Blackout

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The history of this work would fill a book in itself, and there are far too many people across the miles to thank, including a cadre of law enforcement, legal, aviation, and communications compatriots arrayed over a half-dozen continents.

Some specific thank-you’s, however, are appropriate.

First, my great appreciation to my editor at Putnam, David Highfill, and to my publisher, Leslie Gelbman, for all their help and enthusiasm, and to my agents, George and Olga Wieser of the Wieser and Wieser Agency in New York.

Thanks also to Dr. Gary Cowart of Seattle, now an outstanding dentist and fellow author, but thirty years ago a Marine stationed near Da Nang, Vietnam. Gary helped immensely in checking and refining my personal memories of Vietnam in getting the terrain, flora, and fauna right. And thanks also to Dr. Cowart’s brother, Randy, who added insight to a delightful afternoon of maps and memories.

My specific thanks as well to retired FBI Agent Larry Montague, who once again lent his expertise to make sure Kat Bronsky’s world squares with the real thing.

There are some folks I’ve got to thank anonymously for obvious reasons: the individual inside the U.S. State Department who helped with a myriad of information from Vietnam to the way a Secretary of State uses communications; the unnamed source who helped with the capabilities of the National Reconnaissance Office; and a supervisor at Hong Kong Approach who sidestepped the normal political worries late one night to talk to me.

And thanks as well to the uncounted Kat Bronskys out there who are truly Kat’s prototype: capable, professional, dedicated women who refuse to surrender their femininity or their sense of humor in the face of the indefensible career barriers raised by the clueless among my gender.

John J. Nance

University Place, WA

October 15, 1999