The Life of an Airborne Ranger

Book Two: Take Care of Your Men-part of the trilogy-continues with Jack and Mary Clarke's careers flourishing. Jack's training continues at the infantry school, air assault school, and in reestablishing his jump status. His mentor, Lt. Gen. Frank Stafford, is now commander of Eighth Airborne Corps and invites Jack for a special assignment to research small unit tactics in the two airborne divisions at Fort Bragg. Jack uncovers an old boy network that has led to substandard basic military skills. With one unit scheduled for deployment to Vietnam, there is great concern making their readiness a priority. First Lieutenant Donovan leaves for his third tour in Vietnam as a company commander, where he commands two successful operations against VC-rocket launcher sites, receiving numerous commendations for valor. He is now the most highly decorated soldier in the military, but he again clashes with Orin Jensen's incompetence. Returning from Vietnam as acting battalion commander, Mary Clarke surprises Jack with a planned trip to Austria. Their love of opera and classical music fills their evenings in Salzburg and Vienna. Jack has also discovered his wife's independent wealth, having inherited a substantial sum from an aunt and uncle unable to have their own children. Money will never be a problem for the Donovans, whose family has been enlarged with a Welsh terrier named Patton. Jack, now a battalion commander with the Seventy-Fifth Airborne Rangers, plans and commands a major field training exercise at Fort Benning. Using high-altitude qualified parachutists, which includes himself, he outsmarts a larger force to win the exercise. Daring maneuvers against the Tenth Mountain Division allow Jack's rangers to win yet another FTX at Fort Drum and new promotions. Mary Clarke, with a new PhD from the University of Maryland, fills large lecture halls at NC State University. She is one of few professors on campus that give failing grades to students that are not up to the mark, even while students line up for her classes, which includes graduate-level courses on the romantic novels and their many moral characters of Ayn Rand and Victor Hugo.