lee croissant

Fasten your seat belts and get ready to fly with Lieutenant Eddie Werner as he ends up in Southeast Asia flying old World War II era transport aircraft. Powered by radial (round) piston engines and spinning propellers it returns the reader to World War II era flying but in a Viet Cong jet fighter war. The mission?—fly all kinds of freight, from D-8 caterpillars, 40 foot truck trailers, and heavy artillery pieces to mail, canned food rations and toilet paper into South Vietnam. Lord knows the troops can’t fight a war without toilet paper. Join Eddie in the cockpit as they strive to avoid enemy gunners and other unexpected war zone hazards. Follow Eddie as he as he discovers international smuggling and illicit sex operations.

Follow Eddie into his next assignment in the cockpit of Top Secret EC-47 aircraft, flying intelligence gathering missions in the Plane of Jars. Located in northern Laos, the missions were flown by Air Force pilots, crewed in the back by the securities services’ finest (nicknamed Spooks), and the missions for unnamed government agencies. Called the CIA’s secret war, this highly classified operation was shielded from the American public for decades after the war was over. Experience the tension and anticipation when flying in a low altitude, slow, unarmed, alone and unescorted aircraft over enemy territory, for hours at a time, gathering intel for General Vang Pao and his division of Hmong mountain fighters. Feel the thrill and awe as you gaze down at the limestone karst beauty of the Laotian badlands while you maneuver to avoid the anger of the North Vietnamese Army’s guns. What secrets of this strange mercenary sideshow did Eddie reveal that still haven’t been admitted to the American public.

During all this time you track Eddie’s off duty escapades and his efforts to find the legendary Asian Lady that isolated clues indicate actually exists. Meet the handful of hardened women he encounters during his search.

Join Eddie as he matures in the nostalgic era of old piston engines, propellers, oil drips, spark plugs, irregular meals, jungle and Asian splendor. Scorned by the jet jocks, ignored by the news media, the old airplanes and the crews at last get to tell their story in this book. The times and the places are displayed exactly as they were. The culture of the old freighter crews is authentic and the flying is depicted as it occurred. Only the names and the characters’ stories are fiction.