Our Latest Angel Flight West Mission

My brother Ken and I flew our latest Angel Flight West mission last Saturday. We were part of a three-airplane relay to take Justin Hunley and his Mom Tabitha from Casper, Wyoming to the Shriners Burn Center in Sacramento, California.

The flight from Carson City to Battle Mountain in north-central Nevada was quiet and uneventful. My readers should recognize Battle Mountain: I use it as the setting for a fictional underground airbase. The real airport was built by the Army Air Corps in 1942 as an emergency airfield and reliever base for the Army training bases in Reno. It's a pretty lonely place: a good ten minutes to anywhere and only one fixed-base operator on the field (Harless Aircraft). But I was surprised to see what looked like an old air museum near Harless Aircraft with nothing less than the cousin of my old ride, a Tactical Air Command F-111 supersonic bomber, parked there! The planes looked neglected and forlorn, which matched the feeling of the place in general. The ramp attendant told us that some days they would have absolutely NO planes land there!

But I'm still going to use the secret underground airbase there for future novels!

Your Novels Into A Movie?

I received an e-mail recently which demanded a longer-than-usual response, so I thought I'd share it with all my readers on the Web site. Here goes:

1) After reading Act of War, a friend of mine pointed me to the computer game which had some very cool live action sequences in it. I'm fairly certain you get this suggestion a lot, but have you ever considered turning one of your novels into a movie? I would love to see Razor's Edge or Flight of the Old Dog made into a movie.

I have to admit, I was really jazzed to see a real-life Jason Richter in the "Act of War" PC game, speaking words and doing stuff I invented. Unfortunately, I don't have a screen agent in Hollywood, so my books aren't out there being pitched like they need to be. I'll keep on working on novels, and eventually one or more of them will get made.

2) How did you come up with the name "Patrick McLanahan?" How do you come up with character names?

Patrick McLanahan is actually a combination of the first name of my ex brother-in-law Patrick, who was a jock in high school but took care of me and a few of the other nerds (probably because he was dating my sister), and McLanahan's Pharmacy in State College, Pennsylvania, which was one of my stops while working as a security guard in college. I don't know why I picked that name: maybe I just thought it sounded cool.

I've used several devices for naming characters. I used to just pick them out of a phone book. I used family members' names until I used them all up (Kenneth Francis James in "Day of the Cheetah" is comprised of my two brothers' names and my Dad's). I've used names from the women of The Weather Channel and Fox News, towns around Lake Tahoe, favorite wineries, and foreign language words.

I also auction off characters to charities where the highest bidders can pick a character's name and we design a character in the story based on the bidder's ideas or desires. I've raised over a quarter of a million dollars over the years doing this for charities and non-profits.

3) How much of his personality did you plan beforehand, and how much of his personality came out on its own?

Most first novels are "fantasy autobiographies," reflecting the author's self-image and imaginary grand adventure. Other characters are created to support the main character (allies and mentors) and to create conflict (antagonists and enemies). I let their individual personalities emerge by themselves but they have a job to do, so they can be anything as long as they serve their role in the story.

Conflict is key in my novels, and character is used as well as plot to create conflict. Sometimes it's as simple as making a particular character female--that usually creates instant conflict, especially in military novels.

GBA, Dale...

Angel Flight West Charity Flying

I was asked by my Webmaster Bill Parker (www.parkerinfo.com) to provide more details about my first Angel Flight West mission and my experiences with volunteer charity flying.

Angel Flight West (www.AngelFlightWest.org) is a group of volunteer pilots in thirteen Western states that donate their time, skills, aircraft, and flying expenses to take medical patients for treatment free of charge. If you're a pilot and looking for a way to give back to your community--and do some REAL flying, not just the usual boring holes in the sky or $300 hamburger trips--check it out. There are Angel Flight organizations all across the USA. Angel Flight West also accepts volunteers to fly as Mission Assistants, act as mission coordinators, and a host of other tasks.

New AFW command pilots undergo a short training program, must be current, and have had a flight review in the past 12 months. They are personally interviewed by a Mission Orientation Pilot before being allowed to fly passengers. Pilots get a list of available missions online and volunteer to take as many as they want. They are also free to cancel a mission at any time for any reason.

Passengers must be referred by a social worker, pastor, outpatient specialist, or similar person who can verify a patient's needs and financial circumstances. Patients are accepted based on medical condition and need, but they must be prepared for alternative means of travel. They must be able and willing to climb into and fly in a small private plane by themselves, and not require any special medical services enroute. Although we do have volunteers who will fly missions in jets, turboprops, and nice pressurized aircraft, most pilots fly single- or twin-engine unpressurized planes.

by Dale Brown

On-Sale May 11, 2010

Dale Brown, the New York Times-bestselling master of military suspense, is back with EXECUTIVE INTENT (William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, on-sale May 2010), an action-packed tale of intrigue and technological weaponry that puts the world's superpowers in contest for dominance of space as well as Earth's oceans.

The United States begins to establish the ultimate High Ground, a space-based anti-ballistic missile and anti-satellite system in Earth's orbit, which could protect not only America, but also her allies from attack. The most controversial part of the system is Mjollnir, a precision-guided artificial meteorite that can strike almost anywhere on the planet in a matter of seconds. China responds by setting up dozens of anti-satellite missile sites around the world aimed at America's Armstrong Space Station. Meanwhile, a series of accidents in space, the possibility of an arms race with China, the upcoming elections and a worsening economic outlook all put the pressure on U.S. President Joseph Gardner to cancel the weapon satellite system and call for treaties to eliminate all space-based weapons. But instead of negotiating, China surges its military forces for the first time since the Korean War by invading Somalia and Yemen and capturing the vital shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden.

Now, America's vaunted nuclear aircraft carrier battle groups are in the crosshairs of Chinese hypersonic missiles and hunter-killer submarines. Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and others see America's military dominance eroding and rush to take advantage.

Two champions emerge, one from retirement and another from the aftermath of the 2012 presidential elections, to risk everything to restore American power and influence around the world. But will it be enough to hold off America's enemies who are closing in for the kill?

About the Author:

Former U.S. Air Force captain Dale Brown is the superstar author of 22 action-adventure "techno-thriller" novels starting with Flight of the Old Dog in 1987. He is also the co-author of the best-selling Dreamland techno-thriller series and writer and technical consultant of the Act of War PC real-time strategy game published by Atari Interactive and the Megafortress PC flight simulator by Three-Sixty Pacific. Dale's novels are published in 11 languages and distributed to over 70 countries.

Dale was born in Buffalo, New York on November 2, 1956. He graduated from Penn State University and received an Air Force commission in 1978. He was a member of the first class of Air Force ROTC cadets to qualify for and complete the grueling three-week U.S. Army Airborne Infantry paratrooper training course at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Dale was a navigator-bombardier in the B-52G Stratofortress heavy bomber and the FB-111A supersonic medium bomber, and an instructor on aircrew life support and combat survival, evasion, resistance, and escape. He is the recipient of several military decorations and awards including the Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Combat Crew Award, and the Marksmanship ribbon.

Dale is a command pilot in Angel Flight West, a group that volunteer their time, skills, and aircraft to fly needy medical patients free of charge to receive medical treatment. Dale is also a pilot in the Civil Air Patrol, which performs search and rescue, disaster relief, humanitarian assistance, surveillance, and many other missions in support of the U.S. Air Force and other federal agencies. He supports a number of organizations to promote law enforcement, education, literacy, and support for military veterans and their families.

Dale Brown is a Life Member of the Air Force Association, U.S. Naval Institute, and National Rifle Association. He is a multi-engine and instrument-rated private pilot and can often be found in the skies all across the United States, at the controls of his Piper Aztec-E. On the ground, Dale is an AYSO youth soccer referee and enjoys tennis and scuba diving. Dale, his wife Diane, and son Hunter live near Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

Visit him at http://www.AirBattleForce.com and on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/AuthorDaleBrown

EXECUTIVE INTENT by Dale Brown William Morrow / Hardcover / May 11, 2010 / $26.99 / ISBN: 9780061560859