What the Captain Really Means
a novel by
Kenneth L. Weber

Aviator, military historian, teacher at the Air Force Academy, Major Alex
Cannard seems well on his way to the top of his profession. His attractive wife, Merrilane, and two poster-quality children complete a perfect air
force family. But Vietnam has erupted and duty calls. Although warriors,
aviators, and historians know that assumptions can kill, Alex assumes
Merrilane will accept his volunteering.

Caught unprepared she believes Alex, like her father before him, has
abandoned her. Fearful of facing widowhood with two children and no
marketable skills, she secures a position in the Academy's athletic
department.

The stage is set for tragedy as Alex wages war in an obsolete
transport-turned gun ship, hampered by an uncommunicative wife, and betrayed by twisted fate and his own mind after an apparent "short round" incident.  On the other side of the earth, deprived of her usual confidant, Merrilane finds herself in a hostile environment every bit as threatening as the jungles of Southeast Asia. Additionally, she has attracted the attention of a senior cadet, Jack Pinski, who stalks her.

Briefly reunited in Hawaii after a seven-month separation, Merrilane finds
Alex depressed, inarticulate, and jealous of her success. She returns to
Colorado without discovering, or caring about, the source of his discontent.

Upon his return home five months later, she refuses to follow Alex back
into his world of operational flying, frequent absences, and a wife's
subservient role. They maintain a marriage in name only. Subsequently
Merrilane gives birth to a baby not fathered by her husband. Both she and Alex climb their corporate ladders--she as a vice--president of the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, he as a colonel in heavy bombers--and three children drift.

When Nixon orders B-52s finally to attack Hanoi in late December 1972, Alex is shot down, captured, and tortured. After learning of Alex's fate,
Merrilane is visited by Monique Delepierre, a fellow historian who
befriended Alex in Saigon and now informs her of the cause of his depression and the nature of their own relationship.

In squalid conditions in the "Hanoi Hilton" with Captain Jack Pinski as a
cell mate, Alex realizes at last what the captain really means and what he
must do to reclaim his family. An epilogue encapsulates the story.

What the Captain Really Means is as topical as the morning's newspaper or the most recent segment of CNN's Headline News. Readers will encounter episodes of high adventure,  heartbreaking failure, deep psychological probing, hard-hitting office politics, erotic sexual encounters, uncompromising analysis, and redeeming comic relief. They won't forget the duckling who aspires to be a swan, the queen who reaches for the brass ring, the captains who learn their lessons the hard way, and the quagmire that threatens to consume their humanity.