When a long time city resident relocated to the back acres of Union Township in rural Marshal County, Indiana, he found rustic roads to walk; farmers to meet; their animals, farm and feral; town folk to greet; places to eat; old timers to talk; war stories to relive; a commode's drain field to flush; a weekly to read; politicians to forget; funerals to weep; a despairing golf game; vocal ill elderly in nursing homes; a church choir to impress. Ah, Rural life There isn't it's like in the city.

SOLDIERS IN COMBAT DUG FOR THEIR LIVES. IT WAS IRONIC THAT ALL FOREIGNERS ON KOREA'S HILLS WERE MODIFYING NATURE BY DIGGING PITS FOR WAR, BUT DOWN OVER THE CENTURIES THE KOREAN'S HAD LEFT NATURE ON THE HILLS MOSTLY ALONE. MEN AT WAR BUILT. MEN AT PEACE FARMED. MEN AT WAR DESTROYED. MEN AT PEACE REBUILT. THE GUNNER'S HANDS DROVE THE TRIPOD'S JAMMING HANDLES FREE, THE HEAVY MACHINE GUN AND CRADLE DROPPING TO A LOW PROFILE. HE JAMMED TIGHT THE HANDLES ONCE MORE, THEN PULLED THE GUN AND TRIPOD TO NEW COVER, TAKING TO THE EARTH DOWN IN THE SOIL LIKE A MOLE. HE SIGHTED, FIRED A BURST AND FOLLOWED THE TRACER LINE. HE ADJUSTED BY TRACER. THE MEDIC WORKED WOUNDED ON AN OUTPOST OF THE DEAD. A MORTAL SILENCE HAD FALLEN. BONE AND SINEW WERE DIVIDED IN TWO, BODIES BLEEDING BENEATH THE GRIM DUST OF BATTLE THAT SHADED GRISTLY REMAINS FROM THE BURNING SUN. HOW MANY CRUSHED AND TORN ENEMY WERE SEVERED FOREVER FROM THEIR FIVE SENSES? HE FELT IT WAS MADNESS TO FIGHT FOR CHOICE HUMPTY BACKS TO SHOOT FROM TO KILL ONE ANOTHER. THERE WAS NO END. ACROSS THE NEXT VALLEY ROSE A CHAIN OF OTHER PEAKS CLEAR THROUGH NORTH KOREA AND INTO MANCHURIA. WAS THE WELL BEING OF THE EIGHT ARMY MORE ASSURED ON ANY ONE HIGH PEAK AS OPPOSED TO ANOTHER? WHAT MADNESS MUST OCCUPY THE MINDS OF THOSE WHO TALK A TRUCE RESTING ON ONE PEAK AS OPPOSED TO ANOTHER THE POWER OF INFANTRYMEN WAS BASED ON HUMAN RATHER THAN PLANNER'S POWER. FRONT LINE MEN HAD LEARNED TO FIGHT DOWN FRIGHT, ALTHOUGH THEY ALWAYS HAD FEAR. THEIR CONFIDENCE IN THEMSELVES DEPENDED UPON THEIR SKILLS WITH THEIR WEAPONS, FAITH IN THEIR SQUAD LEADERS, TRUST IN THEIR SQUAD MEMBERS, ASSURED EACH WOULD BACK THE OTHER. SQUAD DISCIPLINE DIDN'T IMPLY AN UNTHINKING OBEDIENCE; IT IMPLIED INITIATIVE AND SKILL RELENTLESSLY PRESERVED FOR THE SQUAD'S OBJECTIVE. IT MEANT OVER RULING INSTINCT, AND MINIMIZING REFLECTION ON THE STALLED TRUCE TALKS. IN LATE NOVEMBER THE FREEZE WAS MOVING FROM WEST TO EAST, WITH WINDS FROM THE NORTHWEST AT TWENTY-FIVE KNOTS PER HOUR WITH GUSTS UP TO FORTY KNOTS. IT WOULD FREEZE THE RIVER THAT THE EIGHT ARMY OR CHINESE COMMUNIST FORCES MIGHT WALK ON WATER.

It mattered a great deal to Director Zigmont that Mike Brannagh, a "whistle blower' on the 'outs' with State elected officials, would become 'ombudsman' for residents in nursing homes within Zigmont's Area Agency on Aging. Ziggie and his source needed a man inside the Land of Last Life, a man of integrity with contacts on the streets of Oldtown, a man not hesitant to quietly investigate if FDA quality psychotropic medicines were being removed from nursing homes, replaced by counterfeit. State Health Nursing Home Survey team supervisor Belinda Fordice RN was Mike's first recruit; next was Church of Holiness' Reverend Coppin Yard. When Nursing Home resident Fergus Orr slowly revealed the history of ELDER TRIPPERS, a travel club back in the 1970ties that transported elderly citizens to Mexican vacation sites, and upon return, smuggled counterfeit Mexican prescription medicines for an Oldtown druggist, Fergus provided Mike connections to the present.