The Story: Rye's Passage Through the Vietnam War

ABOUT THE BOOK

Hard Chargers From The Sky is not just another Vietnam War story. 

It is a historical novel seen through the eyes of a young lieutenant, Ryan "Rye"Anders, Vietnam 1967-8, called upon to airlift and drop his 127 men and 6 1/2 ton guns into battle, he commits to the potential of a one-way ticket...

The main characters are: 

Lt. Ryan "Rye" Anders (Battery Executive Officer), {Protagonist}

Captain John Flannery (Battery Commander) 

Sergeant Jimmie Watson (Battery Sergeant) 

Gehrig (Fire Direction Officer) 

Chief (Battery Top Sergeant)

Smoke (Chief of the Battery) 

Colonel Koke (1/30th Battalion Commander) 

Captain Dianne Smythe (Nurse and lover) 

Rye prepares to go to war (Arrival), faces battle (Survival), and in the end suffers the mental conflict over the loss, the mistakes, and illness (Fall-Out). It is a passage through war told through the dialog, events (many unreported), sights, sounds and smells experienced by this author. 

Rye arrives unassigned to a unit. Believing that big guns will place him safely behind the lines, he chooses a 155 mm artillery unit from a list on a wall. 

He is so wrong!  A bold experiment dreamed up by armchair generals in Washington to win the war assigns Alpha Battery and his 6 1/2 ton guns as a lead assault unit.

Each mission becomes more difficult with less chance of survival... 

- Retaking the provincial capital of Hue

- Landing on top of the North Vietnamese Army in Khe Sahn

- Returning to the abandoned Marine Base under siege to rescue guns, He discovers men left behind and becomes the last American standing in Khe Sanh

- Airlifting two guns and 27 men into the "Valley of Death", 37 miles inside the enemy in a suicide mission, will he make it out?

Rye finds love with a warrior nurse, if only to escape...they are damaged goods.

Conflicted in leaving brothers behind and unable to wash off the blood, he cannot escape the horror...

Hard Chargers From The Sky honestly imparts the action, dialog, and introspection of a soldier fighting in an unpopular war. It is a war that has formed a pattern for future wars.