JIM PERAKIS
FIRST BOOK IN A SERIES OF COLD WAR THRILLERS
MILITARY BACKGROUND
After graduation from the University of South Carolina, Jim Perakis served as a Lieutenant, USN in 1967 and 1968 on the aircraft carrier USS Bon Homme Richard, with A-4 bombers and F-8 aircraft supporting the bombing of Vietnam targets and protecting U.S. soldiers and marines fighting on the ground in Vietnam.
Jim also served aboard the guided missile frigate USS Farragut and earlier, as a midshipman on the aircraft carrier USS Wasp, cruising in the Atlantic Ocean as it recovered two astronauts from the Gemini 4 orbital flight and first American spacewalk. His naval experience also included flight training, amphibious assault, and air intercept control.
Jim is proud of his service to his country as a naval officer, but he believes the Vietnam war was a major American military mistake. The war was fought and expanded by five U.S. presidents – Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, with the support of a large majority of congressmen and misinformed American civilians.
The first televised accounts of military action were largely ignored by the public and promoted by politicians as a defense against the threat of communism. The result was over fifty-eight thousand deaths of US fighting men and massive collateral damage to civilians, including the horror of napalm bombing. The Vietnam war extended for twelve years despite large scale protests by millions of men and women against a senseless and unwinnable war.
The average age of US servicemen in WWII was 26, In the Vietnam War the average age was 21.
