DALE BROWN'S Dreamland - RETRIBUTION

HARPER

Written by Dale Brown and Jim DeFelice

Copyright © 2007 by Air Battle Force, Inc.



In Dale Brown's Dreamland - Retribution, written by Dale Brown and Jim DeFelice, the Dreamland team - which is based at a secret military facility in the Nevada desert - are searching for more than two dozen nuclear weapons that were lost when India and Pakistan launched these weapons against each other. Fortunately the Dreamland team were able to neutralize the nuclear weapons with their new systems, but now that war has been prevented, Dreamland must recover the weapons before other authorities and guerrilla fighters recover them - while two of their own have been lost at sea.

As the Dreamland team try to recover the nuclear weapons in the Mid-East, Lt. Colonel Tecumseh "Dog" Bastian searches for his daughter and her husband - who both have bailed out of their plane damaged from air combat, and are injured and marooned on a deserted island. Meanwhile, Air Force Major General Terrill "Earthmover" Samson tries to take over Bastian's command of Dreamland.

While I understand Samson may want command of Dreamland with no apologies, I can not appreciate the fact that Samson has no respect for what Dreamland does - whose personnel are the best of the best. Samson tries to remove everything that makes Dreamland what it is - including the specialized strategic hi-tech programs that Dreamland is developing, as well as removing the personnel in charge of the programs.

The use of the Whiplash UAV's (unmanned aerial vehicle) makes me appreciate more the capabilities of such aircraft. You are seeing the UAV's more and more in the media when dealing with the military or covert organizations. And when you consider that UAV's insures the safety of our pilots, it is a wonder that more of these aircraft are not in operation. Most of the media attention today is focused on manned aircraft, probably due to the high visibility of pilots and the more clandestine activities of UAV's. It is curious that even the remote pilots care about the fate of their remote planes, just as regular pilots care about their planes - even if the remote pilots are not physically flying the UAV planes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Dreamland - Satan's Tail

HARPERTOURCH An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers


Written by Dale Brown and Jim DeFelice


Copyright © 2005 by Air Battle Force, Inc.



In Satan's Tail, Islamic pirates in the Gulf of Aden aggressively prey on civilian vessels. A prototype American littoral warship, that the enemy has named "Satan's Tail," is sent to stop them. Dreamland's Megafortresses and Flighthawk escorts go as support with the littoral warship.

There is quite a bit of rivalry between the leadership styles of the commander of the littoral warship and the commander of Dreamland, Colonel Tecumseh 'Dog' Bastian, as they try to coordinate their various task elements while searching for the extremist pirates. Granted the styles of combat command for a vessel designed to operate close to shore and an air combat command are two different styles, you would think they could work better together in combat for the same goal. At least I would think Bastian would. Although I did not want to, I felt for the dedicated Islamic leader as he does all the things in the book for his son who was killed. There is rivalry between the two paraplegics back at Dreamland, although one has more self-pity than the other. Washington politics flare up concerning a fake picture of the situation in the Gulf of Aden.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.