DEDICATION:
For the ladies of the Chattanooga Hooters,
for keeping me supplied with gallons of sweet tea
during the production of this manuscript.
And
As always:
For Captain Tamara Long, USAF
Born: May 12, 1979
Died: 23 March 2003, Afghanistan
You fly with the angels now.
Acknowledgements:
There were a bunch of people I had to get research help from on this one. As usual, Ryan Miller and Mike Massa contributed to technical operational help as well as HALO training details. As founding members of RingTAB (the Ringo Tech Advisory Board), they have put up with much.
I'd like to thank Christopher Austin, former member of the Army High Altitude Rescue squad for really professional input on the mountaineering portion. My experience in mountaineering is decades past and techniques and equipment have, ahem, changed considerably. It turns out serious mountaineers hardly ever wear leather boots and wool sweaters anymore...
Retired Master Sergeant Sean Fleenor contributed helpful smacks to the head over weapons use while failing to convince me not to issue the Keldara beer.
Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, author of On Combat and On Killing, sent me an increbibly detailed proof read of an early version of this manuscript. Among about a billion other things, he pointed out that Ranger School was longer than I'd remembered. In addition, both of his books were seminal to several aspects of this novel. On Combat, especially, is highly recommended to anyone who is in the business of regularly or occasionally bring violence upon others.
James Cochrane, husband of my coauthor Julie, and Emil "Praz" Praslick of the Army Marksmanship Training Unit supplied helpful advice on long-range shooting about which I previously knew virtually nothing. (Much as I write about it, I'm a "broad side of the barn" shooter.) I'll add that James, on the spur of the moment, took over a necessary four hour drive when I was so sleep deprived from writing I was babbling. The fact that I didn't die in the midst of writing this novel is probably due to James and Julie. Thanks.
As usual, any mistakes are mine.
Last but not least, I'd like to thank my daughters, Jennifer and Lindy, for accepting "Daddy's under deadline" as a reason for my almost total mental absence over the last couple of months. Hoowah.
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Michael Harmon has been there and done that. Rescued co-eds, killed major terrorists, stopped nuclear assaults. Now he'd just like to kick back and relax with his harem of lovelies. Unfortunately, the world keeps turning. 