A story for those who enjoy naval / military type reads.

When you read the following… ‘A welder’s torch was used to dislodge a pair of blackened hipbones from a stainless steel toilet bowl.’ You know that you’re in for a high octane action story, and this one has it down pat. From the get-go, author Malcolm Torres places the reader on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier by letting the smells, sounds and imminent dangers jump out of the page at you. This is someone who’s been there, done that.

The Sixty-Four Days of the title refers to the amount of days that Senior Chief Brendan O'Reilly, has left for his retirement, that is if shit don’t hit the fan on account of a malfunctioning Corsair A7. They must land the plane safely or else…

I came across a free copy this 27 page short story while perusing Google (yep that platform still around.) and I enjoyed it very much.

Get your mitts on this explosive and gripping short story.

5 Out of 5
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Senior Chief O’Reilly has sixty-four days until retirement. He’s anxious to avoid anything that might jeopardize that, but an A-7 has failed to release all its bombs and the Captain wants to land the plane on the carrier. O'Reilly has been placed in charge of the recovery crew. He’d prefer to just dump the plane in the ocean and have the pilot eject rather than risk an explosion on the ship (and ruin his retirement plans.)

The incident Brendan remembers from when he was a nineteen-year old was based, most probably, on the Forrestal fire that involved Senator McCain. Given the types of planes I wondered if the time period wasn’t around Vietnam even though the author looks way too young for that.

Very short, but what there is was good. ( )