Cowboys and Indians: An Action-Adventure Science-Fiction Suspense-Thriller Comedy Love Story

This book opens with a flight of two MiG-29K fighter aircraft launching from an enemy aircraft carrier in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

The MiGs clearly have hostile intent. They have previously shot down two US Navy F/A-18 Hornet aircraft that had launched from the same carrier. This time the MiGs have set their sites on the command and control platform of the airwing, the E-2 Hawkeye.

The five airmen operating as a flight crew in the E-2 know they are in grave danger and have few options at their disposal. They can try and outrun the MiGs, but that would be like a fat sea lion out-swimming a great white shark. Another option is to launch the alert F/A-18s to chase down the MiGs before they can launch a missile at the E-2.

Unfortunately for the gentlemen in the E-2, the current rules of engagement will not allow the F/A-18s to fire on the MiGs. This is true even if the MiGs shoot first. Only one man can authorize the release of weapons, and he is sitting in a comfy chair in Hawaii eating low-fat potato chips and contemplating his golf game.

As the MiG-29s approach the E-2, a 26-year-old lieutenant is faced with a difficult choice. The heroic option is to let the enemy fighter planes blow him and his four squadron mates out of the sky. The cowardly option is to violate the rules of engagement and tell the F/A-18s they are cleared to fire on the MiGs. The second option would likely lead to decades of imprisonment at hard labor.

You might very well say, “Surely such a thing could never happen. After all, the chain of command is filled with intelligent, reasonable people.”

One possible response would be, “It absolutely has happened before and will very likely happen again. And please, stop calling me Shirley.”

The cover of the book states that Cowboys and Indians is an action-adventure, science-fiction, suspense-thriller, comedy, love story. That may seem overly optimistic, but I assure you that the author pulls it off in a seamless fashion.

This book is a comedy. And by that I mean it is funny. At times it is spit-Diet Coke-all-over-your-keyboard funny. Other times the humor is very dry. And by dry I mean on-the-verge-of-passing-out-from-dehydration. If you're the kind of person that prefers the Marx Brothers over The Three Stooges or the comedy stylings of Steven Wright over Pauly Shore, then this book may be for you.

This book is also a thriller. A page-turning, gut-wrenching, can’t wait to see what happens next, tell your husband to heat up his own dinner type of thriller. The kind of book you can’t put down even though it’s 3 in the morning and you have to give a presentation to the VPs at 9.

Set in the year of 2023, Cowboys and Indians imagines a slightly different, if not more advanced, world. There will be dissimilarities between the author’s 2023 and your current reality, some of which are based on well-researched, intelligent, logical thought processes. Others are just wild, gin-and-tonic induced, borderline-lunatic babblings of a deranged mind. If I had to bet which are more likely to come to fruition, my money would be on the latter.

The book follows a Navy squadron on a 6-month deployment aboard an aircraft carrier. The ship travels across the Pacific Ocean in a westerly direction. This is known as a WestPac for reasons that the more astute readers may have already determined. We begin in chapter 1 as the characters prepare for the long voyage. By chapter 4 the ship is sailing the high seas. By chapter 10 most everyone is regretting their decision to join the Navy in the first place. Well, that last part is only partially true. Most everyone regretted that decision long before chapter 1.

Cowboys and Indians will take you on an intense adventure filled with ordinary people doing extraordinary things. By the time the story reaches its conclusion, the characters will seem like old friends. You will be both amazed at what they’ve managed to accomplish and eager to know more about th