Aussie Pilot

Kevin Johnson

Description

The book commences with the hero as a young man just qualified as an air force pilot and moves on through his life describing various wars and major occurrences affecting his life. He is drafted to a USA carrier and then Vietnam, where he finishes military life. He studies medicine, assists the Flying Doctor Service, then develops a large market-garden export company with a Japanese partner. Here he finds the computer Orack, and life takes a different tack. The president of the USA discovers their talents and employs both of them in the White House. They become involved in Middle East politics, blackmail, and business corruption. His wife is assassinated, and again, his life changes. He meets his second wife back in Australia, and together, the basis of the other books of the trilogy is formed. Magic, illusion, and witchcraft enter the story where space travel, evil tycoons, and business manipulation become the normal.

Sujets

• Fiction
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris AU
• Date de parution: 23 mai 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781543408515
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

AUSSIE PILOT
KEVIN JOHNSON

Copyright © 2018 by Kevin Johnson.
Library of Congress Control Number:
2018904769
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-5434-0853-9

Softcover
978-1-5434-0852-2

eBook
978-1-5434-0851-5
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
Rev. date: 05/05/2023
 
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
AU TFN: 1 800 844 927 (Toll Free inside Australia) www.Xlibris.com.au
AU Local: [phone] ([phone] from outside Australia)
www.Xlibris.com.au
772539
CONTENTS
Introduction
Prologue
 
Chapter 1 Graduate Pilot
Chapter 2 Overseas Posting
Chapter 3 Early Days: Vietnam Conflict
Chapter 4 Meeting Adm. James Callaghan
Chapter 5 USA Special Training, Carrier Posting
Chapter 6 Dogfight to Remember
Chapter 7 Meeting Helen and Tally Cheating
Chapter 8 Tribunal Hearing
Chapter 9 Scary Dogfight: USS Forrestal to Falklands
Chapter 10 Discovering Helen and Her Brother Barry
Chapter 11 Falklands War and Learning Helicopters
Chapter 12 War on the Ground
Chapter 13 Helicopters for MASH Hospital
Chapter 14 Refurbishing the MASH Base and Armoured Rescue Helicopters
Chapter 15 Army Rescues, Horses, and a Close Call
Chapter 16 Learning Medicine and a Possible Ocean Cruise
Chapter 17 Catch up with Helen, Closure of MASH, and Miami-to-Mediterranean Yacht Voyage
Chapter 18 Yacht Purchase, Miami Yacht Club, and Helen’s Arrival
Chapter 19 Yacht Refit, Voyage, Offer to Practise Medicine, and Return to Australia
Chapter 20 The Wedding
Chapter 21 Honeymoon and Interstate Visits
Chapter 22 Balance of Honeymoon, Land Purchase, and Idea to Quit Hospital
Chapter 23 New Job in RFDS
Chapter 24 Market Garden Resolve, Exit RFDS and Granger Downs Staff
Chapter 25 Japanese Partner and the Williamses’ Wedding
Chapter 26 Development of Granger Downs, Plastic Canopies, and Helen Pregnant
Chapter 27 The Cavern, the Discovery of Orack, and Initial Powers
Chapter 28 Introduction to Atlantean Powers
Chapter 29 Upgrade to Stealth Bomber Command
Chapter 30 Selling Part of the Garden and Working in the White House
Chapter 31 Helen Assassinated
Chapter 32 Assassin’s Suicide, Funeral, and Escape to Geraldton in WA
Chapter 33 Being a Spec Builder and Meeting Pamela
Chapter 34 Meeting the Witch Family and Enlarging the Market Garden
Chapter 35 Pam’s Political Dilemma and Discovering Love for a Second Time
Chapter 36 Pam’s Selfish Mother and Preparation to Going Back to the White House
Chapter 37 Arranging to Go and Deciding on the Future
Chapter 38 Ending Australian Politics and the Rapist Getting His Dues
Chapter 39 White House Business and Entertaining the Hierarchy
Chapter 40 Afghanistan, Leaving the White House, and Settling in Bay of Islands
Chapter 41 Writing Comedy and Songs and Developing an Academy
Chapter 42 Finalising the Academy, Pam Becoming Queen, and Family Oddities
Chapter 43 Strife in the Middle East and the Start of Space Travel
Chapter 44 Orack, Space Encounters, and Being Formally Recognised
Chapter 45 Retrieving Atlantis: Dudgeon War
Chapter 46 Meeting of Three Planets, Space Fighting, and Demise of the Supreme Commander
INTRODUCTION

This is a story that was written from the time the writer was a young man. Over time, it has developed and lengthened as other stories, fables, films, world occurrences, and conversations grasped the writer’s imagination; and when merged, they have become another small part of the knitting ball that, because of the writer’s retirement, has finally been documented to form this book.
By integration and revision, the story has become almost entirely fictional, so I have no hesitation in stating that the work is without any relationship to actual people, places, truth, or historic writings. In fact, it is now pure illogical fantasy. The story spans a long period, so I have started by writing the first portion of what will be a series of three novels, all of which use the initial hero and his family as the central figures; and by doing so, I also include some of their accumulated friends, who by association also master special powers like our hero. All readers will note that these friends with exceptional skills have been, in their time, created by other already recognised, highly talented authors.
Now retired, I have time to let the story flow out, so what you see is what you get. It has been documented simply because the writer just had to write it and for any reader to hopefully gain some pleasure and even some imaginative enjoyment.
That said, my story is of a hero and his friends, some of whom demonstrate remarkable intelligence, appearance, and powers that evolve and strengthen as their experience blossoms over a lifetime of service to their beliefs and aspirations. The book would not have been written were it not for the encouragement of my understanding wife, Judy; our children, Michelle, Vanessa, and David; and their children, Matthew, Benjamin, Finn, Aislinn, Caelan, Neve, and Taya – and to that extent, I am both proud and truly grateful.
Again, it is emphasised that the book is for the reader’s pleasure and make-believe only, and any accuracy in detail, truth, or reality is purely an extension of storytelling and has no relevance to real situations.
PROLOGUE
The story starts with our hero, David, as a young boy living in Nedlands – a middle-class suburb of Perth, Western Australia – within a family comprising a strong father, by qualification an engineer; a self-centred mother, formerly a nurse; an aged, religious, and kindly English grandmother; and an elder sister with substantial musical talent. Of course, typical of the era, a bouncy, always running, faithful, small, brown-and-white fox terrier dog named Chippy was always at his side. He was coordinated in all activities and, although well graded at school, preferred to spend his time with any sort of new challenge ranging from a variety of seasonal sports to using his hands in making things such as crystal sets or radios to making several hill trolleys and paddling canoes on the nearby Swan River and always riding a push bike everywhere. The dog often sat on a self-made wooden carrier bolted behind the bike seat. David also spent most of his school holidays on a friend’s farm tending horses, cattle, sheep, and a small wheat crop. He broke in several horses that he used for driving sheep and cattle; and on weekends, he played polo, dressage, or gymkhana, performed at various horse clubs on the periphery of the Perth metropolitan area.
We start the story towards the end of World War II, say 1948, which has placed the population of Australia in food rationing and meagre living conditions. But for young people, life was good, and a lot of freedom was enjoyed by all.
Our hero’s father was a good man who loved cricket and quality music with a passion. Because of World War II, his country required him as a qualified engineer to teach young pilots the theory of aircraft and flight. Accordingly, he was detained from overseas war action. Similarly, although chosen for the state cricket team during the war, no matches were played over the entire period. To him, they were two very cruel blows, particularly as two of his elder brothers had already played in New South Wales interstate teams.
Consequently, he wished his only son to be a state cricketer; but although our hero, David Granger, was excellent at the game, he had no desire to play for any reason other than fun. In his teens, he was jibed and bullied by the bigger boys, being younger and private college educated unlike the public-school toughies. This left David more interested in horse riding (or baseball, in which in his late teens he did make state selection two years in a row).
When he was able to perform in total privacy, he played music his way, predominantly of country-western style, whilst also attempting to copy the manner of popular recording artists, singing and playing instruments from the 1950s and 1960s. So, affected was he by his father and sisters’ dominating music skills that he never would show anyone the slightest inkling he had any ability in this area. At that time, he felt any other distraction was far better than playing in a state or Australian cricket team or playing classical music in the way of his father and sister.
On the other hand, his sister was an outgoing, talented pianist who liked singing and playing at social gatherings much to her parents’ delight. Socialising was a big part of everyone’s life back in those days, allowing excessive alcohol drinking with home-made catering at parties to be the normal. Over time, David grew to hate the ‘plastic lifestyle’ and the social mixing that went with