Opinion/Editorial, If You Go Away
Opinion/Editorial IF YOU GO AWAY… The country of the United States heads into a ground combat war in the desert, a desert portrayed in Hollywood style in the old Gary Cooper movie called Beau Geste. The setting will not be far off, sand and mountains, and...
THW COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XXIX
I wanted to have a part in loading the boat, simply because if I knew where things were being placed and an emergency came up, then there’d be no delay in getting to what was needed. Not that the entire mission wasn’t just a rolling emergency. But, even...
EGRESS, a Short Story
EGRESS A Short Story By James Strauss The decision was the fastest and most fateful he had ever made, but living with the result was going to be problematic, even if the life he had left was to be very short in duration. Josh stood with his back pressed into the hard,...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XXVIII
I called Tony, and before he could say a word, I read him the riot act about his inclusion of Marcinko on the mission in any way. “You done now?” was all he responded with. “I breathed in and out deeply. Marcinko and the others, including the...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XXVII
It was the water; I finally figured it out. It wasn’t the clear, fresh aroma of the mid-Pacific that swirled around the island chain of Hawaii—in those waters had been the clarity, the slightly salty sense of crystal purity, and a welcoming temperature that seemed to...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XXVI
The Cessna was having to turn slowly and very sharply to be able to come back around and still have another decent run at us, made all the harder by Kingsley turning the boat to port to lessen the timing and effect of the Cessna’s turn. The sound of the high blades of...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XXV
The planning for the mission had come to an end without what I considered to be the key element of it, which was, what in hell was the real mission because it sure wasn’t breaking up a band of drug smugglers, stealing their cash and destroying them and their stash. ...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XXIV
I sat with the phone off the hook, watching the light blink, soundlessly yelling at me, while I was wishing I could know more than I knew. Suddenly, it occurred to me that the Rover should have the car phone somewhere inside it. I got up and went to the parking lot....
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XXIII
I tried to get to sleep, which I nearly accomplished until my wife poked me in the side. “What is it?” I asked, my tone one of irritation. “You mentioned something, and I wanted to discuss it before you nod off, as it may be important as to whether you continue on...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XXII
Roger Rabbit, the pilot, flew us directly back to the airport in Key West. No one said a word, and even though it was hard to be heard inside the plane, which, with Robert pushing the speed to the little plane’s maximum, the reason for the complete silence had...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XXI
There was too much going on, and my control was once again nearing the ephemeral kind of leadership I had in the A Shau Valley so long ago. The boat, or specialized watercraft that resembled a yacht, was ready to be guided down the waterway. Rosley Ryan was on the...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XX
Fairey. The boat was built by a company called Fairey, and in spite of its origin, it looked perfect. It was forty feet long, twelve feet wide, and drew almost five feet when not on plane. I was curious about looking at the masterfully built hull, just how a boat so...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XIX
I was not encountered by anyone from either the embassy or any of the people I’d met earlier in the country, which was a blessing as my recovery from the cough syrup I’d taken before and during the flights over had taken the wind out of me, as well as my need or even...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XVIII
Joan Rosely Ryan’s appearance created the first general meeting of all the employees at the Principal Financial Group office. Everyone was dancing, singing, and drinking God knows what kinds of mixed concoctions. It was a madhouse, and I was struck mostly dumb. The...
The Time of Our Lives, a Poem by James Strauss
The Time Of Our Lives by James Strauss The beginnings of salvation, Do not lay at culture’s foundation. They twist and roll, tortured and misplaced, Just above the turning bowels of my nation. When will the pain fail to suffice, These beings of evil...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XVII
I wondered about the small recorder that Doctor Harpending had given me, or rather gifted me, since no discussion had taken place about ownership. The good doctor was known for being cheap, driving an older Volkswagen, and infamously buying used tires for it from...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XVI
I hung up the phone after getting assurances from Tony that the cash would be available at the base on the following day. The payroll office would have it, but I wondered what the effect would be of so much cash going in and out of that place, which was staffed by...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XV
“There are no secure lines anywhere around or in Heathrow the young British police officer said, not the kind I think you are talking about. You would have to go to the American embassy downtown.” I turned away in frustration and walked back to the King Air, noting...
THE COWARDLY LION Volume Six, Chapter XIV
The pell-mell rush to Anderson Valley Vineyards was a success, except for the ballooning part. Kris had the folded and refolded envelope in its canvas bag, standing next to the basket, which had the two big burners thrusting upward from a brace up across from its...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XIII
I made it to the parking lot but had to turn back as Kingsley had my keys and I’d left no instructions for any of the staff or my men, much less the four new quasi-agents for the insurance operation. One of those agents was quite something I’d briefly heard. Joan...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XII
I sat thinking while inside the Jeep while Marlowe waited to find out if he was to live or die. There was no real decision to make. His firing at me, even though he wasn’t a sniper, should have taken me out earlier, no matter how I dodged and squirmed. Short-range...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter XI
I left Nash to organize and gather his family to join my own. He called Becky, his wife, and arranged things on our home phone, which both pleased and impressed me. He carefully placed the 12 gauge near the back door from the garage into the kitchen, but high on a...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter X
I held back for a few seconds before committing. I was in Albuquerque, USA, and not in some combat zone, no matter what had happened earlier. If the car twenty meters away held hostiles, then people were going to die, with possibly the three of us among the dead. ...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter IX
I could not let the security of my family lie in the hands of CIA handlers, even those like my war hero in two wars control officer. The move to have Marlow incorporated and then included in active DEA missions was inconclusive to me. He had to be motivated to get out...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter VIII
The train ran. The locomotive puffed smoke and made a singular sound as it raced around the small track under the tree. I celebrated with Quincy, both of us way too inebriated to do anything but thank God, for his intervention in helping us bring the hundreds of parts...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter VII
I waited for Quincy to come to me across the parking lot. That he was here at all was evidence that something in my logical equation of what had happened earlier was wrong. Men did not come back to confess to trying to kill you or be a part of such an...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter VI
The road that wasn’t a road appeared before me, as I crawled to come to its rough edge. I was facing Albuquerque. My sense of direction returned, and the terror of being killed, once again, was replaced by a dedicated desire to right the balance of justice in my...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter V
The money for Nguyen and Kingsley had to be retrieved from the paymaster at the Air Force Base, and I knew I was the only one who could present himself in person to claim it. The system, all military and civil governmental systems, were peculiarly protective of cash...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter IV
The Galaxy was headed for Travis Air Force Base, which meant, since Travis was about sixty-five miles northeast of the airport in San Francisco, that Dave and I would have to make that trip and then fly commercial home, he to Scottsdale and me to Albuquerque. There...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter III
The Fletcher coasted to a complete stop in the middle of the estuary pond. Dave got hold of the poles and set them so they’d protrude out over the water, both on the hull facing away from the estate. I unlimbered the rifle from its leather case below the edge of the...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter II
David White stared at me, his expression one of initial shock wearing toward unwilling acceptance. Watching him make up his mind was an exercise in patience, but also a participation in entertainment. I waited for him to move. Movement meant life. Movement meant...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Six, Chapter I
Prologue The mission on the island of Mallorca, located just off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, was concluded. A lot of nothing had happened, at least from a perceived observational conclusion by both Dave White, my assigned partner, and I. I’d killed a...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XXX
My partner, David, was likely fast asleep in the room we shared, a hundred and fifty feet up from where I played with and inside my ocean. I could not use the lobby, the elevators, or even the stairs to reach that room as the body lying on the far shore would bring an...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XXIX
We flew on toward the night, the oval porthole set into the curved fuselage of the plane allowing for direct view now that the craft was turned toward the west and the sun wasn’t dancing all over the plexiglass, making everything outside look like it was covered in...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XXVIII
Once more, I entered the water, not of my own volition, but simply lowered down like a descending spider coming to gently land atop the relatively smooth surface of the ocean rather than the spindly intricacies of a web. The umbilical I attached to my back somehow...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five Chapter XXVII
I stopped at the edge of the parking lot, the dust and debris from the departing CH-53 helicopter downdraft settling around me. Marcinko stood in front of me, looking like some kind of imitation Marlin Brando kind of Harley guy, his hair in a bun at the back of his...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XXVI
I felt the slightest of tugs against my back, as if little nudges to let me know that more pulling was to come, which I knew to be true, although the oxygenation of the liquid I was breathing wasn’t completely compatible with clear thinking. Mentally, I asked myself...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XXV
The training began immediately, but it wasn’t real training. There were no calisthenics or any of what was so common to Marine training, but there was running, not in the outside, racing through the wondrous areas of conditioned and well-managed tropical paradise. No,...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XXIV
I was running only on conjecture and suspicion as I walked up the angled cargo hatch of the Starlifter. Trying to accommodate such an abrupt change in my life and direction was proving more mentally taxing than I’d ever imagined. My wife had been surprisingly excited...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XXIII
The Los Alamos mission was over. I stood in the high-altitude sunshine, not enough oxygen in the air, and no protection from the high-altitude beating sun’s rays as I reflected. Somehow, I felt let down. Nothing had happened. It was almost like being a house painter...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XXII
There were some small details to be cleaned up, so I drove off the freeway at the Old Santa Fe Trail exit and eased the Benz down the twisty old trail, now a two-lane highway, into downtown Santa Fe toward the plaza or one block park at the very center of the capital...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XXI
The call to my control officer wasn’t a pleasant one, as Herbert didn’t want to discuss my using the CIA-backed American Express card for the purchase of school texts. Almost seven hundred dollars for three books, written in South Africa and printed in Italy, were...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XX
“The men are armed,” I said, wasting no time on niceties or re-introductions. “No live rounds issued,” Marcinko laughed, looking back at the men with grave expressions, as if such demonstrations made any difference should armed conflict unfold. “We’re in training, as...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XIX
With both Marcinko and I riding inside the Rover and the radio off, there was a silence punctuated only by the sound of passing air as we traveled, the whine of the V8 well insulated under the hood and the hiss of radial tires passing over hot asphalt. Marcinko had...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XVIII
I waited for some response from Herbert, the receiver glued to my ear. That Warner Erhard didn’t trust the Agency to keep its word was self-evident but the single word I’d used to indicate to Herbert that there was a whole lot more use Erhard could be than simply...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XVII
The airport in downtown Hong Kong, literally inside the very developed and crowded downtown area, was one of the most dangerous commercial airports to land in and take off from worldwide. Kai Tak was a civilian airport controlled by the city of Hong Kong through the...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XVI
I turned to my ‘team’ and sat down once more at the table, as the four of us came together and they might understand why I’d made the strongly worded requests to Robert Burns that I had. “We aren’t going to need or want heavy weapons of any sort and no pyrotechnics...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XV
Wearing my blue suit made me basically unnoticeable once down into the elevator’s final ding-dong to exit. Business in Hong Kong was all suits and ties with mostly white shirts and red ties of one sort or another, plus Caucasians were anything but out of place. I...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XIV
Wing proceeded out to the busy street from the alley we’d been huddled in and ran toward the closest taxi, brilliant red.I stared at the door of the taxi and was stunned as I backed into the building wall on the other side of which was the room of cages I’d slept or...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five Chapter XIII
Christmas loomed ahead as I returned to the office after once more assigning the class to attend a combat training course encouraged by the Army for its more exotic special forces units. After reviewing the content of the course, I could see no place for me to do...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XII
“Look at the night, and it don’t seem so lonely. We fill it up with only two…” by Neal Diamond interrupted the Christmas music I’d put on, as Pat walked through the door to my office. “We got tired of Christmas music,” Pat announced, and then looked at the expression...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter XI
I suddenly realized it was time to return to the base and continue the training. Deerhunter was a long movie, at just over three hours, but there was organizational work to be done to continue building a lesson plan and then maximizing the use of Nguyen and Kingsley....
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter X
I turned toward the big tent where everyone was gathering for the first class, but I walked as if on some sort of surface made of Jello. Ben’s comment, driving into my heart like a lance, caused me to literally shiver in apprehension. If McCain would do such a thing,...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter IX
I ran through the open garage and on into the house through the kitchen door. The living room was to my right and Marcinko was sitting on the couch that faced me and the television set angled to his right. Mary stood talking to him but had not seated herself. “What...
THE COWARDLY LION, Volume Five, Chapter VIII
I drove to Kris Anderson’s winery and looked around. The place seemed dead with no cars around or even a pick-up. There were plenty of collections of heavy earth-moving equipment surrounding the huge warehouse where I presumed most of the winery was run, wine was...Subscribe to FROM THE WILDERNESS
Buy Me a Cup of Coffee
Go Fund Me Campaign
Second Ten Days now On Digital and Signed Copy Paperback
Autographed Island In The Sand
Interview with Joe Crane
Arch Patton:The BeringSea
Signed Copy Paperback Thirty Days Has September: First Ten days
Arch Patton Adventure Volume One
Book Sniffer APP
READ the Most Dangerous Newspaper in the World
Stop by and read our weekly Newspaper, published in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
Don't Miss any Updates or New Chapters
Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team. You can easily Opt-Out anytime
You have Successfully Subscribed!