Character treatment for a proposed new story

With one story fully published to Medium, and another almost halfway out, I’ve begun thinking about what comes next. There’s some serious digression here, but those of you willing to attend it all the way through will see a payoff, I promise.

I’ve been a serious fan of historic aviation since about 1985. That was the year that I started flying in my own right, and I was introduced to an author who made serious waves in the aviation field: Martin Caidin.

Caidin’s exploits as an aviation author are legendary — -and according to his detractors, not altogether true. But back then I didn’t know or care. I was taking my first steps in the aviation world, and Caidin’s works were a literary drug to me. Later on I would introduce myself to the works of Clive Cussler as well, another aviation-oriented action/adventure author, and become completely hooked on his work as well.

I was also a fan of the 1980s TV show “Airwolf”. I wanted the cabin on the lake, and the ace pilot flying skills, and the studied affectation of the emotionally scarred warrior pilot…and the unbelievable super-attack helicopter. To this day, I have only to play a YouTube video with Sylvester Levay’s pounding synthesizers beating to the pace of a running wolf, and my bad days just melt away.

I’m afraid I didn’t get any of those things I wanted, except maybe for the emotional scarring. But that’s another story for another time.

So about seven years ago, as I was trudging through work at U.S. Northern Command here in Colorado, and dealing with problems along the southern border of the U.S. (funny how what goes around, comes around), I began thinking that we were using super-high-tech solutions for a really low-tech problem. That got me thinking about historic aircraft, and how they could be applied, and by some small ambitious thought process, I ended up stumbling over an old solution: the On-Mark-modified A/B-26K Counter Invaders.

The idea was shelved in my head, and ended up laying dormant for a few years.

Fast forward to 2017. I came across a set of YouTube videos documenting the restoration progress of “Special K”, the last surviving A/B-26K Counter Invader, which currently makes its home at Greatest Generation Aircraft, Meacham Field, Fort Worth TX. I became fascinated with the aircraft and the volunteer effort surrounding it….

…and in 2018, I finally got up the nerve to email one of the points of contact and ask if I could write a fictionalized story about it.

The answer came back as a polite but firm “No.” They were — -understandably, I suppose — -concerned about the image of the aircraft, the volunteers, and the museum. I felt somewhat discouraged. They DID say “Well, what about a different name or tail number?” I started thinking…and the end result is the seed of the story that may yet come after this.

And now I am here. For those of you I was addressing in my first paragraph, here is your payoff!

I started thinking “What other names could I use? Special K is already taken.” Then I came across Macaulay’s “Horatius at The Bridge”…and boom.

So…synthesized out of a love for historic aviation, mixed with a love for action/adventure stories, with a heavy dab of historic aviation reality, and my own sense of literary grandness, I present to you:

“HORATIUS: THE LAST INVADER”.

What follows is a basic character treatment for the proposed characters:

SETTINGS: Southeast Asia, Thailand. Davis-Monthan AFB. Perdidos Airfield, NM, a fictional location roughly 50 miles north of the border and 100 miles east of Fort Huachuca, AZ. U.S. NORTHCOM, Colorado Springs, CO. Various locations in Mexico.

AIRCRAFT: A-26K Counter Invader, ultimately named “HORATIUS”. Tail number 699, first built for U.S. Army Air Force service in 1944, rebuilt by On-Mark Industries in late 1968. Ferried to Thailand in 1969, just in time to be decommissioned and sent back to Davis-Monthan AFB, where the aircraft disappears….

PERSONNEL:

CURTISS WRIGHT BRIGGS: A second-generation USAF vet, Vietnam War veteran, and a lead pilot with the “Nimrods”, the prominent A-26K Counter Invader squadron operating in southeast Asia during the war. An aficionado of history, and a flying warrior, he is the one responsible for saving/stealing the aircraft that would become “Horatius”. He realizes back then, from his strong knowledge of history, that this aircraft would end up being needed again, even as the U.S. military writ large decided that its day had passed. He is married to MARGARET (MAGGIE) BRIGGS.

WESTON FORD (WES): An ace ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) imagery analyst. Nearing his forties, working at Fort Huachuca under the auspices of USNORTHCOM. Frustrated by the lack of forward progress in the counter-drug/counter-cartel mission along the southern U.S. border, his temper boils over one day, forcing his supervisor to send him off on leave, where he ends up stumbling across Perdidos Airfield…and a mysterious hangar. He is in a strained marriage with CHERYL FORD.

MARGARET (MAGGIE) BRIGGS: Wife of Curtiss Briggs. Married since 1967, she has borne him two children and displayed the patience of Job while waiting for his return from combat in SEA. She is old-school as a wife, supporting her husband while working at Perdidos Airfield while helping him keep the secret of the old hangar at the end of the runway…

CHERYL FORD: Wife of Weston. Married for about six years, with him for eight. One daughter, very young. She is a loyal and loving wife, but her patience with Wes is being sorely tried, and when he is sent home on forced leave, the tensions hit a boiling point. He leaves to go off on his own, and finds Perdidos by accident after getting lost.

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS:

JAMES MATHERS (JIM): Supervisor for FORD.

SAMUEL WHITMORE (SAM): BRIGGS’ co-pilot/former co-pilot in SEA.

Various other characters, to be decided and introduced later.