BOOKMONGER
Novel probes a covert war
Long Beach author served in the Vietnam War
‘One Hundred Stingers’ by Peter Adams Young.
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Every summer for many
will not acknowledge its fl iers’
years, I’d vow to read “War and
activities there, even if they are
Peace,” cover to cover. And
shot down.
every summer I’d fail — never
While they’re still digest-
ing this unsettling news, the avi-
more than a hundred pages into
ators are provided with fi nal
the 1,400-page-plus tome. This
instructions before departing on
year, I didn’t even bother to pick
their fi rst combat mission. The
up Tolstoy’s masterpiece, but I
rules :
have succeeded in reading “One
1. Never fl y below 3,500 feet;
Hundred Stingers,” an 814-page
2. Never undertake multiple
novel that centers on the United
Peter Adams Young
runs at a bombing target;
States’ covert air campaign that
3. Never engage in a duel with an
took place over Laos during the Vietnam
enemy fl ak site.
War.
But Davis, working with Lt. Cmdr.
Glenn “Smokey” Stover, soon learns that
rules are meant to be broken.
This week’s book
The duo fl ies dozens of missions
‘One Hundred Stingers’ by Peter Adams Young
aboard their A-6 Intruder, a powerful
Nestucca Spit Press — 814 pp — $24.99
and nimble aircraft equipped with what
is vaunted to be an extremely accurate
weapons delivery system. Unfortunately,
that Digital Integrated Attack Naviga-
Long Beach Peninsula author Peter
tion Equipment, dubbed DIANE, turns
Adams Young is a former naval fl ight
offi cer who fl ew close to 100 combat mis- out to be extremely fi nicky as well, and
frequently leaves the fl iers in the lurch
sions over Laos and North Vietnam as
— mid-mission.
a bombardier and navigator. This debut
So Davis and Stover become masters
work of fi ction is suff used with authen-
at improvisation, and often that means
tic, hairy details concerning the nature of
breaking the rules — which seems per-
those secret missions to disrupt the Ho
Chi Minh Trail, which was the major sup- fectly in keeping with the overall inter-
national convention-breaking campaign
ply route that North Vietnamese forces
they’ve been ordered to engage in.
used to overrun South Vietnam.
“One Hundred Stingers” does seem
Young tells this story from multi-
overly-long (although it should be noted
ple points of view, including idealis-
that the font size is larger than average).
tic young Communist fi ghters, Laotian
Nonetheless, this is a surprisingly addic-
villagers and senior American military
tive read. It is chockablock with jar-
commanders.
gon (the author supplies a 10-page glos-
But the story focuses particularly on
sary to assist readers), and the characters
the experiences of Lt. j.g. J. Michael
in the book have attitudes about women
“Choo Choo” Davis, whom we fi rst meet
and their wartime adversaries that refl ect
as he and his squadron depart the naval
a time considerably diff erent from now.
air station in Washington state’s Puget
But I’d wager that most readers will fi nd
Sound, where they’ve been training for
themselves swept along by the high-
deployment overseas.
It isn’t until they arrive at their aircraft stakes, action-packed narrative anyway.
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
carrier, stationed off the coast of Viet-
McMichael, who writes this weekly col-
nam, that the fl iers learn they will be fl y-
ing top-secret air interdiction strikes over umn focusing on the books, authors and
publishers of the Pacifi c Northwest. Con-
Laos, which offi cially is a sovereign and
tact her at barbaralmcm@gmail.com.
neutral country. Consequently, the U.S.