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Book Review of The Vets

The Vets
The Vets
Author: Stephen Leather
Book Type: Paperback
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It's a couple of years before Hong Kong is to revert to Red China. Chinese expatriate Anthony Chung meets in Paris with ex-U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel Joel Tyler to set in motion plans for the Heist of the Century in Britain's last jewel in the crown. To that end, Tyler implements an elaborate scheme to recruit other U.S. Army vets of the Vietnam war for the venture. He ultimately attracts ex-Huey pilot Dan Lehmen, a phony investments scammer on the run from the Mob, ex-Tunnel Rat Eric Horvitz, a border-line sociopath living alone in the Canadian woods, ex-Huey door gunner Larry Carmody, who left Nam with a chip on his shoulder and minus one forearm, and ex-Huey crew chief Barton Lewis, a lonely divorcé recently diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer. Then there's ex-Air America, i.e. CIA, chopper pilot Chuck Doherty, who fled a murderous Special Forces operation in Laos, only to stash his Huey in the Thai jungle and live as a Buddhist monk these last twenty-two years.