Angels in the Balance

Michael J. Ganas brings to light a vivid portrayal of the role helicopters played during the Vietnam War in this action-adventure tale. Interwoven into the fictional story line are some of the actual events he had experienced just prior to being drafted and during the Vietnam War. Written in the first person, this adventure unfolds through the eyes and thoughts of the main character, Troy Leonidas (entirely fictitious), a college dropout who, after being drafted into military service, aspires to become a helicopter pilot. Unfortunately, his dream is crushed for lack of 20/20 eyesight. Nevertheless he elects to go to Helicopter Mechanics School instead. If he can’t pilot ‘em, then at least he’ll get to fly on ‘em. Early on in the novel, we find Troy and his best friend, Robby, driving from Los Angeles back to Long Island, New York, the place where they grew up, to be inducted into the Army. Stopping for a meal at a farmhouse run by an elderly couple somewhere in Kansas, Troy inadvertently picks up a strange companion, though he doesn’t realize it until later in the story. It is the spirit of Adam, the elderly couple’s grandson whom they lost in the Vietnam conflict. It is the old gent who tries to set Troy straight on a senseless war, telling him he would be better off heading up to Canada rather than become expendable fodder. The old guy also apprises Troy of the health risks posed by Agent Orange, the dioxin used by the military to defoliate the triple canopy jungles used by the North Vietnam Army (NVA) and Viet Cong. Pa Kettle, as Troy comes to think of the old man, goes on to sermonize about the flagrant corruption in Washington, with fat cat politicians and lobbyists growing rich off the deaths of countless GIs who are nothing more than expendable fodder in their eyes. With Adam gone and the couple now too old to take care of the daily chores in running the farm, the farmer mentions that it won’t be much longer before the bank repossesses their land. Feeling empathy for the old farmer’s plight, Troy and Robby move on to complete their cross-country journey.

As the story progresses, we find that Troy is confronted with a moral dilemma. He is at war with himself. He doesn’t like having to kill a people he doesn’t consider to be his enemy and yet fate continues to put him in situations where it is unavoidable. His instinct for survival seems to outweigh any moral inhibitions that would otherwise restrain him from doing just that. But then circumstances arise to change his outlook. That’s when he and several others find themselves embarking on a perilous mission, a covert one in which the Army is totally unaware. They have set out to free a village of Montagnards enslaved by Phnom Woo, a vicious NVA rogue colonel who uses them for mining high grade emeralds in the mountainous sanctuary of Laos.

Though the genre can be labeled action-adventure, the storyline is furthe...