Marc Liebman's Blog, page 54

Cherubs 2 – its an altitude not a spiritual being

After BIG MOTHER 40 came out, it became obvious that there was a book to be written about Josh Haman’s first tour in Vietnam.  So I began noodling about a plot line and nothing excited me.  Then I had a conversation with a good friend of mine with whom I flew in Vietnam and something got us on the topic of what would the next book would be about.  He then reminded me of an incident in which he was flying as the co-pilot and they had an opportunity to go make a rescue but the aircraft commander said no, it was too risky.  The pilot was captured but never turned up on any PoW list.

On these types of ad-hoc rescue missions, you really don’t know how dangerous or difficult the pickup will be until you get close enough to evaluate the situation.  There is a risk that you’ll run into trouble before you get to the scene.  Even if you go in and get everybody out, there is a chance you’ll be second guessed.  If you go in and get everyone killed, then you’ve had a really bad day and while your actions maybe criticized, you aren’t around to hear it!  In the end, it is a judgment call.

What I realized from the discussion is there is an interesting continuum in combat.  At one end, there are the heroic acts and they’re easily recognizable.  In most cases, medals for valor are awarded.  At the other, there are the cowardly acts.  In a perverse way, one could say that they take a different kind of courage.  Someplace in between there are those which are overly cautious.  So where’s the line between being risk averse and cautious and being cowardly?  It is very, very gray fuzzy area with no definitions.

So out of that conversation popped the plot outline for CHERUBS 2 which is a prequel to BIG MOTHER 40.  The title comes from a term that Naval Aviators use to describe their altitude.  If you are at five thousand feet, if asked how high you were, the proper answer is Angels Five.  If you are at two hundred feet, the proper response is Cherubs 2.  I can’t tell you how many hours and it’s a lot, I spent flying a helicopter two hundred feet over the water or the land, night or day, good weather or bad.

Josh Haman, fresh out of the Naval Air Training Command and HS-10 which trained him in the H-3 reports to HC-7’s Detachment 1 at the Naval Air Station Cubi Point in the Philippines.  There’s he’s shipped off to jungle survival school and when he returns, he is told the squadron is short of co-pilots for the H-2.  Josh is given twenty hours in type which is ten less than he should have gotten and shipped off to an H-2 on a destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin.

After he’s flown a few missions, he senses something wrong because it is clear there is tension between the enlisted men and his aircraft commander who is also the detachment office –in-charge.  In this small detachment of two officers and twelve enlisted men.  So is his HAC a coward or is he overly cautious?  Or, is he just an asshole?  For a junior officer on his first assignment, it is difficult position to be in.  What should or could he do?

Its finished and I am about to dump it into the publishing pipeline as soon as RENDER HARMLESS comes out.

Marc Liebman

Decemeber, 2013

Marine Drill Instructors – a valued but misunderstood breed

Anyone who gone through the Navy’s Officer Candidate School has met a Marine Drill Instructor a.k.a. a DI up close and personal, very personal.  The one Lou Gossett played one in the movie “Officer and a Gentlemen” was close, but no cigar.  Gossett had the look, purposeful movement and bearing of a DI, and portrayed the public perception of a DI, but his vocabulary was, shall we say limited!  Back in the day, before political correctness, a DI’s “patter” was quite creative but was only a means to an end in delivering the real value they perform for both the Marine Corps and the Navy.

The Marines select the best and brightest to become drill instructors in boot camps and the best of these are sent to ROTC units and the Navy’s and Marine Corps Officer Candidate Schools to help mold potential young officers into the leaders they want to take them into battle.  Why?  Who is better to teach an officer candidate with two left feet how to march and salute properly?  More importantly, the Navy’s primary mission is power projection which really means put Marines ashore and then sustain them.  As Naval and Marine Corps officers and aviators, the lives of the Marines depend on the decisions we make and our determination to help them in battle.

Or, as Sergeant Cruz – one of my DI’s – put it, “Sir, someday, the life of me and my men are going to depend on your ability to accurately drop a bomb on the bad guys or your determination to fly in to pull me out of some shit hole if I am wounded or before I get killed…”

In BIG MOTHER 40, the Marine major general, Hector Cruz was named after Sergeant Cruz.  He is the only person I know who could scale the fifteen foot wall, run to the next one or two obstacles to show us the easiest way to get over or under or through them.  In the ninety degree Fahrenheit, eighty percent humidity of a Pensacola summer, he could do it without creating sweat stains under his arm pits, getting sand on is uniform and keeping his corfam shoes shiny and not dusty.  Sergeant Cruz, if he was an inch, was about five foot five!

The character Jesus Montemayor in BIG MOTHER 40 is the HC-7 Detachment 110 Officer-in-Charge.  In real life, he was Sergeant Montemayor, United States Marine Corps and a drill instructor entrusted to teach leadership to potential young naval officers like me.  Sergeant Montemayor was the largest man I ever met.  I still remember standing at attention in front of him and if my left side was aligned with his right, my right arm would be just past the row of buttons in the center of his shirt with perfect creases down through each pocket.  He could, had he not grown up dirt poor on an Indian reservation, have gotten a college football scholarship because the school didn’t have a football team.  The Marine Corps was his way off the reservation.

After I had given Sergeants Cruz and Montemayor each a silver dollar for the honor of giving me my first salute from an enlisted man as a newly commissioned ensign, Sergeant Montemayor told me that “leadership was all about commitment.  Commitment to your service, your squadron, your crew, the men you lead, but most of all, it was a commitment to yourself to never let any of them down.”

Heavy words that I remember to this day, even though they were spoken to me in the summer of 1967!

Marc Liebman

August, 2013

Ode to Louis Ferman, Buchenwald Camp Survivor

Character names?  Where do I get them?  It’s a great question because some of them are made up and some come from real people who have passed through my life.  Now, on the eve of RENDER HARMLESS coming out, I want to wax eloquent about one whose memory I want to honor.

I first met Louis Ferman when I was eleven and starting to learn to chant my Haftorah which is the passage taken from the book of Prophets in the Old Testament that a young man or, if you are a reform or conservative Jew, woman reads at his or her bar (boys) or bat (girls) mitzvah.  Anyone who has heard me sing knows that I will never be a candidate for any talent show.  I tell people the only way I can carry a tune is in a bucket.  But Louis was patient with me and I became passable, and I think that is being generous.

When World War II ended, Louis Ferman was a sixteen year old living skeleton who had survived Buchenwald.  He was allowed to stay alive because he had a beautiful voice and the SS camp guards forced him to sing for hours.  At night, they would give him a song and he was expected to sing it well the next day or it was off to be worked to death as a slave laborer or to the gas chambers.  He put his ability to memorize to better use by remembering the face and name of every SS guard that came into the camp.  After the war, he gave the list and detailed descriptions to Nazi hunters who used it to help bring many to trial.  When the war ended, his dream of being a pop singer died in Buchenwald and he became a cantor to support himself as he worked his way through school to become a psychiatrist.  Much of his practice was helping other camp survivors.  After the war, the only place Louis Ferman would sing was in a synagogue.

In RENDER HARMLESS, there are passages when Josh Haman talks about his memories of Louis Ferman, they are mine altered to fit the plot.  To this day, his beautiful, pain filled voice still rattles through my brain.  In it, you could hear and feel his sorrow borne in Buchenwald.

One day, as an innocent twelve year old, I asked him what Buchenwald was like.  Keep in mind that this was in 1957, twelve years after he was liberated in April, 1945.  He looked at me and to this day, fifty-eight years later, I can still see the look on his face.  If you could paint inner, haunting pain, the tormented look in Louis’s eyes would be on the canvas.  He said, “Marc, you would not believe me if I told you because it is beyond belief.  Words cannot describe what I saw and lived through.  Only God knows the truth because only he can understand the horror of what we went through.  Just promise me that you will never let it happen again.”

Louis Ferman, death may have stilled your wonderful voice, but I will remember your words to the end of my days.   And yes, I will die to prevent another Holocaust.  Thankfully, I have not been put to the test.

Marc Liebman

August, 2013

Genesis for the plot of another book – INNER LOOK

The genesis for the third book in the Josh Haman series, INNER LOOK was the nagging question in the back of my mind is how bad did the treason of Walker/Whitworth hurt the U.S. Military during the Vietnam War?  What we know now is:

Walker and Whitworth were providing code keys to the Russians during that time
On the USS Pueblo the North Koreans captured KY-7 machines intact that used those same code keys to encode and decode messages.  The KY-7 was one of the standard encryption/decryption machines used by the U.S. Military
The North Vietnamese intact captured KY-7s from the South Vietnamese

Rather than destroying the keys, history says Walker falsified the destruction records and turned over the keys to the Soviets.  Assuming that is accurate, two questions come to mind…  One, did the Soviets have access to a working KY-7 from the North Vietnamese?  And, two, how fast did they get the keys?

For me, it is logical to make the assumption that the answer to question one is yes and the answer to number two is within sixty days.  From there, the question is how did that affect the war in Vietnam?  Did we lose more planes and pilots because of their treason?

Why?  Because the Soviets and their North Vietnamese allies would have had access to U.S. Air Force Air Tasking Orders and Navy carrier air wing strike plans.  The plans have details on the target, transponder codes, times on target, route, ordnance load, etc.

So another question arises, did the Soviets pass the decoded messages or their content on to the North Vietnamese or did they just sit, observe and stash away the analysis for future use in a war with the U.S.  If their is an analysis in the public domain that covers this, I could not find it.

All of the above is to provide some context for the background of INNER LOOK.  I started with the hypothesis that the Soviets were reading our mail in much the same way as the Allies were reading German messages during World War II.  In the book, Marty and Josh are assigned to a team to conduct that analysis but also to make sure that Walker and Whitworth were the only traitors.  As we know now, this was the period in time when Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanson were betraying Soviets who had turned against their masters.

The plot of INNER LOOK is driven by the need to  make sure that there are no more Walkers.  Josh and Marty, because they both had lived through leaks of classified information during the Vietnam War, are pretty sure there are more traitors because Marty finds more evidence while serving as an advisor to the Filipinos hunting members of the Moro National Liberation Front in the Philippines.  So the hunt, which starts in D.C. and takes them to Argentina, is on.

Marc Liebman

June 2013

Illegal drugs, North Korea, the island of Simushir turn into THE KURIL WEDGE INCIDENT

One of the future books in the series is titled THE KURILE WEDGE INCIDENT and may turn out to be timely because of the behavior of Kim Jong Il’s son, Kim Jong Un.  It is the next book to be submitted into the acquisition process at Fireship and I hope that we – Fireship and I – may release it out of sequence.

I’ve written this before but it is worth repeating…  The books about Josh Haman is intended to be a series, but you don’t have to read them in order.  Yes, they refer to their predecessors, but when they do, there is enough explanation so that you know what happened.  In fact , there are even some nuggets in the later books that weren’t in the originals!

So, in THE KURILE WEDGE INCIDENT, it’s 1988 and Josh and his family are living in Japan.  He’s a newly selected, but not officially promoted captain assigned to the Seventh Fleet staff based in Yokosuka, Japan.  By this time in his career, he’s completed his squadron executive and commanding officer tours, is now the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans.

Like most Navy staffs, the Seventh Fleet staff is relatively small, i.e. less than a hundred and fifty officers in men and the flag ship is the USS Blue Ridge which  was originally built to be a command ship for  large scale amphibious landings.  In fact, the ship still, or at least in 1988 when the story takes place had a whole deck reserved for a Marine division sized staff to plan and execute amphibious operations.

To do its job, Seventh Fleet was (and still is) supported by a Dallas based Navy Reserve unit that had about one third of its three hundred and sixty people on active duty either on the Blue Maru as it was known in those days, or in South Korea, Thailand, or Philippines either running/participating in exercises or working on special projects. In 1988, employing Navy reservists that extensively was unusual but it was the only way the staff could meet is operation and exercise commitments in an operational area that stretched from the east coast of Africa and the North Arabian Sea to the middle of the Pacific.  Today, using reservists that extensively is the norm.  Because of the normal turnover of the regular Navy contingent who were assigned to the staff for only eighteen months to two years, the Reservists were the staff’s corporate knowledge.

The Soviet Union was just across the Sea of Japan and the Korean peninsula is as usual, just a short step away from the resumption of the Korean War.  Add in the dynamics of post-Vietnam War South East Asia and the machinations of the People’s Republic of China and one has an interesting volatilemilitary and political situation.

In its operational area in 1988, Seventh Fleet had the carrier USS Midway and its battle group that was home ported in Japan as well as at least one other deployed in its area of responsibility.  Our treaty with the South Koreans that is still in force requires that a carrier battle group always had to be within seventy-two hours steaming time from a point in the ocean from which can launch strikes into North Korea in case they come south.

The South Koreans and the U.S. troops stationed in South Korea would have, depending on the scenario between six and twelve hours of warning before the North Koreans invaded.  The United Nations Command is a holdover from the Korean War and each nation who fought the North Koreans and Chinese maintain a token presence in the command structure but in reality, the military power comes from the U.S. and South Korean armed forces.  U.S. and the South Koreans conduct military exercises every year, the largest of which is called Team Spirit and the start of it generates the usual threats and bluster from Pynongyang.  However, everyone involved takes them seriously because technically, a state of war exists between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea.  This will continue until either the North Korean regime collapses or agrees to unite with its southern neighbor.

Also assigned to Seventh Fleet is an amphibious task force and submarines.  The twenty-five thousand men of the Third Marine Expeditionary Force and the First Marine Air Wing based in Okinawa meant that the vice admiral commanding Seventh Fleet had roughly thirty thousand sailors and marines, eighty plus ships and about three hundred aircraft and helicopters under his command.  At any one time, they participated in exercises with our other allies (Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, Australia, etc.) throughout the Seventh Fleet area of operations every month while maintaining a focus on the Soviet Pacific Fleet and its bases.

If, when THE KURILE WEDGE INCIDENT comes out, you’ll get to meet senior North Korean officers who have two jobs – their military one and running a multi-million dollar illegal drug operation that pays Kjm Jong il millions.  The flag officers – one admiral and one general – come up with an idea to renovate an old Soviet base on the Kurile island of Simushir as fishing boat support facility as a cover for a drug factory.  Their primary market for their heroin and uppers and downers is the U.S.

But Kim Jong-il has other plans and therein lies the rub. And, in the middle of all this, Marty the bachelor fall in love….

THE KURILE WEDGE INCIDENT is already written and I plan to submit it as soon as I read it one more time and finish the first draft of CHERUBS 2.

Marc Liebman

June, 2013

Preview of RENDER HARMLESS

RENDER HARMLES is the second book in the Josh Haman series is due out this fall.  It is, at least for the moment, second in the chronology of his Navy career and takes place three plus years after he returns from the Vietnam War.

Why is there a gap?  Honest answer is I am not sure but as the author and creator of the series, I reserve the right to come back and write a book between RENDER HARMLESS and BIG MOTHER 40.

When I started writing the books, I decided that each one had to stand on its own so you didn’t have to read the one before to understand what happens in the second.  Yes, in RENDER HARMLESS, there are references to events in BIG MOTHER 40 but there is enough detail so give enough context without having to go back to earlier novel.

RENDER HARMLESS takes place in 1976.  Josh is now a exchange pilot with the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm.  In Germany, the youngest son of a former SS officer who is one part socialist, one part nationalist, and one part anarchist decides he wants to change the German government and creates a terrorist group called Red Hand.  To get noticed, he starts setting off car bombs that kill Americans servicemen, their dependents and Germans citizens.

Despite a countrywide man-hunt, the West German government can’t find the terrorist or any member of Red Hand.  The carnage created a nightmare for the West German government because just thirty-one years since the end of World War II, Germans were once again killing Jews.  In the midst of this, the West Germans find out that a die-hard group of ex-Nazis are implementing a long range plan to create the Fourth Reich.

Fed up, the American president orders the military to quietly look for members of Red Hand in case the West Germans can’t find the terrorists.  He directs the chairman of the joint chiefs to form a unit to develop options.  Marty Cabot, now based in San Diego is picked to head the unit and he wants Josh as his number two.  Their orders tell them to “find, neutralize and render harmless enemies as the United States as identified by the President of the United States or a competent authority…”

That’s all I’ll say about the plot, but reading the book, you’ll meet some interesting characters, e.g. a two former enemies, a Soviet tanker and SS Panzer officer are now allies, one in KGB and the other in the Stasi supporting Red Hand.  On the other side of the wall, you’ll meet a former Wehrmacht paratrooper who lost his way and finds his moral compass as well as an idealistic Luftwaffe pilot who still idolizes his dead Fuhrer.

Hope you enjoy it when it comes out.

Marc Liebman

June, 2013

Series update from the author, publicist and project manager

In many blogs, and e-mails, book signings, I often talk about the Josh Haman series.  So, here’s a quick review of the titles (for those that are not out, they’re working titles), the books status and where Josh is in his career….  You can read more about them in separate blogs which will give you some context about the time, place and the plot but here’s the list in no particularly order.

BIG MOTHER 40 –It is out, and Josh is a lieutenant on his second tour in Vietnam.

RENDER HARMLESS – Am under contract for this book and it should be released sometime this fall.  I don’t have a tentative release date, but I am looking at September or early October.  Josh is on an exchange tour with the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm.  In the beginning, Josh is still a lieutenant, but is promoted to lieutenant commander in the book.

INNER LOOK – Now a commander, he’s assigned to temporary duty to a project in Washington that is to look at the damage John Walker’s treason did to the U.S. Navy.  This book is completely written and ready to go.  It takes place in 1986.

THE KURILE WEDGE INCIDENT – When the novel takes place in 1988 and Josh has been selected, but not promoted to captain when the book starts.  However, since he is in a captain’s billet, he is “frocked” which means he gets to wear the insignia, but not get paid as a captain until assigned his date of rank.  The book is written and will probably, because the plot involves North Korea, the plan is to submit it for acquisition in June, 2013.

MOSCOW AIRLIFT –I looked the manuscript about a year ago and it is, well, a mess.  I wrote the manuscript in the late 90’s and it shows!  This was my first attempt at writing a novel and it needs to be completely re-done.  I like the plot and some of the characters, but it needs a lot of work one of which is to change the timeline so it fits in Josh Haman’s career.   In short, a rewrite is in order and at some point I’ll have to decide whether or not to re-write or start over.

FLIGHT OF THE PAWNEE – Josh Haman has retired from the Navy and is doing special projects for friends in the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security.  It takes place in 2002, a year after 9/11.  The book is written, but before submitting it to the acquisition process, I want to go through it one more time.

CHERUBS 2 – This one takes place in during the early part of Josh Haman’s first tour in Vietnam.  It’s 1970-1971 and he’s a newly minted Naval Aviator and a lieutenant junior grade which is the same as a first lieutenant in the other U.S. armed services.  Am about two thirds the way through the first draft.

MANPAD – To be honest, this one is still in the conceptual stage.  All I have is an outline.  Haven’t started writing it yet, but it takes place after FLIGHT OF THE PAWNEE in the 2005 timeframe.

Marc Liebman

May, 2013