This is the 40th Anniversary Edition of Ric Hunter's multi-award-winning novel, FIREHAMMER. Randy Houston receives gut-wrenching news - his high-school best friend, Tim Scott, a Marine, is killed by a sniper in Vietnam. He is nineteen. Hot-branded resolve propels Randy to adulthood that July day in 1966.
A decade later, fighter pilot Captain Houston, call sign "Pepper," arrives in Thailand determined to settle a score. With the fall of Saigon imminent, and America's 12-year war waning, Pepper has precious little time. Glory vaporizes when he crash-lands his F-4 Phantom on his first mission. Injured, and worried that he may not fly again, he endures acid wrath from Raptor, his squadron commander. When both are bullet-stitched by North Vietnam's leading ace, the feared "Yellow Star," they must fight as a team, or die. Saigon falls on the worst day of Pepper's life.
On a much-needed R & R to Bangkok, Pepper finds the love of his life, Robyn, and has a blue Thai-silk dress made for her. Later, Raptor orders Pepper's flight into a chaotic struggle to save hijacked Americans of the SS Mayaguez, Vietnam's last battle on a small island off the coast of Vietnam. It's his only chance to even the score. Years later Pepper kneels to place Tim's Zippo lighter, his "firehammer," at the base of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He tells his beloved friend good-by. Thoughts of glory and vengeance are buried in sands of blood-soaked Koh Tang.