Death and Life Are in the Power of the Tongue

This book is a work of fiction, and its plot is well within the realm of possibility. The story is of a former Vietnam War POW incarcerated in the infamous Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi, more popularly known as the Hanoi Hilton. He, as well as his brothers-in-arms, endured the unendurable, and they may well be the last Americans to uphold the love of country and the Code of Conduct.

To many, their threads for survival were the links of religious faith, family, and love. One exception is our principal character, Robert Stone, whose will to survive was nurtured instead by hate so he might one day have his reckoning. If not against the North Vietnamese, then perhaps to take vengeance upon one whose presence in North Vietnam was traitorous and the catalyst for further grief to the hapless Americans. Upon his repatriation into an entirely different world, the fervor of hate diminished with an equivalent ardor developing for furtherance of his career and a return to the cockpit, something only aviators would understand.

The chronicles of his career weave through association with friends, mentors, and a special woman whom he met at Clark Field upon his arrival from Hanoi. In anticipation of promotion to general rank during his tenure at Williams AFB as the Pilot Training Wing Commander, he sets his sights on becoming the Air Force's Public Information Officer, something no respecting fighter pilot would do. His purposes were to be afforded the opportunity to instill backbone in an otherwise lackey service career field and to digest all the information and film footage of those American collaborators in North Vietnam. Though his vow for retribution lay dormant for a number of years, a periodic nagging from within often caused a struggle with how he might one day fulfill his vow.

Due to the expertise developed in the public relations field while assigned as the Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Public Information, Robert Stone elects upon retirement to set up a public relations firm in Beverly Hills. He now zeroes in on his prey, today a renowned author.

This is a story of the innovation required to ensure Robert Stone's action of retribution receives an element of notoriety, now commonplace in American society. This planned retribution is not meant for his personal gratification, but for all his comrades so they are not forgotten. It is his Gift of Reckoning.