1stbattalion

In honor of those who served in the Vietnam War.

USS Iowa -BB-61

The Jackson MacKenzie Chronicles: In the Eye of the Storm War - It changes everyone and everything it touches. But especially the men who live in the trenches. Who fight the battles. Lt. Colonel Jackson Joseph MacKenzie is one of those men. He grew up in the shadow of a legendary Marine. Part of a family tradition to serve, he joined the United States Army. His first war - Korea -taught him death the hard way, both personal and professional. His second - Vietnam - never-ending pain. And betrayal by those above him. Those he trusted. His superiors. Given a top-secret mission to help end the war, he carried out his orders. Then upon his return, they disavowed any knowledge of it. He found himself in a six-by-eight cell with no way out and no hope. A man broken by the horrors of the Vietnam War and the POW camp that left everlasting scars. Memories - nightmares - that haunted him, even awake, and left him a prisoner in his own mind.

The Jackson MacKenzie Chronicles: Peace at a Cost What happens when danger, history, intrigue, and subterfuge intersect in Jackson MacKenzie’s life? He’s a soldier considered a traitor without honor by all of those men with whom he served in the wars of Korea and Vietnam. Does he follow his heart and stand by his duty or disappear into his mind and let his demons take over? His other choice, live the rest of his life as a simple cowboy hiding out on a cattle ranch in Montana?

USMC Camp Pendleton, 1951. Jackson Joseph MacKenzie, a seventeen-year-old with a calling, enlists in the US Army. He finds himself hip-deep in the muddy trenches, machine gun nests, human wave attacks, and artillery barrages in the Korean War. Does he have the resiliency to keep moving toward his dream after watching his friends die? Is he a leader or a follower? Will he fold under pressure? Or rise to the top? Questions he must answer before reaching for that coveted prize, an appointment to West Point.

Danger lurks in the shadows, danger that threatens not only Colonel Jackson MacKenzie and his friends but the American way of life. MacKenzie’s honor and his freedom were stolen from him once. Now a disgraced soldier, he must risk his life and his freedom in a fight to save his friends, his country, and himself. Or will the real traitor destroy everything Jackson holds dear?

Duty. Honor. Country. The motto by which Major Harry Russell lived as a United States Army Special Forces officer. How does he move forward when his entire life has been turned on its head? Everything Harry worked toward all his life is gone. Gone like his foot in a nighttime mortar attack. Gone like his career since the Army kicked him out as worthless dead weight. Gone like his friends, missing on a secret mission. All he has now is himself. And as a Vietnam veteran, that may not be enough.

Duty – Service – Love of country – Honor – Dreams – Family. Those words mean everything to young Michael “Mikey” Roberts. From a small Kansas town, Mikey wants to find his path in life. To accomplish that he joins the United States Army. After a tour of duty in Vietnam, he found his path. Medicine and becomes a medic. Except in war, that road can fork many times. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst. Mikey finds more horror than he expected and more about life than he ever wanted to know. Song--"What did you do in the war, Daddy?" by Rollin Jewett. Please check out his youtube channel.

Cathy Alexander’s journey began with a dream of becoming a doctor, but when she joined the Army and was sent to Vietnam, her dream quickly became a nightmare. As a nurse at the 95th Evac Hospital, she witnessed the brutal realities of war. She perseveres and graduates from medical school. Despite her achievements, the Vietnam War left a lasting mark on her soul. She must confront the memories she’s been trying to forget. Will she overcome her past and find a way to move forward?

Major Frank Howard. Doctor. Surgeon. Army officer. 1971. At the 95th Evacuation Hospital, Da Nang, South Vietnam, he learns there is a difference in the moral code of war and peace. A conflict between a doctor’s Hippocratic Oath and his duty as a soldier. To allow some to live while others die. A balance depending on varying factors. Would he lose his soul, trying to live with his wartime decisions, stuck between the fluctuating moral compass of the military and civilian world?

The year is 1969. U.S. Army Major Chris Patterson receives his orders for Vietnam. A conflict that has been raging since 1954. Even after a personal tragedy, Chris goes to war. Again. He throws himself into his duty, fighting within himself about losing men and friends. Including one lost, found, and lost again, best friends from their West Point days. They become ravaged by a war that changes them forever. Will their bond survive what Vietnam took away?

Jackson MacKenzie’s life is about to change. After retiring a second time, the Marine Corps general takes his wife on an ocean adventure as a homecoming to renew their marriage vows. But he never expected what would happen next. He finds himself hip-deep in international intrigue. Who is after him? The Russian GRU, the FSB, maybe even someone closer to home. Will he be able to save his family, his friends, and himself? Or will the villains defeat him in the end? And he joins the fallen at Arlington.

Born into a well-off but strict family, eighteen-year-old Dakota Blackwater doesn’t appreciate his father’s plan for him. He wants to find his path through life and chase his own dreams. Instead of taking the easy road, he rebels, enlists in the US Army, and goes to war in a place foreign to him – Vietnam. He finds this choice may be the more difficult one, learning the pain of death, not only of his friends but his own hands. Will he keep his morality or slide down the rabbit hole of hate?