Richard Braden

Tea Time: Life's Difficult Questions Richard Braden

This is not a children's or teenagers' story, but it definitely 'hits home' where adults are concerned. This is fiction but several real people are included in this story. The two main characters have firm convictions about several issues, to include politics, love, war, economics, life styles, and religion. So be ready to either cheer for or against the positions taken in this book.

This is a story about two old soldiers in their late fifties, both ex-army men, who have retired from their military services and are soon planning to fully retire from industry so they can enter their 'golden years'. One is an American, Bryan Wetherington, a retired Major from the U. S. Army, and the second is Timothy O'Doul, a citizen of the United Kingdom (UK), a retired Major from the Royal Army. The two men have known each other since the glory days of the 'Gulf War', the battles fought in Iraq in the early 1990s to put down Saddam Hussein.

The two men spent most of their military days in armored units, the behemoth 'panzers' of the twentieth and twenty-first century. They became acquainted in Basra, Iraq during the war. After the war ended they went their separate way. Fourteen years passed, and the two men corresponded with each other, first in letters written on lightweight stationery, and now in emails. Then, one day in 2005, Timothy O'Doul sent a special email to Bryan Wetherington, imploring him to come to Scotland and attend a two-man, week long, Persian Gulf War fourteenth year reunion. At first Bryan was hesitant to attend, but his wife, Carlie, read a lot more into Timothy's email, and prevailed upon Bryan to make the trip to the UK.

This is the story of that reunion.