Showing results by author "William H. Labarge" in All Categories

Sullivan meets the grueling demands of the Navy's basic flight program, learning to handle high-altitude crises and hazardous landings.

Meet "Sweetwater" and "Sundance" — two of the most outrageous and daring jet jockeys ever to sit behind the controls of an F-14. Assigned to the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, these boys are living life to the fullest: harassing Russian recon planes...raising hell on shore leave...testing the limits of their jets, their commanding officers, and their own reputations as the Navy's best.

Hornet's Nest follows an aircraft carrier's tour of duty during 1985, offering shoot-'em-up action and a mindset that equates Middle Eastern with terrorist. Central to this unsavory tale are fighter pilots 'Sweetwater' Sullivan and 'Sundance' Karnes and Sweetwater's squadron, the Fighting Aardvarks, who seem like free-wheeling, hard-partying frat brothers armed with technical training, powerful weapons and minds uncluttered by any understanding of the complex political events that dominate their lives.

The news is grim. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has threatened to attack Iran if they don’t stop enriching uranium. United States' interests back the threat. In LaBarge’s latest novel, Lightning Strikes Twice, US Navy pilots, aboard the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), Captain “Sweetwater” Sullivan and LT “BigHands” Johnson, are called upon to carry out the impossible mission of deterring the Iranian threat under daunting circumstances.

America's strength has always been her people. Never has this strength been more evident than in time of war. From the Revolution on, the history of America at war has always been the history of ordinary men and women doing extraordinary things. But in the past, it has taken years, sometimes even decades, for those heroic men and women to be heard, for their individual stories to be told.