The cool woman

the long version

"It's 1970. Lieutenant Bill Mann, the orphaned son of a Tuskegee Airman, is sober, single, and focused when he reports to USAF Pilot Training; he's there to begin living his boyhood dream. According to Mann's 'personal flight plan' he's fifteen months away from playing a significant role in the air war over Viet Nam, an assignment he'll use to establish his reputation as a fighter pilot. May of 1972 finds Mann in Bangkok, passed out on the floor of his hotel room. The gifted young pilot is fighting wars within war, he's a borderline alcoholic, his new wife is divorcing him, and he's hours away from learning...the pilot who becomes his own North Star is forever lost."--P. [4] of cover