Synopsis
A Certain Brotherhood
For as long as Mitch McCall could remember, he had wanted to follow in his father's footsteps as an Air Force pilot. In pilot training, Mitch nearly crashes a supersonic T-38. He walks away from the incident but can't shake off the resulting phobia about landings.
The Vietnam War escalates, and Mitch volunteers for combat as a forward air controller. FACs fly single-engine Cessnas over enemy territory and look for targets for armed fighter aircraft. Mitch accepts the new dangers in a make-or-break attempt to beat his fears.
In Thailand, he is teamed with Captain James D. (J.D.) Dalton. J.D. is a few years older than Mitch--but many years more experienced in almost everything. As a teenager, J.D. had idolized the ill-fated actor, James Dean. Now, almost a decade later, J.D. still lives by some of the actor's philosophies and flies his small Cessna as if this life were just a step toward whatever comes next.
In Hanoi, famed North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap is plotting a bold operation. If successful, his armies will overrun the U.S. Marines at Khe Sanh during the upcoming Tet offensive. His plan depends heavily on battle-hardened veteran Colonel Le Van Do. Le commands Battlefield C, North Vietnam's secret operations in Laos. Battlefield C contains much of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and is patrolled from the air almost every day by Mitch and J.D.
In late January 1968, the Communist forces launch a massive offensive during the Tet truce. The fate of thousands of American Marines at Khe Sanh depends on whether Mitch discovers the secret that Colonel Le Van Do has concealed beneath the 200-foot tall trees of the Laotian jungles.
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If someone asks me what it was like to have 'been there--done that,' all I have to do is hand them this book.
-- Charles (Chic) Randow, Nail 68 at NKP
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Jimmie H. Butler, Colonel, USAF, Retired, combined combat experience flying Cessnas over the jungles of Southeast Asia with months of research in USAF archives. The result is his third novel, A Certain Brotherhood, an exciting insider's view of the Secret War over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Combat-veteran readers of the two print editions confirm Butler got it right with an authenticity that blends fact and fiction inseparably. More than 20 photographs taken by the author, combat photographers, or photo reconnaissance aircraft are included.
About the Author
Jimmie H. Butler, Colonel, USAF, Retired, flew 240 missions as a Nail FAC in O-1s and O-2s in the Vietnam War. His combat decorations include the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Air Medal with sixteen oak leaf clusters.
Since retiring from active duty, he has published two highly successful technothrillers. His first novel, The Iskra Incident, earned the 1991 Award of Excellence for Aviation Fiction from the Aviation/Space Writers Association. Red Lightning--Black Thunder, a thriller involving space warfare, was crafted from his experience as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force Space Division and as a pilot on worldwide missions in C-141 jet transports. While at the Air War College, he wrote a book-length report, Crickets on a Steel Tiger: The Interdiction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail 1966-1968. It earned the Air Force Historical Foundation's 1980 Award for the best aerospace report of major historical interest.
A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy Class of 1963, he resides in Colorado Springs where he established the Pikes Peak Writers Conference in 1993.
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