A realistic account of a Navy Pilot's life. Mr. Coonts (who was a Navy Pilot) does an excellent job portraying military life. The characters that he has created are awesome, I especially liked Virgil Cole, and of course Jake Grafton. Mr. Coonts does a great job portraying the Vietnam War Era; and I can only assume that he has somewhat modeled Grafton after himself. Great book, fantastic characters and a good fictionalized "fact" based account Vietnam. I highly recommend this book.