22. December 2011 by The Chuck.

Five days after U.S. forces hastily withdrew from Iraq, fourteen bomb blasts in Baghdad killed 63 people and injured 185 others.  Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the attack as “cowardly” but what did we really expect to happen?

When the U.S. forces left Germany shortly after WWII ended nothing of the sort happened.  Exactly, nothing of the sort happened because the forces did not leave.  In 2011, Germany is a stellar member of the peaceful, productive nations of this planet.  While that is mostly due to the Germans, as they are as civilized as any people on Earth, had the conquerors of 1945 followed the model set by the U.S. in Iraqi, I venture to speculate they would not be the same today.  It takes organization, determination, and time to convert a totalitarian-warlike nation into a free and contributing nation.  Maybe it wouldn’t have taken 70 years, but it needed more than seven.

During the force-fed rehabilitation of Germany, the U.S. forces kept the Soviet antagonists at bay with a constant threat of war.  That threat of war included not just armed soldiers at checkpoints but also the promised use of annihilating-force against any large muscle movements by the Soviets.  We called that the “Cold War” back then.

With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the EC, which became the EU, and NATO, while the Communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War allowed for German unification in 1990. Since then, Germany has expended considerable funds to bring Eastern productivity and wages up to Western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro. In January 2011, Germany assumed a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2011-12 term–that’s a success story.

The Soviets couldn’t logically risk their total destruction so they postured campaigns all around the world hoping to exhaust the U.S. and then they could have their way with Germany and the rest of the world.  But that didn’t happen, the Soviets were exhausted by the American double-blessings of leading-edge technological developments and the greatest economy in history of mankind, which enabled the U.S. forces to be unbeatable.

This “War in Iraq” mess went differently.  The rehabilitation program was mostly designed by the patient, while the U.S. forces allowed Iranian antagonists to leak into the county to lead the locals bandits in organized violent actions.  The U.S. political machine went out of its way to soften any demands or threats against Iran, which appeared to encourage their schemes.  Today the American technological programs have mostly been hacked into by the Chinese and others, which have mostly encouraged opposition to the U.S. and the American economy has been disassembled by a legislative branch which hasn’t produced a budget for over 1000 days, while the Democrat Party leaders have plunged the national debt to a greater level than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first time since the American Revolution.  For political reasons, which escape strategic reasoning, the U.S. has abandoned maybe the last opportunity to establish and maintain a civilized stronghold in a totalitarian-aggressive region without having to resort to annihilating-force.

It just makes sense.

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20. December 2011 by The Chuck.

But only for one day.

The kindle version of The Dragoneers–the new 5-star novel at Amazon.com can be obtained for free on 21 December.

If you go there before or after that … it won’t be free.

Additionally, free Kindle software is available for just about every platform–Mac, PC, iPad, and just about all smartphones. With it you can read all kindle books. There’s even a Kindle cloud version for reading the books. I say again, “The Dragoneers is available for free (a bargain even at twice that price) TOMORROW, 21 Dec.”

Just a click and it’s yours.

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20. December 2011 by The Chuck.

The printed version of The Dragoneers is now available on line here.

You can find a limited time discount code on the books facebook page here.

B-52 veterans will find some of the novel … familiar, so to speak.

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19. December 2011 by The Chuck.

This 5-star novel is now priced less than a buck for the Amazon Kindle version.Publishers Weekly:

“This novel defies conventional classification: is it science fiction? biblical fiction? thriller? The story describes a world where flying two-headed dragons and ogres exist, characters with telepathic gifts communicate with both animals and people, a man named Noah builds an Ark in his backyard, and a six-fingered giant named Lilith wants to take over the world. While this collage may have been implausible in lesser hands, the author makes it work, artfully drawing readers into Sethopolis (the “center of the last human-dominated nation on Earth”) and constructing an adventure with attention-grabbing plot twists.

At the center of it all is 18-year old Susah, a feisty heroine with the ability to communicate telepathically. Sheltered by her father, Noah, from the evils of the world, Susah’s life takes an unexpected turn when her aunt and uncle are killed by a violent street gang. Mesmerized by the soldier who rescues her and the flying dragon under his control, she decides to join the Dragon Corps, defenders of the Eden zone, and become a dragoneer. Lilith, aware of Susah’s gifts, wants to have her killed. As Susah trains to become a skilled dragoneer, she embarks on a collision course with Lilith’s army of giants and ogres as they march toward the Eden zone for the ultimate battle between good and evil.

The author has crafted a compelling story…”

Get it now for 99 cents at Amazon Kindle

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7. December 2011 by The Chuck.

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6. December 2011 by The Chuck.

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5. December 2011 by The Chuck.

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1. December 2011 by The Chuck.

My first novel is finally published in Kindle. To avoid confusion, I adopted the pen name, C. D. Sutherland, which is just another way of saying me. 

Let me tell you a little about this first novel.

The Dragoneers is a coming of age story, a bildungsroman some literary critiques might say, about Susah, a talented young woman, who refuses to join her three brothers in helping her father advance the family business. She wants to do something exciting with her life. While this story could have been set in any time, the fantastical world she lives in amplifies each step nearly beyond the bounds of imagination.

Against her parents’ wishes, Susah leaves home on a quest to become one of the dragoneers—an elite fraternity of warriors sworn to defend the ancient garden of Eden against all trespassers. 

Meanwhile, deep in a lair inside of Sethopolis’ roughest neighborhood, an evil giantess dreams of seizing the secrets of immortality and other powers, which she believes are hidden within the walls of the forbidden garden. Realizing she can’t achieve her dream with her own resources, she joins forces with a fallen angel, nearly as old as time itself.  

Seemingly unaware of the dangers awaiting her, Susah faces the greatest of all challenges. With the fate of the human race depending on their performance, will the dragoneers succeed in defending the garden of Eden against the forces of evil? And even if they succeed, will Susah survive the pivotal battle of good verses evil? 

This adventure builds on the little we know about the antediluvian world and overlays it with a blend of technology, supernatural powers, fire-and-ice-breathing, flying dragons, giants, and martial arts to begin Susah’s adventure to discover herself. Climb aboard and hang on for the ride of your life. 

This 100,000 word, Genesis-based fantasy will attract those interested in speculative fiction about the antediluvian world and will  also appeal to readers of general fantasy as well as military fiction. 

Those folks who’ve flown the B-52 might see some things that feel familiar, just saying. Some body once told me, “write what you know.”

We don’t post here much lately, but I pray this day finds all of the Band of Brothers in good health and enjoying life.

The Chuck

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11. November 2011 by The Chuck.

We sleep safely in our beds because rough men and women stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

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30. September 2011 by The Chuck.

September 30, 2011

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11. July 2011 by The Chuck.

This place is almost a ghost town.  I don’t come here hardly at all either. We’ll keep the lights on in case we start having more time to comment.

I’m still trying to keep the boys safe, but a court as order “supervised visitation” … as it turns out, courts just about never deny that limited level of access.  Of course, I’m paying a professional to do the monitoring, lest harm come to the boys.

On a more fun side, and in keeping with the spirit of “11″ rumor has it the first of my 11 novels will be release on 11 November 2011.  I guess I had to wait for the numbers to align. I’ll broadcast more as the actual date gets closer.

Still working the same place.

The Chuck

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19. May 2011 by Ponch.

I can neither confirm nor deny it was me…but I was misquoted..I never said 55,000 feet for altitude. I think the transcript machine they use hears what it wants. I was in my car hiding from the 50 degree global warming spring we are having here, during one of the many disaster prep exercises that happen all the time, when I got lucky calling the Limbaugh show. (I thought I had escaped these Disaster Prep fun and games when I retired…not so much). He was talking about Torra Borra again. Always says that he heard they got Osama when they turned Torra Borra to 6000 degrees. I’m pretty sure Osama was gone way before that strike. Although Me and Covey, Moondog and Dag were bombing up there shortly after Osama made his retreat to the Hindu Kush mts. We worked with one of the \”Cowboy\” special forces FAC\’s who was talking to us as he was running up the mountain to stay in visual contact with what he thought was Osama and company. He described him as a \”Tall commander on horseback\” directing troops. We were able to target two JDAMs on the coordinates the Cowboy gave us, however both went way wide into the next valley. Everyone got real concerned that something was wrong with our jet or the weapons so we locked up the rest and RTB\’s. We didn’t want to kill any good guys with JDAM\’s that were missing by miles. Several days later we got put into a three ship with the 96th BS CC as lead to be part of a big \”news Media\” boondoggle event. They had a C-130 with the \’Mother of all Bombs\” on board to blast Torra Borra. Heraldo and the other sickofant news media idiots were down at the base of the mountains watching and reporting. We watched the C-130 strike then got called in to finish the job with full loads of M-82\’s. I remember this flight cause our COMSEC load crapped out on the always crappy ARC-210 radio setup. You all remember having to time share the KY COMSEC between the two radios. Well our ARC-210 wouldn’t hold a COMSEC load so we had to fly around as number 3 with no SA to what was happening. Lead was doing all the coordination for strike timing and target coordinates. All we got was the awful radio squeal when they transmitted. Two (Lt Col Doug ?? forgot his last name…he worked at the Ops Group at KBAD …good guy though) did as good as he could at relaying a little SA to us. We finally got our target assignment and rolled in behind lead and two, each of us rippling 45 Mk 82\’s. Let me think…that’s 22 thousand pounds per load times 3. The Mother of all Bombs looked pretty feeble compared to the Buff strike. The news media reported it so. But we missed Osama and the Seals shot him in the face. Probably a better way do the rat basted..Up close and personal. By the way it was Lt Col Doug, Fifi and crew that should be recognized for a history making bomb run on the Taliban idiots that were trying a final push to knock out the northern alliance up by Bahgram airfield. Another of the SF Cowboy types was directing the airstrike while he was under fire from a quad 4 AAA piece used as a ground cannon. They worked the Buff onto an advancing column of Taliban goons. Doug and company laid a perfect string of 45 Mk-82\’s right down the column of gomers killing a HUGE number. Yup…that\’s right..Mk 82\’s..not JDAM or JASM or any other sexy PGM. Just good old radar bombing with gravity weapons. Ya! take that jack-wagons that say the Buff couldn’t hit the side of a barn with gravity\’s. The Taliban who were left standing began to retreat and kept on retreating right out of Afghanistan. That one Buff strike turned the tide of the war. Later the Cowboy SF dude made contact with Fifi and Doug. He had a video of the strike. He was so relieved (saved his life) and so impressed, he personally nominated that crew for a DFC or something better. The AF turned it down…something about bombers not being significant and fighters were the only ones qualified for recognition..blaa blaa blaa. So..I tried my little piss-ant way to get the BUFF recognition on a national radio show…I don\’t think it worked. Cheers Ponch

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