Son Ahoy!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Those of you following the stories about my family life may remember how, back in March, I bid farewell to the Sailor, who was headed out for a seven and a half month deployment (formerly known as a cruise) in the Persian Gulf. Twelve days ago, he got home, along with over 300 other crew members of the USS Gonzalez. 

We didn't see him man the rails - he was working belowdeck.

 

The Smithie, Youngest and me waiting.

 

The Sailor's sisters and his lovely girlfriend, Veronique.

 

 

His work team won the Rocky Balboa Award (I swear I'm not making this up), given to the team with the best performance record within the division with the best performance record. The prize? FIRST OFF THE SHIP.

                                      

These two were VERY happy to see each other again.  There's more lettuce on the Sailor's chest now - he was awarded several commendations during the deployment. Not that I'm bragging. (I'm totally bragging.)             

                                      We have a family tradition of Silly Sibling photos. 

Because we're a media-savvy family, you can also read the Maine Millennial's column about our trip and the homecoming at the Portland Press Herald, and see Veronique and me interviewed by WVEC 13News Now:


 I'm the one with zero makeup and puffy eyes. I'm not a pretty crier, and BOY did I bawl like a little baby.

                                   Welcome home, Sailor!

Anchors Aweigh

Julia Spencer-Fleming: So a little over two weeks ago, I made a trip to Norfolk, Virginia, to do something I've never done before - see my son off on his first deployment. Petty Officer Spencer Hugo-Vidal - known here as The Sailor - and some three hundred shipmates are off as part of the US 5th Fleet operations in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.

The USS Gonzalez is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, and like all destroyers in the US Navy, is named after a Medal of Honor recipient - in this case, Marine Corps Sgt. Alfredo "Freddy" Gonzalez, who displayed unbelievable courage in the Battle of Huế and lost his life after saving his entire platoon.

Two days before the Gonzalez shipped off, Spencer's lovely girlfriend Veronique Pretlow - who also took these gorgeous pictures -  and I got to tour the ship! It was amazing how MUCH the Navy manages to fit in these ships. Crew can spread out a bit in the mess, but most of the doors, passageways and ladders are built with slim people no taller than 5'10" in mind. Luckily for Spencer, that describes him perfectly.

Since the US Navy isn't keen on civilians snapping a lot of pictures of the interiors of their ships, I only have one shot from inside: the Gonzalez's name plate. Why did I want this? Because the keel was laid down the day my son was born, both of them on the coast of Maine, only 36 miles apart. 

 I took Spencer and Veronique out to dinner - we did BBQ both nights. One thing the Tidewater VA area has lots of is fabulous BBQ. Here's my boy with his VERY regulation haircut. When I was a kid, we called these "Baldy sours."

I spent part of the day before they left port helping out with the shopping. The ship has its own small store, but if you want any choice in your toiletries, etc., you need to bring it along. Among the things I bought? One bottle of 80 SPF sunscreen for every month Spencer will be gone. The sun can kill you, you know...

 

And then it was the morning of their departure! Spencer and Veronique picked me up from my hotel at 0700. It was a beautiful morning, as promised (if you believe the old rhyme) by the red sky the night before. The ship was buzzing - friends and family were everywhere, sailors were showing them around, and at the same time, working on the complicated process of getting an 8,315 ton, 505 foot long vessel underway. 

We got to take part in an on-deck briefing for the Internal Communications Electricians and meet the Chiefs and Master Chief. Here's a picture of the whole team.

 At 0900 hours, it was time for all civilians and Navy personnel who weren't deploying to leave the ship. Veronique and I said goodbye...

 

And Spencer watched us as from the quarterdeck as we walked along the pier.

Have a safe cruise, Sailor! Anchors aweigh!

 

High Flying Adventure!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  What happens when a female search and rescue helicopter pilot, a stringent rule follower, is assigned to an anything-goes flight squadron? To those guys, rules serve merely as suggestions—but everyone knows lives are at stake. In the high peaks of California’s Sierra Nevada, our heroine is introduced to a wild, beautiful world of adventure and one very handsome mountain guide. Her carefully planned life is turned upside down, and it leaves her questioning every truth she thought she knew about herself.  Flying, danger, rescue, and romance.

Yes, yes! We love this. And it’s Anne Wilson’s second thriller, the brand new high-flying CLEAR TO LIFT.

Anne is a wife and mother, two kids, and lives in California. But whoa.  Can you imagine her sons taking her to “what my mom does for a living” day?  They win for cool.

When Anne was in the navy, she was stationed for three years at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada. Her squadron specialized in high altitude, technical mountain rescue. They’d swoop up and down the Sierra Nevada—a mountain range littered with 12,000- and 13,000-foot peaks—and assist local county sheriffs and their search and rescue teams with air support.

See this photo? That’s Anne in the cockpit!

So while she and her crew are choppering above at however many thousand feet—how do they find the desperate person waiting below? And what if that person is you? Anne—as always—to the rescue.

Lost in the Outdoors? 

           15 Tips to Help Search and Rescue Teams Find You

                          By Anne Wilson

          

CLEAR TO LIFT is fiction—but I used my real life experience flying search and rescue to write it. When an air crew is searching for a lost person in the wilderness, it’s usually a needle-in-the-haystack scenario. It’s extremely difficult to find a tiny person in a big place, like a vast swath of forested land or an expansive mountain range. So before you head to the outdoors, it’s a good idea to plan ahead so you’re prepared in case you get lost.

Here are 15 things you can do to increase the likelihood of a rescue team finding you.

          1. Bright colored clothing. Fluorescent orange and green clothing may seem excessively bright when viewed up close, but to a mountain search and rescue pilot, these colors serve as a beacon. If you’re lost, you want to stand out from the surrounding terrain, so take a brightly colored jacket, shirt, or backpack with you, just in case. 

           2. Space blankets. These are lightweight and pack down very small—the size of a travel pack of tissues—but they are shiny and silver and reflect the sun really well. Aluminum foil also works.

        3.Mirrors. Pack a small mirror. These provide brilliant flashes of light when the sun’s rays hit them that are easily visible to an air crew.

        4.Smoke. Pilots can see smoke from miles away. Ensure you’re in a clear area, if possible, before striking a match. Green vegetation makes for a highly visible smoke column.

      

       5. Fire. It’s easier to see a fire at night than smoke. If you can do so in a clear area, this will be a big help to those looking for you

       6. Get out in the open. It’s  highly unlikely that an airborne search crew will find you if you’re crouched low and hiding behind a rock. Get out to that clearing. That meadow. The road. The trail.

      7. Get high. The natural tendency for lost souls is to hike down into drainages, perhaps in the search for water. And yes, water is important in a survival situation, but if you hear helicopter blades beating the air nearby, you want to be high. Try to get to a ridgeline, if at all possible  

       8.Man-made symbols. When flying in the wilderness, nothing stands out to an airborne rescue crew like something man-made. Straight lines rarely occur in nature. Trees, logs, boulders—all of these are crooked and jagged and lay helter skelter across the landscape. So create something that will stand out to an aircrew by arranging items in a straight manner, like positioning logs end-to-end in a straight line, or creating a perfect square. Even better, arrange logs in the shape of an arrow to direct search teams to your position or to indicate the direction you’ve decided to start walking. If in winter conditions, stomp a big X in the snow.

      9. Pencil flares. This are lightweight and small, but they can be a life saver. A flare is hard to miss for an airborne search crew.

     10. Stay by your car. It depends on the circumstances, of course, but in terms of an aircrew team’s ability to find you, a car is easier to spot than a person.

      11.Movement. If you hear a rescue aircraft overhead, don’t sit still. You want to do something to stand out from the non-moving trees and rocks around you. Wave a branch, wave a jacket or a shirt, or tie your clothing onto the branch and wave that. Bonus points if your clothing is brightly colored! 

    12. Reflective tape. Whether on a jacket, a backpack, or a climbing helmet, this is especially helpful to a search crew at night

      13. Flashlight/headlamp. Also good for night searches. Blinking lights are easier to see than steady lights. Headlamps have blinking functions, so use this if you see or hear a helicopter flying overhead. If you have a flashlight, you can wave it back and forth

     14. Whistles. This one is for the benefit of ground crews. Parties on the ground will hear a whistle before they’ll hear your voice. It’s also easier to continually blow on a whistle than it is to continually shout

     15. Tell someone where you’re going. I really should have written this first. Always, always, always tells someone where you’re going and when you expect to return. Then contact that person when you get in. An alternative is to put a handwritten note on the dash of your car that says where you plan to go and when you plan to return. This will help the search team narrow their search area, and hopefully, get to you much faster.

I greatly encourage you to get outside and explore the outdoors.

Just a little prior planning and preparation can set you up for a great outing and also have you ready for any unforeseen circumstances.

Thank you, Hank and Jungle Red Writers, for inviting me back to your blog!

HANK: Ah, wow! Thank you, Anne!  Where else but Jungle Red would you get stuff like this?  Reds, are you hikers? Would there be a circumstance where you might find yourself in need of rescue? One of us, me, can answer that in one second. My biggest hike is from the hotel to the beach. 

But I know the rest of you are more intrepid!

*******************************

CLEAR TO LIFT

Navy helicopter pilot Lt. Alison Malone has been assigned to a search and rescue team based at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada, near the rugged peaks of the Sierra Nevada, and far from her former elite H-60 squadron. A rule follower by nature, Alison is exasperated and outraged every time she flies with her mission commander, "Boomer" Marks, for whom military procedures are merely a suggestion. Alison is desperate to be transferred out of 

the boonies, where careers stagnate, and back to her life and fiancé in  San Diego.

Alison's defenses start to slip when she meets mountain guide Will 

Cavanaugh during a particularly dicey mission. Will introduces her

 to a wild, beautiful world of adventure that she has never known

 before. Stranded on a mountain during a sudden dangerous

 blizzard, Alison questions every truth she thought she knew about

 herself. When Will braves the storm to save her life, she must 

confront the fact that she has been living a lie. But is it too late to 

change course?

Full of action and adventure, dangerous and heart-stopping 

rescues, blizzards and floods, family secrets and second chances, Clear to Lift is a thrilling woman's journey as she finds confidence, truth, love, and herself against the majestic backdrop of the Sierra Nevada.

********

Anne A. Wilson graduated from the United States Naval Academy and served nine years active duty as a navy helicopter pilot. This included three years as a search and rescue pilot based at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada, located near the Sierra Nevada, where she specialized in high-altitude technical mountain rescue. The Naval Helicopter Association named Anne and her crew Helicopter Aircrew of the Year, an award given for search and rescue. Anne currently resides in Fountain Hills, AZ, with her husband and two sons.  Her debut novel, Hover, was released by Forge Books in June 2015. Her second novel, Clear to Lift, was released on July 12, 2016, also by Forge. To learn more, visit www.anneawilson.com.

Have you heard about HOVER?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  I was thinking of all kinds of ways to introduce debut author Anne A. Wilson.  I wanted the best possible hook, since I needed to let you know Anne is an amazing writer with an incredibly exciting (and inspirational) backstory and a fabulous book and…and then I thought, hey. 

Just show ‘em the cover.

Is that not the best ever? Is that not irresistible? And it nails the story, and Anne, too. She graduated from the United States Naval Academy and served nine years active duty as a navy helicopter pilot, which included deployment to the Persian Gulf.

I ask you.

What’s more, The Naval Helicopter Association named Anne and her crew Helicopter Aircrew of the Year, an award given for search and rescue.

Amazing.

When I first started thinking about HOVER, I thought it must be a thriller. After all, as part of the synopsis says:  A Navy SEAL Team that requests Sara as their pilot…The endgame of the SEAL’s mission is so secret, even Sara doesn’t know the reason behind her mandated participation. When Sara’s life is on the line, can she find her true self again and follow the orders of her heart before it is too late?

But you know, it’s not a thriller, really. It’s women’s fiction, where the main character just happens to have a thriller-ish job. And why not? So that’s extra wonderful.

Jungle Reds, here’s Anne Wilson—to tell us how it all happened! And we’re giving HOVER to one lucky commenter!

From Navy Sea Stories to a Novel

                By Anne A Wilson

Thank you, Hank and Jungle Red Writers, for graciously hosting me on your blog. This is the launch week for my debut novel, HOVER, a story set in a U. S. Navy battle group, about a female navy helicopter pilot, who is unaware she is being groomed to fly a highly classified Navy SEAL mission.

Readers of HOVER have told me they’ve enjoyed trying to guess which scenes are “real.” They ask, “Did that actually happen to you, Anne?”

You see, I served as an active duty U. S. Navy helicopter pilot for nine years, often the only woman in a squadron, on a ship, or in a detachment. During my first deployment to the Persian Gulf in 1993, my roommate and I were the only two women on our ship, one with a crew of 500. And in our battle group, which numbered 7,000, there were just four of us. Probably no surprise that a woman making her way in a man’s world is one of the themes in my book.

Readers also ask, “Are you Sara?” referring to the main protagonist. Well, I’m not exactly Sara, but you’ll find a lot of my personality in her. For example, I took great pains to avoid standing out as a woman—never wore a skirt or dress or anything remotely feminine to leave the ship on liberty. Didn’t use makeup. Hair always pulled back in a ponytail. Happy in my uniform. Gender neutral all the way. 

Whether this was the best approach to integrating into a such a male-dominated work environment is another thing altogether, as it didn’t necessarily allow for a healthy connection to my feminine side—something I attempt to flesh out in the novel through Sara’s character.  

I kept journals during my time at sea, so when I decided to write HOVER, I dug them out of boxes in the garage and combed through them for ideas. Many scenes in the book are pulled straight from them—names and any identifying details changed, of course. And because truth tends to be stranger than fiction, many of my readers guess incorrectly when considering a scene, thinking surely it was a product of my imagination, when in fact, you can find it in the pages of my journals.

That time in Hong Kong? When my character Sara is standing duty as the shore patrol officer and has to mediate a dispute between a mamasan and the sailor who partook of her prostitute’s services? Yep, that really happened. In Thailand, though. And the dispute? The sailor didn’t realize, until he was in bed with the prostitute, that she was really a he, at which point, the sailor refused to pay. As shore patrol officer, you’re judge and jury for cases like this. After hearing both sides, certain services were indeed rendered, so I made him pay up.  

Throughout my navy career, I was privy to an endless number of sea stories, told by commanding officers, salty old chiefs, and others. But as the years ticked by, sure enough, I came away with a few of my own. Never in a million years did I think I’d be sharing my sea stories within the context of a novel, but I hope you have as much fun reading them, as I did writing them.

HANK:  Anne’s next book is already in the works—so what do you think, Reds? Amazing, huh? (I love flying in helicopters—it’s glorious. Even though once, the pilot tried to scare me on purpose by flying really low over some high hills in a glass-bottomed Jet Ranger (I think it was?)—and then howling with laughter at my terrified reaction as the bottom dropped from under us as we flew by the hills.  But you would never do that, right, Anne?) 

Any questions for Anne?  Are you a fan of helicopters? 

HOVER

Helicopter pilot Lieutenant Sara Denning joins a US Navy battle group with little fanfare, and that’s just the way she likes it. Sara’s philosophy is simple—blend in, be competent, and above all, never do anything to stand out as a woman in a man’s world.

Somewhere along the way, Sara lost herself—her feminine, easygoing soul is now buried under so many defensive layers, she can’t reach it anymore.

When she meets the strong, self-assured Lieutenant Eric Marxen, those defenses start to falter. Eric coordinates flight operations for a Navy SEAL Team that requests Sara more than any other pilot. This blatant show of favoritism causes conflict with her colleagues; Sara’s sexist boss seems intent on making her life miserable, and her roommate and best friend—the only other woman on the ship—is avoiding her. It doesn’t help that Sara’s interactions with Eric leave her reeling.

The endgame of the SEAL’s mission is so secret, even Sara doesn’t know the reason behind her mandated participation. When Sara’s life is on the line, can she find her true self again and follow the orders of her heart before it is too late?

Anne A. Wilson graduated from the United States Naval Academy and served nine years active duty as a navy helicopter pilot, which included deployment to the Persian Gulf. The Naval Helicopter Association named Anne and her crew Helicopter Aircrew of the Year, an award given for search and rescue. She lives in Fountain Hills, Arizona, with her husband and two sons. Hover is her debut novel. (Forge Books, June 2015)

www.anneawilson.com