The Spirit

Novel: The Spirit

   The year 1966: As the Vietnam war was beginning to escalate, many young men were getting drafted to fight in a war they knew nothing about. Some dodged the draft and left the country to escape going to war. Others dodged the draft by enlisting first in order to learn to fly.

   This is the story of how three of those boys, LJ, Brian, and Jim grew in a few short months to become one of the new breed of flyboys. Joined by their wives; Kathy, Annie, and Alice, they share that spirit as they go on a journey of growth, love, and grief while achieving their goal. 

   The Spirit is fiction, but Army flight school and Vietnam were all too real. So too, are the real trials we faced to learn to fly and adjust to Army life, and especially the  bond we formed working toward that common goal.

   The hardships, the joy, and the bond also extended to our wives who were willingly drawn into our lives and became an equal part of that experience which was The Spirit.

      Quote from the novel:

Fresh out of Army basic training and fresh into Army helicopter flight school. I was as scared as any of the other new warrant officer candidates, or WOCs, as we were called.

We were not yet used to the disciplined life of having strangers tell us what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.

These strangers had that authority because their uniforms had more patches and brass on them than ours did, and they were going to teach us to fly...

The first day our instructor informed us, "Gentlemen, there are three ways to learn to fly a helicopter: the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way. "We are going to teach you the Army way."

Vietnam looms as a certainty when three young men enter the Army to fulfill their lifelong dream of flying. In the process of training they take their wives along on a journey that will remain in their memory and hearts forever.

A journey of discovery: which takes them from childhood to a life they would have never imagined.

A journey of hope, that sometimes disappears.

A journey of friendship stronger than they have ever experienced.

A journey that divided the nation, but united a generation as they became one in the Spirit.

Join Jim McCoy, LJ Livingstone, and Brian Keen, along with their wives: Alice, Kathy, and Annie as they leave their childhood behind to join forces in this new world of loud magical machines, friendships, jealousy, and pain when they step into the future.