SKYBIRD: Dale Brown’s Ops Report Copyright © 2005, TDPI

OFFICER EFFECTIVENESS REPORTS: Responses to e-mails at readermail@DaleBrown.info

3 June 2005

Dear Dale;

I hope this gets to you. I read your article on the backwards flag. I wanted to know what is the tradition behind soldiers moving their unit patches from the left shoulder to the right shoulder in times of war or is it if they have served in combat. Is this a real tradition?

I am an accidental fan of your writing. Stuck for eight hours at an airport I was searching for a book that could hold my interest. I do enjoy science fiction and military history and though I had never heard of your works, I picked up Air Battle Force. I thought this might combine both futuristic aircraft and the military.

The whole time I was reading the book (which I thoroughly enjoyed) I kept saying to myself...What mission over Libya? What's this Old Dog? What happened to Patrick at so and so. When I got home I went to the bookstore and asked for any other titles by a Dale Brown I was shown an entire shelf!! Oh no, I thought, I have stumbled into an entire series of air force books!! But I was hooked on the characters and I wanted to know their stories/background etc.so bought all they had, then had to raid used book stores shops to find the rest. I could not find Silver Tower, so I was very happy to see some of the books reissued at the bookstore.

Thank you for providing such wonderful characters, frighteningly realistic stories lines and teaching the reader as they enjoy your writing. I know you wrote that you did not like writing "serials", but as a reader I must say that I want to continue to follow the adventures of McLanahan and his crews. So thank you for writing such great, engaging stories about them.

By the way, I am a 54 year old woman, not exactly the typical fan base I guess, but I have recommended your books to others.

I had two readers almost on the same day ask about switching their unit insignia to different sleeves. According to Major Jim Brown, S-3 (operations officer) of First Squadron, 2nd ACR, Ft. Lewis, WA, the current unit patch is worn on the left shoulder. If authorized to wear it, the last combat unit patch is worn below the "backwards" reverse side U.S. flag on their right shoulder.

Speaking of the reverse-side flag, I received correspondence from the Pentagon stating that the full-color "backwards" reverse-side flag is a tradition reaching back for centuries, and it is common for nations with designs or fields on the staff side of the flag to employ reverse-side insignia.

It has also long been the tradition for infantry units to wear their unit insignia on the left side (considered the "shield" side where most unit or family crests were displayed in medieval days), which forced the wear of the flag on the right and the necessity for the reverse-side flag.

Until recently, the flag (usually in "subdued" green and black) was only worn when a unit was deployed. With the current doctrine stating that the U.S. Army should and is ALWAYS considered an expeditionary force, the U.S. flag must be worn all the time, and only in red, white, and blue colors.

I understand the idea that a U.S. soldier should always be perceived as moving forward, hence the need for a flag "fluttering" in that direction, but it still looks weird to me. I'm still going to pursue having the backwards flag discontinued. It looks weird and it's not the real flag.

7 July 2005

im 11 years old and one of ur biggest fans in the past 3 years i have read 13 of your awesome books and i wanted to thank u for giving peaple a chance to get interested in reading and even more for serving our country since ur a former air force captain thank u for helping our country long live the USA

1 August 2005

Dear Dale

I have been an avid reader for the last 9 Years since I joined the Royal Air Force, sorry only a grease monkey, and have read all your books at least 3 times over. I see from the reveiws that in your latest book the old favourites, Patric, Dave, Rebecca, etc, dont appear in it, does this mean that you have retired them permanently or is it just a one off like Silver Tower? Kindest regards

P.S. please write quicker it is agony waiting for the next one to come out!!

I'm on a mission to pick up the pace of my work so I can enjoy the summers in Tahoe and not freak my editors and publishers out so much.

I have several ideas for new novels, and Patrick McLanahan, Dave Luger, Maureen Hershel, and Kevin Martindale play important roles in all of them. But look for new cast members to continue on as well!

3 September 2005

Good afternoon Mr. Brown.

I have been a fan of your writing since your first book and I have always been amazed at how your stories relate to the world at the time. But now it seems like you have covered about all the subjects possible and taken your characters as far as you can. Where do you find the inspiration for your story's?

Unfortunately, in our post-Nine-Eleven world, I don't foresee any end whatsoever in military topics or stories--and just when we think we've seen it all, we discover we haven't.

I have always gotten my story ideas from three places: my interest in the latest military technology, present-day geopolitical events, and forecasts of near-future military conflicts. I simply take a present-day event folks are familiar with, design a future conflict based on that event, show how our present-day military responds, then show how a near-future military force using just-off-the-drawing-board technology would do it.

The characters will certainly evolve and change. Since I decided early on to use the same cast of characters and a logical linear time line, naturally the established characters will age, get promoted, leave the service, start new lives, or die. My job is to keep my loyal readers and attract new readers with a new, fresh, innovative, interesting cast.

That said, I always look for unique opportunities to explore other creative avenues, such as the Atari "Act of War" novel/PC game project--it was a fun and exciting chance to challenge my creative muscles.

9 October 2005

Good morning,

I have read the first three Dreamland books and have enjoyed them very much. I like to read a book series in order first thru ???? Would it be possible to get a list of the Dreamland books or if you could tell me where I can find one that would be great.

Thank-you for your time

The order of the "Dreamland" series of books co-authored by the hard-working and extremely talented Jim DeFelice is: "Dreamland," "Nerve Center," "Razor's Edge," "Piranha," "Strike Zone," and "Armageddon." Unlike my novels, these are in chronological (as well as publication date) order and don't jump around!

6 November 2005

Dear Sir,

I was reading for the first time this morning BATTLE BORN and on page 46 a glaring inaccuracy jumped out at me. It was said the plasma weapon's reaction time was over in a gigasecond. A gigasecond translates to approximately 31.8 years. I'm sure you meant nanoseconds, no? A fine read, keep up the good work!

Yep, I messed up on this one big-time! I seem to remember missing out on an "A" in a high school test because I messed up these terms too.

4 December 2005

Dale:

I check back into this site every now and then.... and each time I think: Dale? Where have you gone too?? drop us a line out here!

As my Webmaster Bill Parker frequently points out, the only thing worse than having no Web site is having a stale and outdated one! Newsletters take time to write, but I really do feel it's important to do, so I'll make a special effort to keep up with it at least every month.

I'm thinking about starting up a blog on the Web site, where I get to start a thread and folks get to comment on my thought and on other reader's ideas. What do you think?

Click here for more on Act Of War Get Act Of War At Amazon.Com! Act Of War (June 2005) ACT OF WAR introduces a whole new hero and a new conflict to techno-thriller fans around the world. A series of deadly terrorist attacks in the United States and South America--including a nuclear attack near Houston, Texas--has the entire world on red alert. The attacks appear to be targeting an American energy company, but the terror group that calls itself GAMMA seems to be more than the anti-globalization, pro-environmental activists it claims to be. Enter U.S. Army Major Jason Richter and his partner, Dr. Ariadna Vega of the Army Research Lab's Infantry Transformational BattleLab. These two young engineers have designed and built a land combat system designed to replace an entire motorized infantry squad: CID, or Cybernetic Infantry Device, a piloted robot with the speed and firepower of a weaponized Humvee, the strength of a bulldozer, and the agility of a special ops commando. The hard-charging National Security Adviser, Robert Chamberlain, pairs Richter and Vega up with an FBI intelligence expert, Special Agent Kelsey DeLaine, and a veteran special ops expert, Command Sergeant Major Ray Jefferson, to form Task Force TALON, the first joint military-FBI unit charged with hunting down and stopping terrorists anywhere in the world. With CID's speed, power, weaponry, and amazing capabilities, combined with the talents of the U.S. Army and the investigative skills of the world's greatest detective agency, TALON is designed to put terrorists on the run around the globe. But putting conflicting and single-minded personalities like Richter and DeLaine together is like mixing oxygen and gasoline: do it right and it produces horsepower--do it wrong, and it creates an explosion. Even the National Security Adviser can't seem to control his team. Can Task Force TALON survive long enough to hunt down GAMMA and its secret puppetmaster, the shadowy Consortium, before the next deadly attack?

"The novels of Dale Brown brim with violent action, detailed descriptions of sophisticated weaponry and political intrigue... His ability to bring technical weaponry to life is amazing."
--San Francisco Chronicle

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