer, and later as the first African American fighter pilot in history.

After the war, Bullard returned to Paris a celebrated hero. But little did he know that the dramatic, globe-spanning arc of his life had just begun.

All Blood Runs Red is the inspiring untold story of an American hero, a thought-provoking chronicle of the twentieth century and a portrait of a man who came from nothing and by his own courage, determination, gumption, intelligence and luck forged a legendary life.

ISBN/ASIN: ISBN-13: 978-1335005564, UNSPSC Code: 55111505, B07S39G478
Book Format(s): Hard cover, Kindle, Audiobook
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 352

Mongol Moon by Mark Sibley

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MWSA Review

Mark Sibley’s Mongol Moon is a scary but plausible scenario that sees several of America’s worst enemies team up to start World War III on our own soil.

China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea have all decided that their only way out of economic and agricultural decline is to seize the rich territory of the United States. Working together, they coordinate an attack that initially leaves us blind and unable to strike back. But the bad guys have forgotten how much the average American, when pushed, pushes back, and veterans and active duty alike come together to fight the invaders whenever and wherever they can. Will it be enough?

The author does an outstanding job of weaving together several seemingly unconnected story lines into a cohesive story, and while there is closure at the end of the book for those characters most thoroughly developed, there is an obvious intent to set up for numerous sequels. If they are all as exciting as this first installment, I’m looking forward to it.

Fans of Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, or MWSA’s own Dale Dye and Jeff Edwards will find a lot to like in this book. Fast-moving, exciting, and with a unique story line, action fans won’t be able to put this one down.

Review by Rob Ballister (April 2020)

MWSA's evaluation of this book found a number of technical problems--including some combination of misspellings, grammar, punctuation, or capitalization errors.

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Author's Synopsis

Mongol Moon, an apocalyptic thriller about a nuclear attack on the US and Europe, follows several heroic and desperate individuals as they all converge on Virginia—where their families live as well as where the enemy gathers.

When the war begins, Navy Commander Joey Washington is on the International Space Station. The last thing she observes before she and her fellow astronauts evacuate is North America and Europe plunged into pitch darkness and bright flashes blooming on the Indian sub-continent. Her family is in Virginia, but her landing zone is in Kazakhstan.

Javad works as chief spymaster for the feared Iranian Ministry of Intelligence. Over time, he has become angry and alone in the world, his loved ones dying at the hands of the same regime he’s served for nearly forty years. Darkness takes root in Javad’s mind as he concocts and nourishes an audacious plan against his enemies. His quest for vengeance, however, has put what remains of his family, now living in Virginia, in danger.

Gunnery Sergeant An Nguyen and his Marines are in a darkened Fort Knox, Kentucky, where he’s been ordered to D.C. to contact command authority. Nguyen and his men only have moments before the Christmas Eve power outage turns deadly. Fighting for their lives through a changed country with one of the only vehicles that still runs, a tank nicknamed Alice, his mind is on his parents and their home in Virginia.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1-7340771-0-0, 978-1-7340771-1-7, 978-1-7340771-2-4
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 306

Sirens: How to Pee Standing Up - An Alarming Memoir of Combat and Coming Back Home by Laura Colbert

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MWSA Review

Sirens: How to Pee Standing Up by Laura Colbert is an incredible true story of life during a military deployment. This should be required reading for every politician and higher-ranking officer who has forgotten what it’s like on the front line.

Colbert’s writing style takes you to Iraq, where you experience the discomfort, homesickness, and fear alongside her. Without bogging down on too much detail, she packs a lot of information into her description. Added photos bring her words to life.

I enjoyed and appreciated her honesty in portraying the good with the bad, the things she is proud of as well as the things she’s not so proud of.

I highly recommend Sirens to anyone who is considering joining the military, so they can go in with eyes wide open. I also recommend it to civilians who need to understand what military men and women give up to protect America’s freedoms that are so easily taken for granted.

Review by Dawn Brotherton (April 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

There's a steep learning curve for every American soldier who deploys to the Middle East war zone. Much of that involves culture shock, and the excitement and confusion also applies to female soldiers. And when that female soldier is also a Military Police Officer, the curve gets bent way out of shape. Laura Colbert was heartland-bred and tough enough when the Army sent her to an MP unit in Baghdad, but she quickly discovered soldiering in Iraq involved a lot more than she expected.

How to establish her military cop cred? How to deal with chauvinistic soldiers? How to deal with Iraqis--men who disrespected her and women who initially distrusted her? How much military law applied in a lawless land? And dealing with even the simplest things, like how to pee standing up. Laura managed it and survived, but the learning curve just bent in another direction when she came home from war suffering with stress and anxiety that eventually bloomed into Post-Traumatic Stress.

Reviews:
"...Since she got back, Naylor has been on a new mission, one she believes also serves her country: She shows...what the war is really like for the soldiers who have to fight it."
--Dee J. Hall, Wisconsin State Journal

"Colbert...has told her story...in the hopes of relating the reality of her war to people half a world away who experienced it only through increasingly small TV news clips and articles in print publications."
--Nathan Phelps, USA TODAY Network

About the Author:
As a daughter of a Vietnam War Military Police officer and a sister to an Army Infantry Medic, Laura joined the Army National Guard as a Military Police officer in 2001 during her freshman year of college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and received her Honorable Discharge in 2009. She served 16 months on active duty, spending over a year in Baghdad, Iraq. Laura's love of travel, living abroad, and serving others brought her to her current position as a middle-school principal. She treasures spending time with her husband and three children. Nature is her oasis. She also loves to read, socialize, remodel homes, and learn, as attested to in her two master's degrees: Experiential Education and Educational Leadership.

ISBN/ASIN: ASIN B07YZ75LQ9, ISBN-10: 1944353275, ISBN-13: 978-1944353278
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 294

Branch Immaterial, A World War II Memoir by Wilfrid George Bonvouloir

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MWSA Review

Colonel W.G. Bonvolour has written a memoir that shares a part of military history from World War II that not many know about. Branch Immaterial is one of those wonderful family books that a grandfather writes for his children and grandchildren to share what he did in the war. It is told as if the author is talking to you in person, sharing a special and sacred time of his life. The colonel's meticulous notes make this a real work of history. It’s a good read for those interested in U.S. history and the creation of the U.S. Air Force, while still telling an entertaining story. The colonel's personality shines through, a true highlight of the book and a great slice of his life.

Since Colonel Bonvolour's writings are from an earlier time frame and taken from his diaries, readers can perhaps forgive the conversational tone and the writing that doesn't necessarily follow current rules of grammar and punctuation. However, there is much to learn from this personal snapshot of the author's military career. On a personal note, I enjoyed meeting this author on the pages of his memoir.  

Review by Rev. Bill McDonald (May 2020)

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 Author's Synopsis

W.G. Bonvouloir received greetings from the government in August 1941. He told his wife not to worry that he was 36, married with three children and was overweight. Surprise! They have raised the weight limit for 36 year olds. So begins his saga during the War. Here is the personal story about how the Army Air Corps went from about 15,000 men in 1941 to over a million by 1943. It is a stirring life diary about those who were asked to do great things when the chips were down and how they did something that would be impossible today. It is the story of men who were given a mission and how they accomplished it.

ISBN/ASIN: ISBN 978-1-64416-664-2 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-64416-665-9(digital)
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 358

Katusha: Girl Soldier of the Great Patriotic War by Wayne Vansant

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MWSA Review

Wayne Vansant’s Katusha: Girl Soldier of the Great Patriotic War is as well written and exhaustively researched a graphic novel as you will find.

Ekaterina Andreaevna Tymoshenko, better known as Katusha, is a Ukrainian teenager just graduating secondary school as the Germans invade Russia. Her education has not prepared her for what she must do for her family and her country. Thankfully, her Uncle Taras is familiar with the ways of war and trains Katusha, her brother Vasily, and her adopted sister Milla to survive in the woods, first as refugees, then as partisans. As her skills grow and Russia recovers from the attack, Katusha and her sister are enlisted as tank crewmen in the Red Army, where they will fight in the huge tank clash of Kursk as well as make the drive to Berlin. Along the way, Katusha finds love, but is it enough to cover all that she has lost?

This book is a wonderful introduction to graphic novels if you are not familiar with the genre. Well-researched, the military illustrations, technology, and nomenclature are spot on, as is the history of the Eastern Front. I particularly liked how the author showed the human side of so many great battles; it is easy to research the strategy of a battle, but harder at times to grasp the feelings and emotions of the people that fought it. Vansant does an excellent job of developing characters, especially since compared to a novel he has limited text in which to do so. There are also a few actual photographs worked into the story, which are used to great impact.

If you enjoy military graphic novels, you will love this; if you are not familiar with graphic novels, this is a great place to start!

Review by Rob Ballister (May 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

This is a Historical Fiction story of a 16-year-old Ukrainian girl who graduates from the tenth and final year of school the night before the German Invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The story follows her through the experiences of the German occupation, fleeing with her family to the forest, getting involved with partisan activity, joining the Red Army and finishing the war as first a tank driver, and then as a tank commander. Seen through Katusha's eyes, we experience the war as she does, covering the war in minute detail. Note: The name Katusha was a song during the war, as it is now.

ISBN/ASIN: Paperback::978-1-68247-425-9, Ebook: 978-1-68247-439-6
Book Format(s): Soft cover
Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 572

Full Mag: Veteran Stories Illustrated, Vol. 2 by August Uhl et. al.

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MWSA Review

FULL MAG: Veteran Stories Illustrated is an innovative blend of text and art in the style of classic Sgt Rock-style comic books, but raised to a level of accomplishment previously unseen. In nine stories told by the people who lived them, we read of military exploits from World War II to Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The stories are bridged by a rather mysterious Narrator who eases the transition between eras and introduces the succeeding stories.

In vividly rendered art, sometimes black and white, sometimes full color, FULL MAG's artists, letterers, and colorists reimagine the author's take in words and especially art to produce classic comic book-style panels bursting through their margins with colorful explosions, screaming soldiers, and roaring fighter jets—even those traditional sound effects (KA-BOOM!) as the bombs and IEDs go off.

As a retired Navy CPO, I was particularly drawn to “Seafloat,” the story of a Navy riverine boat crew in Vietnam. The artwork is superlative and drew me into the narrative, and it even included a photograph of the boat crewmen included in the story. As we say in the Navy, BZ—well done.

In that same story is a powerful, high-action rendering of F-4 Phantom II fighter-bombers pulling out of a bomb run after dropping napalm on enemy forces. You can almost smell the JP4 fumes from the howling engines and feel the concussion of the fiery explosions. This sort of kinetic engagement occurs throughout the magazine.

Though a graphic novel—a “comic book”—FULL MAG also addresses the very serious topics of PTSD and prospective veteran suicides in a story (“In a Baghdad Instant”) by a female vet. She discusses her struggles with PTSD and thoughts of self-destruction traced to a closed-head injury, and gives props to the VA for her treatment and eventual recovery.

FULL MAG is a terrific read, a terrific graphic novel, and a terrific tribute to the men and women of the armed forces. Strongly recommended.

Review by Daniel Charles Ross (April 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

Full Mag: Veteran Stories Illustrated, Vol. 2 is a unique veteran history project in graphic novel form. Full Mag presents the stories of our veterans in their own words with illustrations in sequential graphic art. Every story presented is the result of an interview by our team or the written contribution of the veteran specifically for Full Mag. This volume includes first-person accounts from Operation Market Garden and the Waal river crossing, the Battle of Okinawa, the liberation of the Philippines, stories from Vietnam include "Phu Bai Intersect", "Plain of Reeds", and "Seafloat" and stories from OEF/OIF include "In a Baghdad Instant" and the conclusion of "Hidden Valor". These are stories that can only be told by those who experienced the events themselves. The team of artists include both established pros and emerging talent and several of the artists are veterans themselves. Full Mag provides a unique platform for veterans to tell their stories while simultaneously allowing artists to honor these warriors through the application of their skills as cultures have done since the dawn of mankind. This 84-page perfect bound, magazine sized, graphic novel volume is a publication unlike any other. Printed in the USA on 80# high quality paper.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-0-578-43002-7
Book Format(s): Soft cover
Review Genre: Artistic—Graphical Novel/Comic Book
Number of Pages: 84

Rigged - Book One of the Falling Empires Series by James Rosone & Miranda Watson

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MWSA Review

Rigged, Book One of the Falling Empire Series is a fast-moving thriller that takes a look at a future where several world powers and the UN form a secret alliance to rig a presidential election in the United States. Their goal is to have a candidate of their own choosing elected, perhaps even to control. Authors James Rosone and Miranda Watson spin a frightening plot that is likely something about which several nations might actually wish they could do.  While the security services of the U.S. do a good job at catching and stopping several terrorist activities, they fail to see the big picture, and the nefarious larger goal seems unstoppable. The authors have given us a lot to think about and have done so in a book that I believe many will find enjoyable.

Review by Bob Doerr (April 2020)

Author's Synopsis

Who has real power?

The people in the shadows…
…behind the presidents of the world.
Cloaked in secrecy and loyal to their leaders, the masters of manipulation play at an entirely different level. They pull the strings and sow the seeds of division. What is their plan?
An election approaches.

The new US president will change the direction of the country. The world watches as the contenders for the White House state their cases.

Will this point in history alter the course of mankind?

The hidden plot must be discovered. The upheaval of a divided nation could bring it down. Will our heroes put the pieces together in time? Or have too many dominoes already fallen to stop this devious trap?

You’ll love this “torn from the headlines” modern day thriller because it rings true.

Get it now.

ISBN/ASIN: B07NSHGYWT
Book Format(s): Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 553

Battle of the Bulge: Brothers Behind Enemy Lines by Suzanne Agnes

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MWSA Review

Suzanne Agnes’s The Battle of the Bulge: Brothers Behind Enemy Lines is one of the most unique tales of World War II that I have ever read. In a war involving millions of combatants and almost the entirety of Europe, how do two brothers in two different units meet up on a road in the middle of Germany?

The story is told through the words of George Zak, who was only nineteen years old when he was captured at the beginning of the famous Battle of the Bulge. He recounts his upbringing and some family history to put his Bohemian heritage into focus. He was proud of his father’s service in World War I, and was willing to do his part in World War II, which found him in Europe near the end of the war. His capture began a harrowing journey back to freedom. His brother was also a soldier in Europe, in a different unit. How these two ended up meeting on the side of the road in Germany is one of the great coincidences of the war.

I particularly enjoyed how the author used her father’s (George’s) original words to tell most of the story. This made the story more personal. This isn’t a combat memoir, but instead one person’s small view of a huge part of the end of the war, and his struggles to stay positive amid capture. The reunion with his brother is the icing on the cake of a very human story.

Those who enjoy reading unique stories about coincidences of warfare will love this story, as will those who enjoy studying the Battle of the Bulge.

Review by Rob Ballister (March 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

In 1944, George Zak, a 19-year-old U.S. Army private first class, was captured on the front line during the Battle of the Bulge, the largest and one of the deadliest battles of World War II in Europe. Forced to work as a slave laborer, George subsequently escaped from two prisoner-of-war camps.

Meanwhile, inside American-held territory, George's brother, Robert, a U.S. Army radioman, was determined to find where George might be held prisoner. Robert took his jeep and led his own personal rescue mission into enemy territory.

From the streets of a Bohemian enclave of Chicago to the forests of central Europe, these two brothers ventured to find each other. This is their story--and the story of a fast-fading generation of brave Americans who became accidental heroes in terror and under fire.

ISBN/ASIN: ISBN-10: 0938075993, ISBN-13: 978-0938075998
Book Format(s): Soft cover
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 156

Imminent Threat by Steve Doherty

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MWSA Review

Steve Doherty’s Imminent Threat is an exciting military thriller, with action and technology reminiscent of Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler. It is the fourth Jonathan Preston novel in the series, which follows the exploits of a US intelligence team during and after World War II.

As the war ends, Jonathan Preston and his team of intelligence operatives learn of a rogue submarine mission launched by Japan right before the nation surrendered. Two advanced submarines are crossing the ocean to launch biological warfare on the United States, potentially killing millions after the war is already over. Preston and his team of professionals must use all their skills and call in many favors to try and stop the devastation, but will they be in time?

I was impressed with the existing World War II technology the author built upon to make this story. The two rogue submarines on the mission are explained in detail and are certainly believable. The author also does an excellent job of explaining the intelligence and counterintelligence networks necessary to make this story work.  The result is an entertaining spy/military adventure that fans of the genre will enjoy.

Fans of techno-thrillers, spy novels, and World War II should find this enjoyable.

Review by Rob Ballister (April 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

Steve Doherty is a retired United States Air Force officer and business owner. He grew up in the small community of Muldoon, Texas. He obtained an undergraduate degree from Texas State University, a master’s degree from Chapman University and completed post-graduate work at The Ohio State University. While in the Air Force Steve flew the T-29C, KC-135A, and T-43A aircraft. He currently lives in New Albany, Ohio.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1-64085-560-1; 978-1-64085-561-8; 978-1-64085-562-5
Book Format(s): Hard cover, Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 311

The Big Buddha Bicycle Race by Terence Harkin

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MWSA Review

It's 1970, years before the Vietnam War would actually end, and Brendan Leary has a problem. He wants to live in California and go to film grad school, but he's snagged by the draft. Because he has a film background, the Air Force puts him in a combat film unit not in Vietnam, but in Thailand. That location and the comparatively benign Air Force assignment seem like they'd be an easy gig. But things quickly go downhill from there in Vietnam veteran Terence A. Harkin's The Big Buddha Bicycle Race.

Leary quickly gets used to the laid-back Thai vibe, in large measure because film pals from his former stateside unit have also been assigned to the Thailand photo unit due to their vindictive first sergeant. They face terror when riding out in AC-130 Spectre gunships to film attacks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and face social challenges decompressing in the Thai bars. Growing recreational drug use doesn't deflect the eventual horrors of the shooting war that are visited upon them in their combat backwater.

The titular Big Buddha Bicycle Race was devised as an inter-squadron competition to raise bags of cash for Leary and his co-conspirators, but by the end of the novel the bike race has devolved into a bloody ambush that kills friends and foes, American airmen, and Thai civilians alike. It's how Leary and his friends live their lives along the way that brings home much of the tragedy that bleeds at the end.

This work is a brilliant companion to the most iconic depictions of life in a war zone, including Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Robert Altman's film M*A*S*H, and Barry Levinson's Good Morning, Vietnam. It depicts the sharply drawn characters, daily work drudgery, combat tragedies, political posturing, and the social upheaval of Americans in Southeast Asia in the heady days before the fall.

The Big Buddha Bicycle Race is smart, detailed, compelling, and occasionally heart-rending, and would make a completely legitimate entry in the canon as a movie.

Review by Daniel Charles Ross (April 2020) 

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Author's Synopsis

It’s all working according to plan.  The draft might be keeping me, Brendan  Leary, from going to film school, but I’m getting to ride out the Vietnam War making training films in sunny California with pals like Tom Wheeler, a laid-back pothead, and hipster production officers like Lieutenant Moonbeam Liscomb, a charismatic Air Force Academy boxing champ turned vegetarian Zen Buddhist.  When Wheeler and I impulsively join local coeds protesting Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia, First Sergeant Link summarily ships us off to the Rat Pack, a photo outfit stuck at obscure Ubon Air Base on the Thai-Laotian frontier. Danielle, an artist I met at a candlelight peace march, promises to wait for me even though she’s already lost a husband in Vietnam.   

Too quickly, I adapt to an air-conditioned editorial trailer and nights off base filled with drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and a growing interest in an exotic masseuse named Tukadah.  Playing drums in a blues band with a Spectre door gunner named Harley Baker, I fiddle while Laos burns and my commitment to Danielle begins to dim. Ubon might be in the middle of an air war that rages all over Southeast Asia, but my motley mates are determined to keep our heads down—until Liscomb, now a radical black nationalist, shows up and talks us into one more peace march.  

Moonbeam is arrested and I am reassigned—thanks again to Sergeant Link.  The Rat Pack needs cameramen: Liscomb and I are soon flying nightmarish nighttime combat over the Ho Chi Minh Trail with hard-nosed Baker flying along as my guardian angel.  When it’s rumored that Nixon and Kissinger are headed for China to meet Chairman Mao, we figure the war must be winding down. I dream up a bicycle race to the Big Buddha monastery as a wholesome distraction for Ubon’s airmen—and a way for me and my buddies to make a quick buck.  We get the brass on board by promising ambitious officers a last chance to put some feathers in their caps before a screwed-up war grinds to a halt. At Big Buddha I’m surprised to learn that two Americans—a former Peace Corps volunteer and an ex-USAF forward air control pilot—now live as monks at a wat on the other side of Ubon.

The band breaks up and I begin teaching night school to a class that includes the demure Miss Pawnsiri and Tukadah’s half-brother, Sergeant Prasert.  Discovering Tukadah is engaged to one airman, married to another stationed in Korea, and nursing a heroin habit doesn’t deter me from figuring I’m the guy who can straighten her out.  When Tukadah’s husband flees with her young daughter, however, she’s devastated and disappears. I try to commiserate with her brother, buying him a drink at a club filled with GIs and Thai bar girls.  Prasert disappears, and my old friend Wheeler insists the sergeant is part of the terrorist group that tried to assassinate the governor of Ubon province.  

I blame Wheeler’s paranoia on too much ganja.  With the race snowballing, Liscomb and I are made lead cameramen on the official documentary, an assignment that reminds us why we love making movies.  The start of the Big Buddha Bicycle Race is glorious—a thousand entrants from every unit on the base mean tens of thousands of dollars for the Syndicate.  Across the river, Tukadah has nearly OD’d while spending the night at Papa-sahn’s opium den. She survives, dragging herself away to find me and stop her brother, but she‘s too late.  The race ends in a bloody ambush led by Prasert, catching me and Tukadah in a crossfire. Liscomb, who has been filming from a Jolly Green, braves a hail of bullets to rescue us, only to have Tukadah die in my arms.  Lying in my hospital bed, I can hear Baker’s unit taking off, plane after plane. One of their gunners has been killed and he will be avenged.

ISBN/ASIN: Paperback 978-0-8040-1200-3, Hardcover 978-0-8040-1199-0, Electronic 978-0-8040-4090-7
Book Format(s): Hard cover, Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Fiction—Literary Fiction
Number of Pages: 400

render by W. Joseph O'Connell

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MWSA Review

The story of war is not new. The story of PTSD is not new. In this story, it is the treatment that is new.

The first three quarters of the story enfolds around Iraq and the tanker unit whose mission it is to sniff out IEDs. The language is crisp, full of military detail about the dry, dusty life in a foreign land full of insurgents trying to destroy American forces. The primary setting involves the blasting heat of the desert and cramped tent camps, with forays into enemy territory where some of the locals are friendlies. In the fourth quarter of the story, we see what happens to those who survived and went back home. The language shifts into a beautiful prose that allows us to see more of the internal workings of the characters. The setting moves into a lush scenario of rivers, trees, farms, and stimulating cityscapes. Here, we begin to experience PTSD with bits of hope strewn in.

The title of the story is render. The definition of render is to provide or give a service or to cause to be or become. This becomes meaningful when the story is finished. When finished with the book, it might seem to be another PTSD story. But the story lingers and haunts us. Questions come up. Why is the story titled render? Why were our soldiers in Iraq? What kind of person becomes a soldier? Who are the bad guys? How does one get PTSD? Slowly we see how the story is about how the military, or a country, can ask a person to give a service and then, render that person into something different. Then, we aren’t sure any more what is right and wrong. The story does not feature the happy ending we want, but an ending we come to understand.
The characters are described more than developed. We don’t get to deeply know the characters while they are in Iraq. We only get to know them as their character relates to the military. We learn a little more when the characters return home. We can never truly say we know the characters, but in accordance with the theme of render, we understand how they came to be. It’s an enduring and universal story that I will remember for a long time.

Review by Gail Summers (June 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

 The Surge ramped up as summer crawled along, one grueling day at a time. Criminal activity remained high in Baghdad despite efforts by American commanders to provide steadfast coverage over their assigned areas. IED attacks had become the enemy’s standard procedure in the aftermath of the catastrophic hit against Baja Company. Day by day, junior officers received their orders, briefed their soldiers, and embarked on mounted and dismounted patrols in search of the enemy. Daytime temperatures soared, and the Americans became entrenched in a battle of wills against their adversaries as well as the unrelenting heat. With an IED seemingly on every street in Baghdad, it's a battle of attrition between the Army and an invisible enemy as they both vie for control of Iraq's capital city.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1657295674, 1657295672
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Literary Fiction
Number of Pages: 208

Going Home by Carole Brungar

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MWSA Review

It was 1967, and the war in Vietnam was heating up. Joe was an American Army lieutenant, trained to fly the helicopters known as Hueys. This was his second tour of duty in Vietnam, and he was enjoying the experience. Some flights were simply supply runs, but others brought an adrenalin rush as the chopper entered a war zone, ducked through the tracers to land at the site of a crash, and lifted the wounded to safety. Flying was what Joe did best, and he knew that what he did was often a matter of life and death.

Ronnie was a nurse from New Zealand, somewhat disillusioned by the mundane chores of emptying bedpans and spooning soup that marked her hours on duty at her local hospital. She was disappointed and embarrassed after discovering her rather ordinary boyfriend was also a cheater. She needed a change of scenery, and the chance to work in a Vietnamese hospital treating the civilian casualties of war seemed a more worthy use of her time. Ronnie volunteered for a year’s tour and headed off to Vietnam, determined to throw herself into work that would allow her to use all her medical training.

Neither Joe nor Ronnie had any interest in finding love in Vietnam. Their lives were full enough as they made new friends and adapted to the intense heat and culture shock of a strange country. They both enjoyed the regular “Hail and Farewell” parties that celebrated their colleagues who were moving into or out of their assignments. Evenings in a club-like atmosphere might lead to a heartfelt conversation, a slow dance, or a gentle kiss, but no one expected more than that. A war zone was no place for a romance. No one wanted it. No one expected it. They lived a day at a time, dealing with traumatic experiences at every turn. They knew that tomorrow was never promised, and they were content with that.

The story of Joe and Ronnie unfolds gradually, like the slow upward crawl at the beginning of a rollercoaster ride. The view from the top is lovely; their friendship blossoms. And then they plunge into a headlong crisis, a twisting, terror-filled series of events that change their lives forever. The conclusion will leave many readers in tears but wanting more.

Review by Carolyn Schriber (May 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

You don’t choose a time and place to fall in love. Fate always chooses for you.

When Ronnie McIlroy volunteers to spend twelve months nursing in a South Vietnamese hospital, she’s ill-prepared for a poverty-stricken country at war. Neither weak nor faint-hearted, she’s way out of her comfort zone.

American pilot, Joseph Hunter Jr, is on his second tour of duty. With an outstanding flying record and a cool head, he’ll take an Iroquois anywhere he’s needed. When he meets an attractive young New Zealand nurse at the officer’s club, he knows the odds are stacked against a relationship.

With the war between the North and South escalating, hundreds of lives are being lost every day. As Ronnie and Joe navigate the constant dangers of living and working in a war zone, it’s clear fate has decided their time and place to fall in love is now. 

But will one naïve act of compassion destroy any chance of a life together? Will either of them leave Vietnam alive?

From the author of The Nam Legacy and The Nam Shadow, Going Home takes us back to the sixties, to a propaganda fuelled war, a determined enemy and a fragile hope for survival. 

Going Home is Ronnie's story.

ISBN: 9780473503932
ASIN: B082WVYHST
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 370

Angie's War by Gary DeRigne

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MWSA Review

Even as our world changes, so many things stay the same. Today’s soldiers from the Iraq and Afghan wars are dealing with the same struggles as those who made it back from Vietnam. Post-traumatic stress, nightmares, and relationship troubles plague both generations. And the effects reach beyond the foreign battlefields.

Angie is unfortunate to have to wait on her son’s return from Afghanistan as she did so many years ago on her husband’s return from Vietnam. The endless waiting—desperate for, but also fearful of, information about loved ones serving their country.

Told from various points of view, the descriptions are vivid enough to make those who have not seen combat grateful to those who have fought for our freedom. For those who have struggled with these same situations, Gary DeRigne lets you know you aren’t alone. Writing as a combat veteran, DeRigne tells the story so many try to avoid—war has a price. Through power imagery and poignant characterization, Angie’s War paints the all-too-familiar picture of a nation locked in violent combat, and how it affects the individual at home and abroad.

Veterans find solace in reconnecting and talking with others who have been through what they have experienced. A different war but similar experiences draw these soldiers together to find community and, eventually, healing.

Review by Dawn Brotherton (March 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

Angie's War is the story of Mick Delaney, a young American soldier fighting in Vietnam, his best friend Tony Giles, who fights alongside him, and Tony's wife Angie, who waits and worries at home through his year-long deployment. One day Tony receives a letter from Angie that distracts him from the razor-sharp concentration he needs to do his job as an infantry point man...  and the world is changed for the three of them, and everyone they touch, forever.

In Angie's War, author Gary DeRigne tells a gripping tale of love and loss, fear and courage, desperation and hope, that begins in the jungles of Vietnam and extends through the battlefields of Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq.  All the while, through generation after generation, loved ones at home wait, and worry, and pray, in an America that has become callous to the human cost of war.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1-947309-78-4, B07SYBSV81
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 383

The Road to Publishing by Dawn Brotherton

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MWSA Review

A spare little tome, A Guide to Publishing is nonetheless a reliable and useful tool for authors first striking out down the road of trying to get a book published. It doesn't supply a step-by-step format or specific worksheets to either self-publishing or traditional publishing, but it is a helpful book to scour to understand the overall process and how one might decide on a path to follow. There are some valuable individual hints (such as how to search out agents that might be appropriate for you to pitch), and the book is written in a friendly, breezy style that is easy to digest. It is certainly packed with more than enough really good material to get an author started with the "What do I do next?" quandary once a book manuscript is completed. The author also points to some excellent specific resources and organizations that can be valuable to a novice author. If I were looking for this sort of guidance it is definitely a book I would want to read first.

Review by Phil Keith (March 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

It’s a long, twisting road to publishing—don’t let anyone tell you differently. There’s no one path, and the results are as varied as the methods to get there. Before you make a decision affecting your life, you owe it to yourself to do some homework. The Road to Publishing describes options available to you from self- to traditional publishing, providing helpful hints along the way. Through exercises and thought-provoking questions, the path will become clearer. Grab your notebook and let’s get started.

ISBN/ASIN: 978-1-939696-44-1 (paperback), 978-1-939696-45-8 (eBook)
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Nonfiction—How to/Business
Number of Pages: 150

The Obsession by Dawn Brotherton

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MWSA Review

Someone is making calls in the dead of night to Jackie’s phone, but not speaking. Someone is writing her poems, with no signature. Someone is opening doors and moving objects around in the house while she is gone, but nothing stolen, and there’s no sign of a break-in. Dawn Brotherton’s The Obsession will keep you guessing the stalker’s identity, and your supposition will probably be wrong.

Jackie Austin’s life was going reasonably well. She finished up her missile training and was assigned her first duty station at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Her only regret was that her boyfriend was assigned elsewhere, and the long-distance romance was not working out. Against her domineering father’s wishes, she purchased her first house—one hundred years old, with repairs to match its age. Between the renovation projects and her job as a missile officer, she does not need this additional stress. Against this backdrop, there have been several violent murders across the state, and the local police departments have no clues in these cases.

Out of the blue, Jackie is given a one-year assignment to Osan Air Base in Korea as an A-10 squadron section commander. Considering all that had happened in Missouri, she welcomes the break. Life with fighter pilots proved to be an adventure with some rewarding outcomes.  

A follow-on assignment to Langley Air Force Base has her bumping into old acquaintances from Whiteman and making new friends.  Then the calls begin again.  Jackie knows she must confront the tormentor once and for all—if she can figure out who it is.

The Obsession is a fast-moving read with some rather interesting twists and turns.

Review by Sandi Cathcart (March 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

When the phone calls began in the dead of the night, Jackie chalked them up to a prank caller. She'd had her share of harassment during Air Force missile training, but she had rolled with it. Now when she noticed changes around her house she hadn’t made and unsigned love letters began arriving, she knew she needed to worry. Was she paranoid, going crazy, or were the guys at work not getting the message that she wasn’t interested?

In the neighboring town of Sedalia, a more ominous situation was stirring. The unexplained death of yet another young, single woman had the police on alert. Same MO, different small town. It was only a matter of time before the killer found his next victim.

ISBN/ASIN: B004J8HTH6
ISBN: 978-1-939696-93-9 , 978-1-939696-33-5, 978-1-939696-15-1
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook, Audiobook
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 284

Force No One by Daniel Ross

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MWSA Review

Daniel Charles Ross kicks off a brand new techno-thriller series with Force No One, Book 1 in the Storm Cell series, and he does it in style.

A Muslim agent from the Department of Homeland Security is mysteriously murdered, and FBI Agent Amber “Corvette” Watson and her Detroit Homicide task force partner, Detective Sgt. Tracey Lexcellent (love that name) are on the case.

At the same time, a disgraced Special Forces operator offers his services to rescue a Chinese general’s daughter, in exchange for help in retrieving 100 million dollars that the ex-Ranger may or may not have stashed in the desert. And just in case that wasn’t enough excitement, someone is planning upon blowing up the opening game of the World Series where the Detroit Tigers finally have home-field advantage.

Yeah, there’s a lot going on.

Ross does a masterful job of building likable heroes who blend patriotism with humor and are generally just badass. Those characters operate inside a story filled with plenty of military hardware and other cool toys. Start to finish, it was a great read that comes to a thrilling finish.

Fans of Jeff Edwards, Tom Clancy, or Dale Brown will gravitate towards Ross’s work, and will find it thoroughly enjoyable.

Review by Rob Ballister (April 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

A homicide in Detroit usually doesn't raise many eyebrows, but a victim is found with a business card from a Department of Homeland Security enforcement cell no one's ever heard of. FBI Special Agent Amber "Corvette" Watson and Detroit Police homicide detective Sgt. Tracey Lexcellent catch the case.

With a disgraced U.S. Army Ranger who can forget nothing and a black-budget CIA team in tow, they must solve the murder before terrorists can parachute into open-air Comerica Park during the opening ceremonies of the World Series and kill thousands on live television.

People are going to die. Everyone hopes they are the bad guys.

ISBN/ASIN: B07HMGYY6Q
ISBN-10: 1521737959, ISBN-13: 978-1521737958
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 400

A Blessed Life - One World War II Seabee's Story by Tamra McAnally Bolton

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MWSA Review

A Blessed Life begins as a memoir of a fighting Seabee. It changes course almost imperceptibly, and not merely into a story about fighting to survive on Iwo Jima. Stuart McAnally's journey, as told to his daughter, zeroes in on the claustrophobic vulnerability of war. Except for the patch of ground one fights for and clears, the Seabee has no idea how life is going outside his foxhole. Not that it would matter, as Tamra McAnally Bolton's biography of her father makes abundantly clear. Seabees, Marines, and Navy frogmen converged on the Japanese island in the South Pacific Theater. Before playing their parts in World War II, the buildup to the final act is interlaced with adventures of danger, fear and, quite often, questionable decision-making.

A memoir resulting from 34 recorded interviews and six years of work by the author, it is head and shoulders above being a love letter for a war veteran's service to his country. It shares with the reader so many of the moments that illuminate our own mortality, such as boarding a ship in California and watching the coastline fade away as transport across the ocean gets under way. There are more than a few memories that are downright hilarious, such as a buddy with a reputation for helping himself to boats and cars that didn't belong to him, during a time when people were more likely to leave their vehicles unattended with the keys in them than they are today.

Like the war memoir itself, there's no quest for forgiveness or attempt to make sense of the madness. It's a straightforward telling of what happened and who did what. A Blessed Life is crafted in a way that left the impression the author has a great respect for its subject and the reader. In addition to describing the war experience, it chronicles many of the interview sessions that went into creating the book. When Stuart McAnally comes home and one begins to wonder what became of his life, the reader comes to realize the author has been telling that story all the while.

 Review by W. Joseph O'Connell (February 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

A Blessed Life - One World War II Seabee's story is the true account of Stuart McAnally, a 96 year-old veteran. McAnally tells the little known history of his C Company, 31st Construction Battalion, and their heroic acts during the early days of the Battle of Iwo Jima. It also describes his journey from a peaceful farming community through combat training, the battle, and ultimately serving with the Occupational Forces in Japan. Told by his daughter, the veteran's stories are woven into conversations between the generations along with the sharing of his childhood days during the Great Depression. This first-hand account gives you an up-close look at the day-to-day experiences of the Greatest Generation, both in war-time and peace.

ISBN/ASIN: 9781734344547, BO82DLR4WR
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 210

A Look Back in Time: Memoir of a Military Kid in The 50s, Vol. II by Bernard N Lee Jr; Michele Barard (Editor); TeMika Groom (Illustrator)

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MWSA Review

A Look Back in Time is a profoundly personal glimpse into the adolescence of Bernard N. Lee, Jr. The memoir relates events as a military brat in the 1950s, specifically on the family’s first overseas tour in Ansbach, Germany. The author records his fears of being the “new kid” again, the wonder of the German landscape and people, the challenge of learning a new language, and the ups and downs of beginning high school. The friends he makes there have become lifelong ones—their shared experiences embedded in his mind.

 Lee touches on the racial unrest within the military during this time and weaves it into the book very successfully. He confides to the reader his teenage insecurities. He reveals his family to us—a father, a no-nonsense career soldier; a sweet mother who encourages her children to excel; and three younger siblings who look up to him. The author brings this family to life while also acknowledging the stresses that all military families endure.

 Lee’s memoir is a treasure for generations of his family and an entertaining read for those with similar experiences. Many of the emotions of the young man portrayed in the book are timeless and still felt by military brats even today. Although a few editing errors detract slightly, A Look Back in Time is indeed a heartwarming portrayal of military life.

Review by Sandi Cathcart (April 2020)

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Author's Synopsis

A Look Back in Time: Memoir of a Military Kid in the 50s, Vol. II is a fascinating, insightful, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious, chronicle of life while growing up in a military family. Readers will enjoy the stories of life in the fifties, told from a child’s perspective. Through the stories, readers learn the virtues of tolerance, fairness, perseverance, resilience, and other life serving qualities needed for survival in today’s world. These qualities are timeless. Readers, young and old, will recognize these virtues, and themselves, inside the stories.

A Look Back in Time… finds our military kid living in Deutschland, while attending an American middle school and high school. His adventures, with the German and American young adults, are rich in history, suspense, and surprises. You will enjoy the stories of this well-traveled, military kid as he navigates his early teen years in Germany during the fifties.

ISBN: 0-9995576-0-2, ISBN-13: 978-0-9995576-0-0, ISBN: 0-9995576-1-0, ISBN-13: 978-0-9995576-1-7
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle, ePub/iBook
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 280