Nebraska

by Keith Reddin

It's the end of the Cold War, but for the men and women stationed at an air force base outside of Omaha, the tensions of existence seem to increase each day. Dean Swift has been transferred to missile silo duty. Seventy feet underground, in a sealed launch center, the twenty-four-hour shifts take their toll on Swift, his wife, Julie, and his duty partner, Fielding. Dean entered the service, like his father before him, hoping to find a purpose to his life. Instead, he realizes that his choice of profession is a tragic mistake. Fielding, by contrast, is an enthusiastic product of military thinking, secure in the identity given him by his regimented duties. Swift's commanding officer, Major Gurney, has problems of his own. His wife, Carol, is bored with the life on base and tries to drown her sorrows in alcohol and a series of adulterous affairs. Sooner or later they all begin to lose their center in a barren landscape of loneliness and despair. NEBRASKA asks the question what is the cost of keeping the peace.

54 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989