George Mazzeo

In CHASING DRAGONS ( http://tiny.cc/oy7ply ) and THE LAST RAJAH ( http://tiny.cc/3berly ), co-pilot Edwina "Eddie" Watt is a former WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots). Their mission was to free male pilots for combat roles by employing qualified female pilots to ferry aircraft from factories to military bases and to tow drones and aerial targets. Each WASP candidate already had a pilot's license. They were trained to fly "the Army way" by the U.S. Army Air Forces at Avenger Fie ... ld in Sweetwater, Texas. More than 25,000 women applied for the WASP, and fewer than 1,900 were accepted. After completing four months of military flight training, 1,074 of them earned their wings and became the first women to fly American military aircraft. WASP were stationed at 122 air bases across the U.S., assuming numerous flight-related missions, and relieving male pilots for combat duty. They flew sixty million miles of operational flights from aircraft factories to port...

In CHASING DRAGONS , Duke Kellogg explains to his co-pilot Edwina “Eddie” Watt the legend of Mag Check Charlie. This legend was born on Wake Island (where I initially heard the story in 1971.) During WWII, pilots transiting Wake were told of a 15-foot tiger shark named Mag Check Charlie. Before I tell you how the story goes, I need to give you a little background. An aircraft piston engine differs from an automobile engine primarily in its ignition system. An automobile has one spark plug per piston, an aircraft engine has two…a left and a right. This is done for redundancy.  As long as either is working, the engine runs fine. All the left spark plugs are run off the left magneto and all the right spark plugs off the right. Magnetos are electric generating devices that are mounted on the engine. As long as the engine is turning they work. This is unlike a generator on a car. If the belt breaks or the generator fails, the engine stops. That won’t do in an airplane. Prior to...

Here are Betty and Veronica from the Archie Comic book series. The engines on the "Deuce", a Lockheed Lodestar featured in the popular action novels CHASING DRAGONS and THE LAST RAJAH  , were named after these two ladies. Betty was on the right wing. Veronica, the troublemaker, was on the left. If you'd like a fun read check out either on Amazon. If nothing else, stop by and check out the reviews. All those folks can't be wrong!!!

One of the greats of aviation history and the role model for Edwina "Eddie " Watt in CHASING DRAGONS and THE LAST RAJAH. She disappeared July 2, 1937 in the South Pacific. Recent claims of her survival have been debunked. She was the ultimate feminist by example.

It's here, May 27, 2017!!! In the post-war South Pacific, pilot Duke Kellogg, co-pilot, Edwina “Eddie” Watt, and flight mechanic Nick Minetti, once again, find themselves up to their necks in mystery and intrigue. A harrowing emergency landing on a search and rescue mission leaves the crew of “The Deuce” stranded in a remote rain forest in central Borneo. There they must contend with treachery, headhunters, and a rogue Japanese patrol. Will they find the missing heir to the Rajah’s throne? Will they solve the mystery of the blue diamond? Will they escape with their lives? With time running out and the odds stacked against them, the crew must use all their skills to survive their search for The Last Rajah . 

This is a picture of a reticulated python similar to the one Eddie has an encounter with in THE LAST RAJAH .  The inspiration for that episode came from my experience with “Pete” at U-Tapao Airfield, Thailand in 1972. Pete was kept in a 15’ x 15’ screened enclosure adjacent to the “Grunts Grove” snack bar where crews would go to get a bite after a flight. Despite the size of the cage, he was too large to uncoil completely. His head was the size of a saucer and his girth was the size of a football.  Pete was periodically fed a live chicken. The process was fascinating. On the first day, the chicken was oblivious to the danger. It would walk all over the snake, even perching on its head. The snake never moved…it just stared straight ahead with cold, dead eyes. When you came back the second day, something had changed. Although the snake still hadn’t moved, the chicken was now in the corner trembling with fear. On the third day…no chicken! How did the chicken know on day two ...

This is what Duke and Eddie had to work with in CHASING DRAGONS and THE LAST RAJAH . It’s probably hard for modern pilots to imagine climbing into an aircraft like the Lockheed Lodestar with its primitive navigation capabilities and setting out on a 2,000-mile journey over open ocean for a remote island destination. But thousands of missions were flown just like that.