A retired U.S. Navy captain becomes an inadvertent witness to the hasty hiding of a cache of drug cartel money by felons being pursued by the police in Los Angeles. The captain is a recent widower who has just lost his retirement job with a defense contractor and is, at the moment, without purpose and motivation.

As a consequence, he makes an impulsive decision to keep the money; and goes on the run. The drug cartel is searching for him and are hot on his heels.

Without any options, and with the assistance of a former shipmate, he stages his own suicide, undergoes an identity change and extensive plastic surgery.

Armed with his new identity he escapes in his sailboat and makes the long solo journey across the Pacific Ocean to a small atoll near Tahiti where he finds romance and redemption. The journey becomes a voyage of discovery, self-realization, adventure and beauty.

There he is tracked down by members of the drug cartel and, in a searing confrontation at sea, his bride-to-be manages to save him by taking on the cartel in a fiercely uncharacteristic show of determination.

The peculiar circumstances surrounding the mysterious, unexplained disappearance of all but one of the cartel team sent to apprehend him and recover the money; coupled with a macabre package sent anonymously to the cartel leadership, convince them to end their search.

Told in anecdotal form, Vulture\s Row tells a fascinating story about an important period covering nearly one half of the entire history of U.S. naval aviation. "Vulture\s Row" is an area dubbed by naval flyers, on the island structure of an aircraft carrier where pilots who aren\t flying can overlook carrier launchings and recoveries on the deck below. \nThis new book by acclaimed author Paul Gillcrist is a series of true stories about the U.S. Navy carrier aviation from the perspective of a Navy pilot who spent thirty-three years directly involved in that exciting profession. The book begins with a series of vignettes in the period of the mid-1950s when the U.S. Navy introduced swept wing, jet-powered fighters into the aircraft carrier navy, flying from straight-deck carriers whose flight decks were made of teak wood.\nThe thread of stories follows the author\s career in chronological sequence, in various venues throughout the Navy. There are accounts from his first carrier deployment to the western Pacific, followed by events as a weapons delivery instructor at the predecessor to TOPGUN in El Centro, California. Some of his experiences as a Navy pilot are recorded in a section about Patuxent River, Maryland, the Navy\s test center. Additional episodes include an unforgettable wing-walking flight. flying Japanese Zeros in the movie TORA!TORA!TORA! and the author\s subsequent tour of duty in Pentagon conducting proficiency flights from our nation\s capital.\nThere are also accounts of combat missions over Vietnam and the author\s experiences in both wing commander jobs, flying the F-4 Phantom II and the F-14 Tomcat. The last story is about his two flights, as a fifty-two year old Admiral, in the controversial F-20 Tigershark. These vignettes combine humor, hair-raising excitement and tragedy.\nRear Admiral Paul T. Gillcrist, a U.S. Navy fighter pilot, served also as a test pilot and weapons delivery instructor, and actively flew from sixteen aircraft carriers for over twenty-seven years. The author writes with authority as a former fighter squadron commanding officer who recorded 167 combat missions over Vietnam flying the F-8 Crusader. Subsequently, he commanded a carrier air wing and finally served, the rank of Rear Admiral, as the wing commander for all pacific Fleet fighter squadrons. His pilot\s logbook includes over 6,000 hours, in seventy-one different types of aircraft from 1952 to 1981. He retired in 1985 as Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Operations(air Warfare). He is also the author of TOMCAT!The Grumman F-14 Story, and CRUSADER! Last of the Gunfighters(both titles are available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).

TOMCAT! The Gurmman F-14 Story is an exciting oral history of the most versatile air supremacy fighter in the world . . . much of it written from the vantage point of the airplanes cockpit!\nTold in an anecdotal format, this new book is richly marbled with the salt air of fleet experience. Perhaps the F-14 programs greatest success is its overwhelming acceptance by the youngsters in the fleet. Anecdotes about the Tomcat legend abound . . . expecially in the chapters devoted to its employment by the fleet in the oceans of the world.\nOf particular interest are the chapters dealing with the sale of Tomcats to Iran and the subsequent integration of the airplane into Irans armed forces. On-the-scene eye witness accounts provide a unique perspective of this fascinating aspect of the Tomcat story.\nTOMCAT! contains over 150 photographs, most in color and never bfore published, and most of them taken by Tomcat aircrews with hand-held cameras. These provide a fascinating backdrop for the oral history contained in the book.\nThis is not a garden variety history about an airplane. It is a sometimes heart-stopping stroy of how a controversial airplane finally made it into the hearts and minds of the fleet . . . after stumbling at the starting gates of an outmoded defense acquisition system. It is the story of the best air supremacy fighter in the world!\nRear Admiral Paul Gillcrist, USN (Retired), commanded a fleet fighter squadron on three carrier combat deployments to the Tonkin Gulf during which he flew 167 combat missions over Vietnam. For these he was awarded seventeen combat decorations. In his thirty-three year flying career as a fleet pilot and Navy test pilot as well, he flew 71 different U.S. and foreign tactical airplanes including the U.S. Air Forces F-104, F-105, F-106, F-15, F-16, YF-17 and F-20. He flew the Navys F-4, F-5, F-8, F-11, F-14 and F/A-18 as well as several key foreign tactical airplanes. During his carrier flying career, which spanned an amazing twenty-seven years, he commanded a fighter squadron, a carrier air wing and was the wing commander for all Pacific Fleet fighter squadrons. He flew from sixteen carriers, and in his last flying assignment accumulated over four hundred flight hours in the Tomcat culminating, at age 51, in becoming the first flag officer to land the Tomcat on an aircraft carrier - the U.S.S. KITTYHAWK on 21 October 1980. The author of FEET WET, Reflections of a Carrier Pilot, Admiral Gillcrist is eminently qualified to write the F-14 story!

Once known as the "Last of the Gunfighters", the Vought F-8 Crusader has since become a legend in the histories of the U.S. and French navies, as well as a scourge in the skies over North Vietnam in the late 1960s!\nCRUSADER! is a vital oral history of one of the most controversial fighter planes in carrier aviation. A key to the authenticity of this story are the author\s personal interviews with sixteen of the seventeen living Crusader pilots who became MiG killers in the Vietnam air war. His analysis of their aerial engagements over North Vietnam from 1965 to 1973 contains some startling surprises, as well as a validation of many of the tactical lessons learned from World War II and Korea. \nCRUSADER! also contains personal accounts by F-8 speed record holders such as U.S. Marine Corps Major (now Senator) John Glenn and Captains Bob Dose and "Duke" Windsor. Other aviation records held by the Crusader, (not so enviable) are told, in anecdotal form, for the first time by the author, an F-8 driver and participant in some of them!\nColorful, and sometimes humorous, accounts of events involving the F-8 and "Crusader Drivers" abound in this chronicle of carrier aviation covering the three decades when this remarkable airplane was an important element of the U.S. Navy\s carrier strike forces.\nRear Admiral Paul T. Gillcrist commanded a fleet Crusader squadron, then a carrier air wing and finally, as a flag officer, became wing commander for all Pacific Fleet fighter squadrons. During his fleet squadron command he completed three carrier deployments to the Tonkin Gulf and flew 167 combat missions in the Crusader for which he was awarded seventeen combat decorations. The author of FEET WET, Reflections of a Carrier Pilot (1990) and TOMCAT, The Grumman F-14 Story (1994), Admiral Gillcrist is well qualified to write the story of the Crusader!

A retired U.S. Navy captain becomes an inadvertent witness to the hasty hiding of a cache of drug cartel money by felons being pursued by the police in Los Angeles. The captain is a recent widower who has just lost his retirement job with a defense contractor and is, at the moment, without purpose and motivation. As a consequence, he makes an impulsive decision to keep the money; and goes on the run. The drug cartel is searching for him and are hot on his heels. Without any options, and with the assistance of a former shipmate, he stages his own suicide, undergoes an identity change and extensive plastic surgery. Armed with his new identity he escapes in his sailboat and makes the long solo journey across the Pacific Ocean to a small atoll near Tahiti where he finds romance and redemption. The journey becomes a voyage of discovery, self-realization, adventure and beauty. There he is tracked down by members of the drug cartel and, in a searing confrontation at sea, his bride-to-be manages to save him by taking on the cartel in a fiercely uncharacteristic show of determination. disappearance of all but one of the cartel team sent to apprehend him and recover the money; coupled with a macabre package sent anonymously to the cartel leadership, convince them to end their search.

Two irrepressible young U.S. Navy carrier pilots, while flying a night combat mission over the Adriatic Sea, (circa 2007), are struck by lightning and subsequently collide. One ejects from his stricken airplane and the other ditches his in the water.

They wash ashore separately and reunite the following day on a wild Albanian mountainside. In the ensuing week they are pursued by an Albanian Army search party while a U.S. Navy SEAL Team, operating from a submarine, tries to rescue them.

The first rescue attempt succeeds but only because one of the pilots sacrifices himself by drawing fire from the Albanian forces. He is captured in the shoot-out.

The second rescue attempt is successful and the two battle-hardened young men redeem themselves by their heroic actions. For their efforts they receive a field promotion at a special Whitehouse award ceremony.