Bravo Two Sierra
by Stephen R. Gagin
Category: Fiction

Only a madman attacks a U.S. Naval vessel in the middle of a raging hurricane. Santana J. Roja is just that madman. Set in the lush rain forest of Honduras and the storm revenged Caribbean Sea, Bravo TWO Sierra follows the lives of Roja and his band of cutthroat, Satan worshiping pirates, and the crew of the USS MASSASOIT (ATF-167) an old fleet tug whose counting down the hours before she's sent to the razor blade pile.The opening chapter is a flash back which sets the premise of the novel: absolute revenge destroys all. With the selling of Carmella Roja into a life of prostitution and drug abuse by her village priest, Santana Roja grows up a child of the alleys and whorehouses of Puerto Cortez. Shunned by the powerful Catholic church for his illegitimacy, Santana swears faith to the arcane teachings of Satanism. Soon he is in control of the port city's vibrant black market. Now he is in a position to exact revenge on the men responsible for his mother's death, and the man whom he blames for his station in life.Tension is sustained through the individual sailing and port calls of the American salvage crew and Roja's gang of black marketeers. Atmosphere is derived from the ocean and the weather they encounter. The final confrontation between father and son is as explosive as the hurricane that slams a Haitian gunrunner's ship aground in the Straits of Florida.Bravo TWO Sierra captures all the flavor of serving on a small command mixed with such a realistic scenario, that you'd think was yesterday's headline news.