The F-22 Raptor, Robert Gates, and "Air Power Abandoned"

This may grab you. It may prompt you to ask questions.

It's the cover of a book titled "AIR POWER ABANDONED." I'm writing it now. The cover design is the work of the talented Victor Rook. The text, about Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the decapitation of the Air Force, and the scuttling of the F-22 Raptor, will be my work.

There's time to weigh in. If you have insights on the period 2006 to 2011 and what it meant for American air power, I need to hear from you.

I'm thankful to so many friends who support my writing and my books. At age twelve, I used paper route money to buy an Underwood portable typewriter and tried my hand at writing. I have a shoebox full of rejection slips. One, from the old Esquire magazine, includes a handwritten note: "Almost made it." Gill Robb Wilson, editor-in-chief of Flying magazine, wrote me a thoughtful letter when he rejected an article I'd submitted.

My first paid magazine contribution appeared in the November 1955 issue of Air Force magazine when I was in high school. If you have it, burn it. It's probably not worth keeping but it was a beginning. This year, I'll celebrate sixty years of writing for publication. Most of it has been about the Air Force.

"AIR POWER ABANDONED" is coming together at the same time as my efforts to publish fiction for the first time. My first priority is those who fly and fight. But my recently published alternate history "HITLER'S TIME MACHINE" has been well received. While continuing to write about the Air Force, I'm also writing a noir crime novel tentatively titled "CRIME SCENE: FAIRFAX COUNTY."

Sign up to receive my blogs. There won't be many and they won't come often but they'll keep you up to date on my stuff.