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TRAPPED!
Trapped! is the story of two boys growing up in the San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado during the 50s and 60s. Juanito lives with his father who is a borderline alcoholic while Mike lives with his mother who is an abusive drunk the whole town hates. Mike lost most of his hearing while a baby and has to shout to hear himself and this doesn’t go over well with everyone and keeps him in trouble, both at school and later with the law. Juanito gets along with everyone and is best friends with Mike and for the most part stays out of trouble. He applies himself in school and becomes quite adept as a vehicle mechanic. Mike refuses to learn much of anything and this further exacerbates his situation which worsens over the years with multiple trips to the juvenile detention center.
There is a cantankerous troublemaker who has earned the name of Crazy Charlie. Mike is one of his targets and Mike strikes back by breaking into his cabin and assaulting him. This lands Mike in the penitentiary. After several years he escapes with two other prisoners and wreaks havoc along the Colorado Front Range.
Carla is a young New York City aspiring painter, a student at the Art Students League, who is in the Valley where her mother and step-father are having a vacation cabin built. She’s back in the Valley for a few weeks for several summers and Carla and Juanito slowly develop a serious relationship over a period of years.
Juanito is classified 1A for the draft and enlists in the Air Force, is assigned as a Radio Operator, RO, at the Tactical Air Control Party, TACP, at Hue, Republic of Vietnam. Most of the ROs simply pull their duty in the radio shack but Juanito frequently flies with the Forward Air Controllers as an observer to learn firsthand what they need to do their job best. During the Tet Offensive in 1968 Juanito is caught outside the compound with two marines. They have to fight their way to safety.
Carla is accepted into an internship program with a painter in Italy so Juanito signs on for a second tour in VN. While flying as an observer late one afternoon the plane is shot down. He and the FAC survive the crash but a few hours later the FAC is killed and Juanito is on his own, being tracked by the VC. He kills two of his pursuers and is rescued from others by a Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol, LRRP.
After returning to the Valley Juanito can’t find permanent employment and ends up doing short term jobs with no real future. He and Carla are now living together in her parent’s cabin but she’s off to NYC for a major gallery opening of her paintings. Juanito agrees to winterize Crazy Charlie’s cabin before he goes elk hunting.
After his escape Mike is hiding out in that cabin and believes that the person he only heard, but didn’t see going down into the crawlspace, is Crazy Charlie rather than Juanito. Mike slams the trapdoor trapping Juanito. Since Mike can’t hear clearly Juanito can’t convince him that he’s making a mistake and Mike is out to kill Charlie.
In the end the cabin is burned and only one survives.
There is a cantankerous troublemaker who has earned the name of Crazy Charlie. Mike is one of his targets and Mike strikes back by breaking into his cabin and assaulting him. This lands Mike in the penitentiary. After several years he escapes with two other prisoners and wreaks havoc along the Colorado Front Range.
Carla is a young New York City aspiring painter, a student at the Art Students League, who is in the Valley where her mother and step-father are having a vacation cabin built. She’s back in the Valley for a few weeks for several summers and Carla and Juanito slowly develop a serious relationship over a period of years.
Juanito is classified 1A for the draft and enlists in the Air Force, is assigned as a Radio Operator, RO, at the Tactical Air Control Party, TACP, at Hue, Republic of Vietnam. Most of the ROs simply pull their duty in the radio shack but Juanito frequently flies with the Forward Air Controllers as an observer to learn firsthand what they need to do their job best. During the Tet Offensive in 1968 Juanito is caught outside the compound with two marines. They have to fight their way to safety.
Carla is accepted into an internship program with a painter in Italy so Juanito signs on for a second tour in VN. While flying as an observer late one afternoon the plane is shot down. He and the FAC survive the crash but a few hours later the FAC is killed and Juanito is on his own, being tracked by the VC. He kills two of his pursuers and is rescued from others by a Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol, LRRP.
After returning to the Valley Juanito can’t find permanent employment and ends up doing short term jobs with no real future. He and Carla are now living together in her parent’s cabin but she’s off to NYC for a major gallery opening of her paintings. Juanito agrees to winterize Crazy Charlie’s cabin before he goes elk hunting.
After his escape Mike is hiding out in that cabin and believes that the person he only heard, but didn’t see going down into the crawlspace, is Crazy Charlie rather than Juanito. Mike slams the trapdoor trapping Juanito. Since Mike can’t hear clearly Juanito can’t convince him that he’s making a mistake and Mike is out to kill Charlie.
In the end the cabin is burned and only one survives.
306 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 31, 2019
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