Recounts how a lad from a wee village in Ontario, Canada, blundered back and forth across the U.S. border, through stints in the Canadian Army, the RCAF and, eventually the USAF. Caught up in the Vietnam vortex, he fell through the rabbit hole into shaky attachment with the 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army, as an Air Force weather man - tasked more often to drive a truck than gaze skyward into monsoon. The nature of his Vietnam assignment and less than strict discipline and oversight allowed for aperiodic free run of the entire contry from IV Corps (south of Saigon) to Hue in far north 'I' Corps. Finding humor somehow in rocket and mortar attacks, random bombings, fraggings and small arms fire requires only the perspective of one disenchanted and disconnected who was not a very good fit in anyone's chain of command. The book provides insight into how the Army operated from a unique viewpoint, how command philosophies varied from unit to unit, and how to survive those peculiarities in peace and war. Reminiscent of Kirst's GUNNER ASCH trilogy with a smattering of CATCH-22, Hornell's spot-on description of characters and events before, during, and after the epochal year, 1968 is likely to bring a knowing smile to the reader - with or without a military background.
Lanark, Ontario, mostly burned down in 1959 - this after I'd been removed from its Scottish embrace to crass Long Island, NY, then back again after a rather brief period as an officer cadet in the Canadian Army. Its burning saw me off to the RCAF and other abortive career paths, thence back to the USA. I found a niche in Air Weather Service of the U.S. Air Force which saw fit to expose me to such disparate climates and weather related jobs as weather observer in Maine, Kansas City and Arkansas, Rawinsonde operator in Newfoundland and moving target in Vietnam. Training as a weather forecaster subsequent to the war saw me analyzing weather patterns from Easter to Ascension Islands in a cement block building in South Carolina then actually forecasting in Florida. Divorce and true love found me back on Long Island as an advisor to the National Guard, thence to Guam and, finally, retirement as Chief, Weather Station Operations, Andrews AFB, MD. In addition to various academic credentials as a meteorologist, along the way the Air Force treated me to a year at the University of Tampa for a B.A. in sociology. Potomac High School in Maryland hired me to (as they put it) "be a role model for the white students," a job I enjoyed no matter the race of my pupils. The lure of the north still beckoned, however, and soon I returned to the embrace of the Air Force as civilian weather forecaster at Plattsburgh, AFB, NY (60 miles south of Montreal). True love soured (again) and my cat and I retreated up a wooded Adirondack hillside to a secluded alternative energy house. Over the years I achieved some notoriety as the backup TV weather guy here until I ran for office and my learned opponent demanded equal time. I garnered about 10% of the vote and my TV stint ended. Having tired of the Air Force (and it of me) I sold some real estate, counseled/supervised felons as a probation officer, did taxes, delivered the mail and founded a real property inspection company - more or less in that order. Here I remain, divorced again, master of all I survey and frequent visitor across the northern border - 22 miles to the Canadian Legion and all the charms of bilingual beer drinkers. Excerpts of my writing have been published, most notably in UNKNOWN WARRIORS, Fred Gaffen, Dundern Press, Toronto 1990. It was Fred that encouraged me to write this book, initially published as COMBAT WEATHERMEN by Realwarstories.com. Who knew?
