James R Milstead

No Other Choice James R Milstead

Joining the Air Force in the 1970s meant almost certain deployment to Southeast Asia at a time when the United States was at war with cultural change. Women's rights, the drug culture, antiwar protests, and Watergate issues captured the media while the military faced what many now label America's least popular war. The main character in No Other Choice, as in Hillenbrand's blockbuster book Unbroken, faces his plane being shot down and torture as a POW. The setting for the story, however, is the last months of the Vietnam War. Sergeant Jake Lemaster, a B-52 tail gunner, escapes from captivity in Laos with the help of a brave Hmong warrior. When he returns to the States, he must face the demons that haunt him, learn to live again, and discover how to forgive. It's also a great story of love and faith overcoming adversity. Jake and his wife, Donna, face the challenges of separation during his captivity. Donna forges a way into corporate America at the time when few women aspired to leadership roles. As a couple, they seek to find meaning and purpose for the terrible things that happen to them and the people they love.