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Skip O'Neill was just twenty two when he volunteered to participate in an atomic test. He did so willingly, certain his government would not put him in harm’s way. Afterwards, he served his country honorably and with courage, retiring as a Colonel and combat decorated fighter pilot. Years later, he learned the awful truth…he was dying of leukemia, most likely due to radiation exposure. While Skip is fictional, his story unfortunately is not. More than 400,000 troops were exposed to radiation during atomic tests or as POWs in Japan. Fewer than 20,000 are still alive. Most are over seventy five. Many have cancer. “I participated in an atomic test at Yucca Flat, Nevada in August, 1957.” Standerfer told an interviewer. “Standing on an observation platform eight miles from ground zero, I watched the detonation of an atomic bomb with a yield of 44 kiloton…more than twice the size of the one dropped in Nagasaki. Needless to say, it was an experience I never forgot and it weighed heavily on my mind when I wrote the book."The Eagle’s Last Flight is a journey through a nearly forgotten era when the Cold War veterans were place in harm’s way by our government and routinely lost their lives due to the carelessness and mismanagement of their leaders. Given the current controversies over adequate protection for our troops in Iraq, it is likely that readers who take that journey will learn a lot about how things used to be, but conclude that nothing much has changed.
