Night of the Hawk

Acknowledgments

When you talk about infantry weapons, you can learn only so much from a book-you eventually have to get out to the range, get a gun in your hand, and return some lead to the earth. I was lucky enough to find the best in the business to help me. Thanks to Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner, surfer chief and president of Movie Arms Management, Inc., and his partners, Ben Sherrill and Jared Chandler (“Razor” in the movie Flight of the Intruder), for taking me out to the range and showing me how to use some of the weapons described in Night of the Hawk. It was an awesome experience I’ll never forget. Special thanks also to Bill Hazen, also of Movie Arms Management, who gave me specific suggestions and details on U.S. Special Forces tactics employed in many of the scenarios I built for this novel.

Special operations is very much a multiservice tasking, and I’ve received assistance from just about all of them.

Although not officially a part of U.S. Special Operations Command, the U.S. Marine Corps is usually the spearhead in most military operations overseas and has a wealth of experience and talent in the world of special operations-I hope I’ve done justice to the time and attention they’ve given me. I’d like to thank Major Mark Hughes and Chief Warrant Officer Charles Rowe, USMC Public Affairs in New York, for a great wealth of information on Marine Corps special operations. Special thanks also to First Lieutenant Mike Snyder, who provided me with tons of information on Marine Corps weapons and equipment.

Very special thanks go to First Lieutenant Todd Yeatts, deputy public affairs officer, Marine Corps Recruiting Depot, Parris Island, S.C. When I needed information on the USMC Confidence — ourse, Todd went out with a videotape camera and ran it for me, each and every obstacle, without a single hitch. That’s an American Marine!

Thanks to Lieutenant Colonel Terry Meehan, U.S. Army, of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Public Affairs, for the information he provided on the U.S. Special Operations Command; to Lieutenant Colonel Les Grau and Lieutenant Colonel Tim Thomas, U.S. Army, Office of Foreign Military Studies, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for data on Soviet troop deployments in the Baltic states, the Commonwealth republics, and the former USSR; Kent Lee; Dr. Jacob Kipp, Russian military historian at Fort Leavenworth; and Peter Ernest, public affairs officer, Central Intelligence Agency.

Special thanks to Army Staff Sergeant Vincent Lobello, California Air National Guard, Mather AFB, California, for an incredible tour of the Army’s AH- 1 Cobra gunship and an explanation of tactics involved with night-vision equipment.

Thanks to Captain Kimberley Urie, U.S. Air Force, and Shirley Sikes, public affairs officers at Air Force Special Operations Command, Hurl-burt Field, Florida, for information on Air Force special operations aircraft, weapons, and tactics; and Major Norm Hils, MH-53J helicopter pilot, Captain Randy Garratt, AC-130 gunship pilot, and Captain David Tardiff, MC- 130 electronic-warfare officer, for their help with their respective special-operations weapon systems and the helpful criticism they provided on my manuscript.

Thanks to Jeff Richelson, author of Sword and Shield; Amy Knight, at the Library of Congress; and David Colton, White & Case Attorneys at Law, New York City, for information on Soviet paramilitary forces; William E. Burrows, author of “Deep Black” and “Exploring Space,” for information on Defense Department satellites; also David McClave and Ronald Grimm, at the Library of Congress; Ian Cuthbertson, Institute for East-West Studies; David Shakley, Magnavox Defense Group, Inc.; Caroline Russell, Boeing Aircraft Inc. Product Support Division; and Mr. Evan H. Whildin, Sr., of Colt’s Manufacturing Co., Inc.

An excellent source of information on U.S. Marine Corps special operations on which I relied is the book Strike Force by Agostino von Hassell, published by Howell Press. A good source of general information on Marine Corps history and training is The Marine Book by Chuck Lawliss, published by Thames & Hudson.

Part of the research for this book was a trip I took to the Soviet Union and the three Baltic states in April and May of 1991. Thanks to Jurga Sakalauskaite, a guide with GT International, the first private travel agency in Lithuania, for the information she provided on Lithuania, Vilnius, and the Baltic states. Thanks also to Intourist, the Soviet government travel agency, and its representatives for being so honest and open about their country and the status and future of the breakaway republics.

The best source of historical, cultural, and geographical information on the Baltic states that I used was A Guide to the Baltic States, edited by Ingrida Kalnins, published by Inroads, Inc..

A continuing source of information, morale, inspiration, and encouragement were Lieutenant General Robert Beckel, commander of Fifteenth Air Force, Strategic Air Command (soon to be part of USAF Air Mobility Command); Major General James Meier, Fifteenth Air Force deputy commander; and Lieutenant Colonel Fredric Lynch, Fifteenth Air Force Chief of Public Affairs, March Air Force Base, Riverside, California.

They have helped me immeasurably by sharing their time and enthusiasm for their profession with me over the past several months.

It has been a wild and woolly time trying to keep up with the changes going on in the old Soviet Union, and I couldn’t have done it without help. As ever, I wish to thank my wife, Jean, for helping me cook up these stories; my editor and friend, George Coleman, at Putnam; and especially my executive assistant and friend, Dennis T. Hall, for chasing down information sources, handling the phones, checking my sources and contacts, and helping me straighten out the kinks in a rapidly changing real-world political scene. I can’t wait to see what happens next…

Dale Brown

Folsom, CA

March 1992