Hint: it’s not the side that has been fighting most of them, and wants to keep fighting them in perpetuity.
Those limprichard political officers on the US side make you proud to be, don’t they?
The America I once volunteered to fight for is gone; the uniform I once wore is now a perverse badge of shame; and the “leadership” of the Armed Forces is a sick joke.
The USA has not fought a full-scale war since WWII. That’s also the last time we fought a near-peer enemy.
Ever since then, we’ve had a huge technological advantage, plus overwhelming air and naval superiority. All three of those are dwindling, by design, as I type. Meanwhile, domestic enemies are purging patriots from the ranks and replacing them with freaks, faggots and feminists who hate the country they will supposedly defend in the next foreign war.
Now when our Navy’s ships aren’t being rammed into each other by hysterical diversity hire captains, our carrier groups are sitting ducks for relatively cheap anti-ship missiles. Our combat arms want to abandon physical standards because too many badass womyn warriors can’t pass a PT test. The Rapid Deployment Forces now have to schedule around menstrual cycles and gender reassignment surgery. The shitbox F-35 is flown by pilots who need maternity flight suits. All while the Pedophile Princes and Cocaine Queens in Washington are trying to provoke a conflict with an actual war-fighting force…apparently modeled after the Wermacht–only bigger, and with nukes.
Congress has forbid the Army from imposing physical fitness standards on its soldiers because it “discriminates based on gender.”
Single standards are sexist. (Probably racist, too–I’m sure somebody has already said so.) In our altruistic pursuit of equality, only heterosexual males should be held to standards.
Our moral/intellectual superiors have made the Armed Forces a hostile environment for white heterosexual males (especially if they love their country), so go figure: the very demographic that won the war that freed the slaves, and won two world wars, knows it is not welcome there, and is finding other ways to make a living that don’t suck as much. (And trust me–life in the combat arms sucks plenty, even without adding all the cultural Marxist idiocy.)
But now the favored demographic is leaving in droves because badass womyn warriors don’t want to take the Combat Fitness test. 84% of them can’t pass it. And that is a problem. (Not failure to be combat ready–the problem is not enough womyn, of course.)
But the answer is not to enforce standards and make sure slots are filled according to who is capable of fulfilling the mission. Oh no. Only some sexist science-denier who believes there are only two sexes (and that those sexes are biologically different) would propose such discriminatory policy. It’s not like combat could be physically strenuous or anything. Besides, every action movie for the last 30 years has taught us that womyn are stronger than men, anyway.
Actions speak louder than words. Whatever word salad the uniformed Yes Men (and womyn) regurgitate to justify this absurdity, what they are saying is: “Diversity and inclusivity are more important than combat effectiveness.”
Diversity and inclusivity, of course, mean anti-white heterosexual male.
The Globohomo Cabal wants to destroy America, and they’ve just about done it. Economic collapse is one method in their tool box. Pushing us into a pointless war with Russia (over Ukraine or whatever) is another way. And they want to guarantee we lose. But it might prove to be a double-edged sword for them–because they’re also provoking a civil war with the very white heterosexual males who are willing to uphold and defend the US Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
On a tactical level, I rather like our odds in a 3/4GW scenario going head-to-head against a bunch of fat dikes, entitled karens and gender-confused freaks who can be convinced to quit by the prospect of taking a PT test.
Violent mobs burn, loot, and murder with impunity. Even on the rare occasions that they’re arrested, traitors in the court system release them right back on the street. But they’ll find any excuse to lock up law abiding citizens who share the wrong opinions or make arguments that can’t be credibly “debunked.” Or defend themselves against the violent mobs. This documentarian had to be silenced, one way or the other. To the powers-that-be, she’s a much more serious threat than communist revolutionaries burning our cities down.
Just so you know where the priorities of the “justice” system lie.
If you expose the work of the shadow government, they’ll find an excuse to take you down. This woman’s viral video was over the target. It’s as simple as that.
Conspiracies can’t survive sunlight. They must keep normal people in the dark. Their deception and programming has been incredibly successful at keeping sheeple ignorant of what’s actually going on.
Millennial Millie was blasting too much sunlight, and naming names. It will be depressing to watch how many bovine idiots justify Facebook/Youtube’s suppression of this “dangerous information” with whatever narrative is spoon-fed them.
If you like what we’re doing, subscribe and share.
Leftists used to badmouth the Armed Forces constantly. They quit doing that. In fact, now they equate military service to heroism. Why? Because they’ve taken over that institution, too.
With a course titled “Operation Inclusion,” the agency is promoting the line that if you support enforcing immigration law, or say things like “all lives matter,” then you’re a white supremacist.
…What, exactly, is Operation Inclusion bringing to the bases? Well, the agency e-mail inviting all Redstone Arsenal personnel to the seminar included a pyramid graphic that claimed certain phrases—including “Make America Great Again,” President Trump’s campaign theme—are evidence of “Covert White Supremacy” that is lamentably “social accetable [sic].”
Indeed, according to the graphic, you are a racist if you discuss any of these ideas or use any of the following phrases:
All Lives Matter
Denial of White Privilege
Inequitable Health Care
Anti-Immigration Policies
English-Only Initiatives
Celebration of Columbus Day
American Exceptionalism
Claiming Reverse Racism
There is Only One Human Race
The cold civil war is turning hot in several cities across the country. It’s still possible to deny that, because only one side has organized units using collective violence, and only a select few hundred (at last count) have been shot so far. Aside from a few isolated incidents, individuals on the right aren’t fighting back yet–much less organizing for deliberate action.
There’s still a widespread assumption that victory is a sure thing if the left is ever dumb enough to start a shooting war, because “muh patriotic men and womyn in uniform!”
Well, first of all, they’re starting the shooting war–and only time will tell if it’s such a dumb move. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I believe CW2 will be very hard to deny, after November. Only if the leftists manage to steal the election through mail-in-voting/ballot harvesting is there much chance to avoid a shooting war. In that case, most people on our side, rather than accept reality, might bend over and assume “the pendulum” will swing back the other way some day. Meanwhile, they’ll be picked off piecemeal while communist goons kick in their doors at 3am and haul them away.
Secondly, the military has been corrupted from the Pentagon down to the lowest rifleman (er, rifleperson) at Fort Marx and Camp Alinsky. Men who love their country and were willing to fight for it, like me, have mostly got the hell out of uniform. The other institutions, like public education and the media, have insured that obedient woke zombies are behind all the triggers, now.
Get serious and get yourself ready to go. There’s no cavalry on the way. The longer you sit on your thumbs and surrender initiative to the enemy, the worse our odds will be.
On this day in 1944, the greatest amphibious invasion in history took place (ahem! after the greatest airborne operation the night before).
This was the culmination of years of planning and sacrifice-in-solidarity by Americans who thought they were setting the world free.
America faces a greater existential threat right now, right here on the home front, than any threat posed by the Axis Powers then.
Since 1917 Americans have been sent to fight other countries’ wars and die for everything except American interests. American fighting men served and put their lives on the line, believing they were preserving freedom. I was one of them.
Has the cause of freedom actually been served, though? Is the world, or even our country, a better place thanks to all the sacrifices Americans have made?
Americans enjoy less freedom now than ever before. We’re also less prosperous than previous generations, even when the GDP and Dow Jones numbers look good. What has happened to our industrial infrastructure, that was once the most powerful in the world? What has happened to our families? What has happened to morality? What has happened to our unity?
If China attacked us tomorrow like Japan did on 12/7/41, about half the country would be clamoring for surrender. They would want, and work toward helping, the Communists win because they hate our country so much.
How would we pay for a war–borrow the money from our enemies (and continue giving millions of it back to them as foreign aid)? How would we get medicine and spare parts to our troops, when we’ve been duped into outsourcing all that production to our enemies?
What have our sacrifices earned us?
We’re on the verge of losing everything we still have left, and half the population wants to make it worse. In fact, they will attack you if you get in the way of the corruption and destruction.
The masses were deceived then, and are deceived now. But the America we live in now is not the America our grandfathers thought they were fighting for.
Veterans Day is for guys like us here at VP. Memorial Day is for veterans who weren’t so fortunate. We honor their memory today.
I can’t speak for others, of course, but I treat the flag with respect not because I care about the cloth and dye it’s made of, but because of what it represents. Many Americans have put their lives on the line to protect what the flag represents, and many lost their lives doing so. We can argue about what those men really died for (since the War of 1812, at least) but few of them enjoyed the hindsight, or insights, now available. Their sacrifices deserve and command our respect.
For all her faults and damage, I am still thankful to live in America. We still enjoy freedoms here that others around the world don’t. Those freedoms hang in the balance of events playing out all around us right now. But today I’m gonna try not to dwell on heavy issues. I plan to relax, eat, maybe do some reading, and work on the Great American Novel.
Lo and behold, I got a new review on my debut novel (which is about the American fighting man, BTW). That was a pleasant surprise. Here’s what was said:
A very exciting ride into the past for me. The writing was so good I felt like I was in the story rather than just reading a book. The chaos of the battle scenes were so realistic, my pulse was racing and my heart as thumping in my chest. And like reality, when the shooting stops and the dust settles, you realize you weren’t brave you were just too busy to be scared. I very heartily recommend this book and this story.
Hell and Gone, like its sequel, Tier Zero, is available in e-book, paperback, and audiobook. the third book, False Flag, will hopefully be available in audiobook one of these days.
For the last few weeks. as mayors and governors leverage COVID-1984 in order to turn America into a 3rd-world dictatorship with themselves as the Politburo, it’s been encouraging to see some law enforcement personnel (usually county sheriffs, but some others as well) hesitate to violate the rights of citizens. It’s sad (and indicative of how much damage our republic has sustained) that we are overwhelmed by gratitude for public servants who merely do the job we pay them to do; but it’s still tempting to call them heroes. We probably can’t even imagine the pressure some police are under to violate our civil liberties.
This historic phenomenon reminds me of a scene in False Flag:
His first order of business was to scrutinize his deputies. He fired all but seven of them, then sat the survivors down in the briefing room and gave them a longer speech than the one he delivered on the campaign stump.
“You men have heard the expression ‘there’s a new sheriff in town’?” Tommy asked, then just watched the deputies reactions as the thought sunk in.
“The reason you are the only ones here is because I let everyone else go. The first thing I want you to understand is that for every one of you still here, there’s ten unemployed wannabes waiting in line, who paid to put themselves through the police academy. It will be much easier for me to teach them good habits than to correct any bad ones you might have. If you’ve been learning the wrong way to conduct this job before I came along, then you’d better un-learn it before I find out.”
He opened the cardboard box on the desk, pulled out a handful of small booklets, and tossed one to each deputy.
“Each one of you took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution, and the laws of Oklahoma,” Tommy said. “The Academy does an okay job teaching you the most common Oklahoma statutes you can use to trick, bully, and charge citizens. It does a disgraceful job teaching you about the Bill of Rights. These little books are copies of the Constitution, with the Bill of Rights and the later amendments, plus the Declaration of Independence and some other stuff. When you report to work tomorrow morning I expect you to have read the Bill of Rights. If you have any questions about it, ask me. I’m giving you one week to read the entire Constitution. You swore to uphold it, so as long as I’m sheriff, you’re gonna know what’s in it.”
None of the deputies had worked with him before. Nobody grumbled—possibly only because they weren’t sure how crazy a boss he would turn out to be.
“Until then,” Tommy said, “here’s some items for you to remember: if you ask for or accept any kind of bribe, you’ll be fired. If you steal something, I’ll put you in this jail myself. There will be no more checkpoints. No more speed traps. No more arresting people, then figuring out what to charge them with after they’re brought in. No unwarranted searches; no warrants without probable cause—and probable cause does not include skin color, camouflage clothing or gun racks.”
Tommy studied faces again. Some of the deputies blushed. He took note of them.
“You will not take one of the unmarked cars from the motor pool without authorization directly from me. We are not going to use unmarked cars for speeding tickets. If our objective is truly to make drivers slow down, then we want them to see that we are out there on the road with them.
“I don’t want citations for seatbelt violations coming across my desk. Citizens are not our property. If they aren’t endangering someone else, leave them alone. There’s more than enough yahoos on the road out there driving drunk, tailgating, changing lanes without signaling, cutting people off, running stop signs, and all kinds of other idiotic stunts, for you to concentrate on. Citizens don’t pay our bills to be harassed, or for you to make up excuses to cite them. You aren’t revenue men anymore, so make that mental adjustment right now. From now on you are public servants, and your job is to protect and serve.”
Kevin raised his hand tentatively.
“Save your questions until I’m done,” Tommy said, and Kevin lowered his hand.
“If you find yourself in a situation that requires backup, then call for it. And if you need to use force–up to and including deadly force–then don’t hesitate. If you’re doing your job right, I’ll have your back. But understand this: that badge doesn’t give you the right to violate anyone’s rights. If you hurt or kill somebody without good reason, then I will be your enemy. And if a suspect is truly resisting arrest, and the situation justifies a call for backup, your job is not to converge on the scene to get your sick jollies beating and tazing the suspect. You get them restrained and back here for booking as quickly, efficiently, and painlessly as possible. Is that understood?”
A chorus of sober “yes sirs” sounded in reply. This was not a happy crew.
“I’ll take questions, now,” Tommy said.
“Is it just us, now?” Kevin asked. “Are you going to replace the deputies you fired?”
“We’re gonna work it like this for now,” Tommy said. “I’ll see how it goes. I might bring in a couple rookies if it turns out we truly are short-handed. But the workload will be going down now that we’re out of the harassment business. This will probably be enough manpower, right here, to do the job we’re getting paid to do.”
Sheriff Flores had bloated the office with a small army of deputies, and ballooned the budget every fiscal year. Paying for all that excess made it necessary to generate revenue by “proactive” policing that made the locals despise and distrust law enforcement.
“Question,” Jeff said. “If we’re only concerned with people who violate the rights of others, how do we deal with drunk drivers?”
“Drunk drivers put other people’s lives at risk,” Tommy replied. “That’s a violation of somebody’s most basic civil liberties: the right to life – weaving all over the road and other drunk behavior will kill somebody; the right to liberty – a wheelchair is a definite infringement on their freedom; and property – the other vehicle or whatever else the drunk is going to crash into.
“Men, I spent some time in the Middle East. That region has the absolute worst drivers in the world. I wouldn’t trust them at 20 miles an hour on an empty four-lane road. But they drive at 110 on two-lane, half-paved roads, with crossing livestock and blind corners. And yet they have only a fraction of the accidents as we have in the States, driver-for-driver. Why? Because they don’t drive drunk. Period. They just don’t do it.”
Another deputy—Walker was his name—raised a hand. “You just told us to use deadly force without hesitation if we need to. Then you said you’ll be our enemy if we hurt or kill somebody. That seems like a contradiction.”
“Two problems, Walker,” Tommy said. “First off, you didn’t listen carefully to my instructions. Poor attention to detail. Secondly, it seems to me that you question your own ability to judge when force is necessary and when it’s not. That’s a fatal flaw in any peace officer.”
“I think his concern,” Harris said, “is the same as mine and everyone else’s: I mean, it’s our first day with you in charge and it’s like you’re taking the side of the civilians over us already.”
Tommy shook his head and ground his teeth for a moment. “Let me make something real clear to all of you right now: you are civilians. You are not soldiers; you are not in an army; and we are not at war with the taxpayers.” He pointed at the booklet Harris absently played with in one hand. “I don’t just expect you to read that, men. I expect you to know it; accept it; and conduct yourselves as if you believe it, for as long as you work for me.”
Buy it on Amazon.
Within the first four months, three more deputies were gone. Harris tampered with his car camera; Walker coerced sexual favors from a prostitute in Norman. The third quit.
Tommy deputized some academy graduates to replace them. One of them was Janet Bailey, who covered for the dispatcher during her shift, and also updated the website. The image of the county sheriff’s office turned around, between her efforts at communication and the reformed conduct of the deputies.
Looking back on that first year, Tommy was surprised more deputies hadn’t quit. What surprised him even more was that, after a few months, the Feds seemed to lose interest in the bogus murder rap. He was questioned a few times; Gunther and Jenny were questioned; then the Feds backed off. Maybe, by some miracle, an honest person was calling the shots despite the Attorney General. And the fact that Tommy had been too busy with his new duties to keep sniffing around at the Justice Department probably helped.
With all the changes Amazon has made to the review process, I had resigned myself to probably never getting another review–at least never getting a positive one. But on my way to getting a link for False Flag, I noticed a new one had just been posted on the 11th:
I’ve read a number of novels of this genre, and this one stands out in so many ways. Author Brown does not mince words and refuses to be daunted by the title ‘Conspiracy Theorist’ as he explores via his characters how easily one could execute a false flag and make it seem believable. If for some reason it is successfully thwarted, he then shows the ease with which the truth can be distorted, by subtle additions or omissions, to a believable lie, to become true fake news. And because it comes from an authority like the US Government, most will believe it to be the truth without any attempt to vet it. Likewise, he lays out how only a core group of the population, key personalities and authority figures, have to support it for it to become ‘fact’ .
I also appreciated how Brown brought in many minority groups, this time even Native Americans, to discuss what they face in a society that has become more and more polarized for no good reason. Depending on the situation, we can all become ‘minorities’; and drawing such a ridiculous line of separation as appearance or sex is completely nonsensical. As the old adage goes, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”
This story is an eye opener for anyone who has ever wondered why, or how, we’ve gotten to this place in time.
I’m not calling it “the Martial Law Book Sale” because I’m trying desperately to be optimistic about the shutdown and what will happen afterwards.
While we’re waiting (and hoping) for this to blow over, don’t succumb to boredom. Kick back with a good book and enjoy the down time.
Mike has reduced the prices of all his e-novels, now. Also, I’ve slashed the prices of my shorter books and will add those links, too. Remember, you can click on the images or the text links to buy. And all these books are available not only on Amazon for the Kindle, but at Barnes & Noble for the Nook, Kobo, the Apple Store, and just about every other store where you can buy e-books, for whatever device.
-Hank
Fast Cars and Rock & Roll…that title tells you exactly what you’re in for in this 459 page high-testosterone tale of Deke Jones’ adventures with racing, rock music, and ravishing women.
Deke Jones is back for 612 pages of private detective work mixed with irreverent mayhem in Shadow Hand Blues, trying to solve a cold-case mystery after stumbling on a dead blues man’s electric guitar.
There are no elves, unicorns, or pixie ninjas in Gods & Proxies, but it’s about as epic a fantasy as you could possibly get in 316 pages. Or is it a fantasy at all?
The entire Retreads series is available for a song at Amazon. Well, I don’t think they actually make you sing. But the three E-Books will cost less than a cheeseburger from the drive-through.
And, of course, the books are for sale individually, too. Hell and Gone was the series premier, my first bestseller, and still the most popular of all my books.
Below are some shorter books that were priced lower than the full-length novels. Now they’re even cheaper! (Sale prices will be visible after clicking on the links.)
Long before mixed martial arts, men of the west displayed their violent prowess with fists only. Tomato Can Comeback is the tale of a young fighter’s quest for redemption…on the canvas.
Also available as an audiobook from Audible. Comment on this post to get a coupon code for a discount!
Radical Times is set during the aftermath of the Civil War, when a soldier returns to the girl he loved, but is caught in the middle between two factions that still want to fight.
Thus Spake the Bard tells the story of a troubador and his creative friend, who get on the wrong side of a sheriff from Nottingham.
The Greater Good is a satire, dropping snark bombs on the superhero genre and leftist groupthink.
There’s a lot of stuff going on right now. Some of the “solutions” to COVID-19/the Wuhan Coronavirus are wrong, infuriating, and scary. In the short term, a lot of us are worried about our jobs–will they even exist once this mess blows over?
People around the world are worried about putting food on the table. For those in that position, I urge you to be as wise as you can with what resources you have.
For those who have food and water covered, but are bored and need something to do, Virtual Pulp is cutting the prices on our E-Books. I’ve suddenly got a lot more time to read than normal, and it’s one positive side effect of this crisis. Below are text links and image links (yes–you can just click on the book cover image to buy one from Amazon) for reduced-price E-Books. They’re available in all electronic formats and pretty much every online book store except Google Play.
Stay safe and keep your powder dry.
Buy the whole series from Amazon.
The entire Retreads series is available for a song at Amazon. Well, I don’t think they actually make you sing. But the three E-Books will cost less than a cheeseburger from the drive-through.
And, of course, the books are for sale individually, too. Hell and Gone was the series premier, my first bestseller, and still the most popular of all my books.
Virtual Pulp contributor Paul Hair also has some work published you should look at. It is not on sale currently, but still worth a read. You can find his short stories in the Appalling Stories series.
I’ve blogged about Mr. Levinson a few times before. Some readers of action-adventure have called him a “trash genius”–an epithet that evidently pleases Len.
I really don’t like that label. I’ve read a lot of Len’s fiction and none of it was trash. It wasn’t Tolstoy, but it wasn’t meant to be. And here’s an important point: If Len wanted to write highbrow literary fiction, in my opinion he could easily craft a novel in a league with War and Peace.
I was fortunate enough to become an author years ago. All three of the novels (so far) in my Retreads series have been Amazon bestsellers. A pleasant surprise was a type of reaction those books got from readers: that they captured the fun and excitement of the pulp and paramilitary adventure fiction of yesteryear, but with a high caliber of prose that most of the classic men’s fiction never achieved. I was shooting for exactly that combination of excitement, realism (two attributes that seldom go together) and well-crafted writing. But the praise surprised me in that readers found it remarkable. I didn’t appreciate how rare it was, because I had read so much of Len’s work… which is action-packed, well-plotted, with realistic dialog and great characterization.
Len and I have different styles, different experiences, and different areas of interest, but anybody who likes my fiction should definitely read Len Levinson.
I am happy to share another insight into Len’s writing career, in his own words:
One day circa 1979 I was sitting in the East 50s office of paperback packager Jim Bryans. I just delivered a manuscript and we were speaking about various matters that I don’t remember. Then out of the blue he asked: “Have you ever written a World War Two novel?”
I replied that I had indeed written a World War Two novel called DOOM PLATOON by Richard Gallagher, set during the Battle of the Bulge, published by Belmont-Tower in 1978.
Jim said that a publisher contact of his was looking for someone to write a World War Two series, and asked me to bring him (Jim) a copy of DOOM PLATOON for submission to the publisher. I did so ASAP and a few weeks later Jim called to say the publisher wanted to meet me.
ONLY 99 CENTS–CLICK TO BUY!
The publisher was Walter Zacharius who together with Roberta Grossman owned Zebra Publishing, their offices on Park Avenue South around 32nd Street. I think Jim attended the meeting but Walter and I did most of the talking. Walter told me he’d liked DOOM PLATOON and wanted me to write something similar as a series. He also said that he’d been in the Quartermaster Corps during World War Two and rose to the rank of sergeant. I distinctly remember him saying that he had participated in the liberation of Paris.
In turn I mentioned that I enlisted in the Army in 1954, served three years in the Infantry and Corps of Engineers during the Cold War, was stationed in Alaska about half of my enlistment, therefore I knew basic military life up close and personal although I’d never been in a hot war. I also said that infantry weapons during my Army years were identical to those used during World War Two, or modified somewhat, and main principles of fire and maneuver also were pretty much the same. I assured Walter that I could write about World War Two with a high degree of authenticity although I’d never been there.
I agreed to Walter’s deal, probably signed the contract then and there, walked home to my broken-down pad in Hell’s Kitchen and tried to figure whether the series should focus on one person or on a unit like a platoon. Finally I decided on one person who would be a tough sergeant similar to Sergeant Mazursky in DOOM PLATOON.
Mazursky had been based loosely on a friend named Mike, a World War Two veteran and very tough guy seven years older than I. Mike had been been ready to rumble at any moment and seemed to have no fear or caution when any conflict arose. Occasionally he threw shocking temper tantrums in public and seemed ready to punch out people. Physical intimidation was perfectly okay with him but we usually got along well and he became one of my most significant mentors, for better or worse.
Mike’s military career had not exactly been illustrious. He went AWOL numerous times during World War Two in Europe, had broken out of a stockade, and instead of fighting for his country full time, had been wheeling and dealing in black markets of France and Germany.
After mustering out, Mike attended Columbia University for a year or two, then dropped out to sell marijuana and become something of a gigolo. He got arrested at the Mexican/Texas border for smuggling marijuana and served five years in a federal prison during which he wrote for and helped edit the prison newspaper. I met him shortly after he was released in 1961, the same year I arrived in New York City.
Mike was a very complicated guy. He could be vicious or extraordinarily gentle and kind. He could insult you savagely, then take you to dinner. He could cruelly put you down, then burst into laughter as if it was all a big joke. A deeply devoted party animal, he also was a heavy drinker and doper. Cocaine was his drug of choice. He did not believe in God, had Communist inclinations, was surprisingly well read and could talk like an educated man, which he was, or growl like a gangster, which he also was.
He also was amazingly successful with women although not exceptionally good-looking in my opinion. He vaguely resembled the actor Victor Mature combined with John Garfield, Rocky Marciano and Sylvester Stallone. He always had girlfriends even after he got married.
Once I asked him the secret of his success with women. He replied that women were attracted to confident men, but mainly just wanted to be loved. He certainly was very confident and actually seemed to love all the women with whom he was involved.
Another time he said to me: “You’re the craziest person I ever met in my life, but you SEEM normal.”
Mike was a first class conversationalist, raconteur and storyteller. I often listened to him spellbound, although his wife Maggie said he never let facts get in the way of a good story.
Mike introduced me to my first wife, a Cuban immigrant whom he called Chi-Chi. Our marriage was stormy and ended in divorce after four years because we simply weren’t compatible souls. During a period of post-divorce angst, I blamed Mike for my misery. “If it hadn’t been for you, I never would have met Chi-Chi.”
Mike replied with a winsome smile, “I only introduced you to Chi-Chi. I never told you to marry her.”
Of course he was right. My bad judgement was the cause of my unhappiness. I knew that Chi-Chi and I weren’t compatible but I was dazzled by her beauty and couldn’t think clearly, as happened often during my younger days.
Mike became the basis for my new central character Sergeant Mahoney and I decided to call the series THE SERGEANT by Gordon Davis. I was very excited about writing this series because I had been interested in war since childhood, and read many novels and historical works about war. Born in 1935, I literally grew up in the atmosphere of World War Two. I remember ration books, paper and metal drives, and regular reports of casualties. Victory was by no means certain, many setbacks were reported, and an atmosphere of desperation pervaded the land. Occasionally we schoolchildren did bombing drills where we sat with our back to walls and hoped no bombers would ever come.
ONLY 99 CENTS–CLICK TO BUY!
I thought my background growing up during World War Two, and three years in the Army, were ideal preparation for writing a World War Two land battle novel. My next big literary decision concerned when to start the action, but the answer seemed obvious. I should begin the novel with the D-Day landings in Normandy and then carry each novel forward chronologically.
What would the first plot be? I didn’t want to write about actual landings and the subsequent grinding fight for the beachhead because it had been done in movies numerous times, most notably THE LONGEST DAY. Instead I dreamed up a suspenseful commando style mission behind enemy lines to blow up a critical bridge that supported trains carrying German soldiers and equipment to the front.
I wrote in a state of deep intellectual and emotional involvement, and around six weeks later submitted the completed manuscript to Walter, certain that he’d love it. A short while later he invited me to his office, told me that in fact he did like the novel and would publish it BUT he pointed out that ordinary soldiers never went on commando missions behind enemy lines, and he wanted subsequent novels to be about ordinary soldiers engaged in standard World War Two front line battle action. I said okay and that’s what I gave him in the next eight novels in the series.
I loved the cover for the first SERGEANT. It really stood out on book store shelves. Subsequent SERGEANT covers were similar. Walter really understood marketing and that’s why Zebra was the most successful privately owned publishing company in America.
Looking back, I think THE SERGEANT series marked a turning point in my literary career. Somehow I gained a more comprehensive understanding of novel writing while working on its plots, subplots and characters. It was the second series that I created, the first being BUTLER for Belmont-Tower, but THE SERGEANT seemed of much higher quality than BUTLER. Many readers have praised THE SERGEANT in blogs and on Facebook, which has been most gratifying.
THE SERGEANT SERIES has been republished by Piccadilly as ebooks by Len Levinson and presently available from Amazon. He also wrote another gritty WWII series called The Ratbastards which I heartily recommend. In my previous post, you’ll find links to my other reviews (to date) of his Sergeant books.
Red-Blooded American Men Examine Pop-Culture and the World
