It is 1962, and the US Army Special Forces is expanding to confront the communist challenge in Southeast Asia. Sergeant Jake Campbell has come a long way from the sharecropper’s house he grew up in near Nickelsville, Virginia. Just three years ago, he and a friend hitched a ride to Kingsport, Tennessee, and joined the army. Now he is headed for training camp in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, unaware that he is about to undergo the biggest challenge of his life. Campbell immediately immerses himself in the Special Forces training group, anxious to prove himself. He is expecting a tough road ahead lined with mental and physical challenges, but soon finds that he must also face bigotry and class discrimination. Regardless, Campbell persists through pain, sweat, and blood and soon earns a coveted spot with the Green Berets. Ordered on a mission with First Sergeant William Booth—a man who has no love for Campbell—to Laos to train Hmong soldiers to fight the CIA’s secret war, Campbell’s idealistic view of the world is turned upside down as he witnesses the ugly underbelly of unfettered power, corruption, and injustice. In this fast-paced, action-packed military thriller, one soldier must fight for his life in the steamy Vietnamese jungles amidst murder, conspiracy, and a superior who harbors a secret that, if revealed, will ruin him forever.
Footsteps echo in the outside corridor. Shit. They’re back. Jake’s mind races, his heart pounds. Pain shoots through his battered body as he scoots crab-like across the dirty floor and claws up the back wall. His knees are like watery gelatin. He struggles to balance himself then stands trembling on shackled feet. A key turns in the ancient lock. The lock groans. The door opens. He shivers from the cold chill that has settled in his spine. He licks dry blood from his lips, stiffens his back and squares his shoulders as pictures click past his mind’s eye like images on slow motion film—Special Forces training, Pete Jones, the CIA, beautiful Lia, the murder . . . and Booth. That sonofabitch.
Dr. J. H. Dixon was a Green Beret instructor at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and helicopter pilot in Vietnam. He was a faculty member of the United States Military Academy in West Point and the National War College in Washington, DC. This is his third book.