David Quinn isn’t about to get drafted into the Army. Let someone else slog around the jungle to fight Lyndon Johnson’s war. But his student deferment is about to run out, and the Navy and Air Force recruiters are already swamped with panicked college boys in the same pickle. He can’t run to Canada. That would kill his dad. And getting a conscientious-objector deferment practically requires being a priest. So when a recruiter shows up on campus pitching the sizzle of naval aviation, Dave is seduced by the golden wings, ultra-cool aviator shades, and the promise of a jumbo jet career as a Pan Am captain. It is both his way out and the glamorous career he deserves.But he lands in a remote outpost, where he struggles against a demanding superior, aging aircraft, and his own fears. When his dogged ambition inflicts devastation, he has to face the kind of man he has become, profiting from war while others suffer. Now, he must make an agonizing choice.SHADES is a story of ambition and friendship, sacrifice and loss, and ultimately, discovery and hope. In the worst of times we find the best in ourselves.
DEDICATION
On August 27, 1970, naval aviators of Fleet Composite Squadron Five (VC-5) practiced carrier landings aboard the USS Shangri-La cruising in the South China Sea. Returning to Cubi Point Naval Air Station at night in a driving rainstorm, naval aircraft US-2C 133344 crashed into Subic Bay, Philippines, killing the four young naval aviators aboard. News of the event was barely noted, dwarfed by the two hundred plus American military deaths each week, five hundred miles to the west in Vietnam.
This novel was inspired by that event and is dedicated to those young naval officers: Quentin Gunn, Glenn Spar, Jack Dripps, and Bob Hollingsworth. It was written out of affection and respect for those men. Since they perished outside Vietnam, their names do not appear on that solemn black granite wall in the nation’s capital, along with the fifty thousand who died in that conflict. But their loss is no less grieved. And so, this is their memorial.
Legal dynamo Bob Baldwin forges corporate mergers that reap millions for CEOs, investment bankers, and law firms. Meanwhile, rank-and-file workers watch their jobs disappear, families suffer, and communities crumble. Bob soothes his guilt with the balm of a grand salary and beautiful wife. But when an act of betrayal claims his woman, his income, and even his health, he learns the pain of an indifferent world and can no longer ignore the carnage of his work. In a defiant rage, he steals millions from the law firm and flees to start a new life in a remote village where the values of honesty, loyalty, and community still survive. Despised by a tyrannical boss, deceived by a manipulative trophy wife, and pursued by a dogged but conflicted detective, Bob struggles to rebuild the town that corporate “right-sizing” has destroyed—before his ex-employer can track him down and exact revenge. As the hounds close in, Bob realizes that war is not won by hiding in the trenches. He must take the battle to the citadel. BREWING JUSTICE is a story of greed and betrayal, sacrifice and loss, and ultimately love and redemption. In the worst of times, we find the best in ourselves.
Ken Hubona 