Reviews

Making of a Missile
Military Machinations Fuel Plot
Like it or not, you're into military missiles if you read this well-written novel of international intrigue.
From your television-watching during the Persian gulf War, you already know the Raytheon-manufactured PATRIOT missiles were turned to bring down the Iraqi SCUD missiles.
This is that story from behind the scenes, giving you more knowledge of missiles than you want to know.
There is a traitor at work at the computers firing the Patriots, hoping to bring about a crisis between the U.S. and Israel. Gen. Jeff Weyland of the U.S. Army has been the overseer of the Patriot missile system since the beginning at Raytheon. He fights for it against other generals who want the congressional money for conventional ground troops and equipment. The missiles are not yet perfected. More militray engineering foolishness. What Gen. Weyland does not need now as the Gulf War looms is sabotage to render the Patriots ineffective, perhaps even a joke costing lives, international incidents with Israel. Where did all those oil fields go? But read on, and be glad you're an American stockholder in Raytheon. If you are a spy, don't read this book. There are too many secrets we patriots don't want you to know.

Review by Dean Sims
Sims is a public relations consultant and author.

S.C. Native Uses Gulf War to Plot Tale of War

In his first novel, "Master Switch," South Carolina native William Stender weaves a tale of high-tech espionage as one explanation of why only Israel, a non-combatant nation in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, suffered losses of life from SCUD missiles launched by Saddam Hussein. A congressional committee already has conceded it could not determine why PATRIOT, the top-secret U.S.-furnished defensive missile, magnificently performed its task in Saudi Arabia but not in Israel. Brig. Gen. Jeff Weyland is the ideal hero for this engaging tale of contemporary technical, political and military warfare. His fighting spurs, won in action in Vietnam, and his Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering earned him the sobriquet "doctor General." a year before the Gulf War even looms on the horizon, his instincts tell him to find out why a PATRIOT test-firing failed. And why did a staff sergeant make a quick entry on the computer keyboard of the firing console?
Stender, a native of Sumter, uses flashbacks to develop the character and motivation of the key players. He demonstrates a master knowledge of how a "sleeper" espionage agent builds a legend and patiently waits years until the right moment to act. When this agent also is the uninhibited queen of the bounding bed, no politician of general is immune. But sex also leads to blackmail and bribery, and these are among the potent motivations of the men who carry this story form the White Sands Missile Range through Capitol Hill to the desert battlefield. Like successful espionage, successful novel writing sticks as close to reality as possible. The author simulates meetings, conversations and action invoking the fears, desires, authority and power of President Bush, Gen. Colin Powell, the president of Israel and mysterious Arabs to heighten the suspense and define what is at stake. A priority task when the Gulf War breaks out is to protect Israel so that small nation, the strongest military power in the Mideast, will stay out of the war, which is the price the United States pays for Arabs to join the coalition against Iraq. Stender's background in industrial and electrical engineering, and his role as CEO in a company that provides engineering services and PATRIOT systems analysis for the Army is the basis for the technocrat's argot found in this fast paced, enjoyable novel. Stender's detailed technical knowledge, however, does not bog down the storyline nor overpower the characters. The writer shows a keen understanding of human weaknesses and a macabre sense of humor when the last SCUD is launched toward Israel. The author, a Vietnam veteran, now makes his home at Folly Beach and is co-owner and CEO of a company in Huntsville, Ala.

Review By Francis X. Archibald
Francis X. Archibald is a Hunahan resident at work on a memoir of his investigative experiences with the federal government and the state.