Captain Harding and His Men

When a C-130 bound for Southeast Asia explodes on takeoff at remote Wheelus Air Base, Libya, handsome, hard-charging Captain Joe Harding instinctively realizes that the cargo list-''medical supplies and radio tubes''-was faked. When Joe's newly-married workout buddy does a swan dive off a fifth story balcony in downtown Tripoli, Joe refuses to accept the semi-official verdict: suicidal depression. And when Joe's tennis partner, the son of the American ambassador, decides to celebrate his eighteenth birthday by appearing unannounced at Joe's BOQ door, the potential difficulties of their love-match must be addressed--seriously and without delay.


Continuing the adventures and misadventures begun in Elliott Mackle's award-winning Captain Harding's Six-Day War, Joe and his fellow officers and airmen contend with a highly decorated but sexually abusive wing commander (who happens to be Joe's boss), a closeted Pentagon official fighting to save his career, a CIA agent who may be an imposter, and shipments of British weapons that fall into the hands of anti-royalist rebels. When a kidnapping goes terribly wrong, Joe must fight for everything he holds dear: duty, honor, country and love. Significant erotic content and salty language.

Elliott Mackle served four years in the United States Air Force during the Vietnam era. As a very green second lieutenant he commanded a squadron of cooks and bakers, later achieving the rank of captain. He was stationed in California, Italy and Libya, the latter the setting for Captain Harding’s Six-Day War. His previous novel, Hot off the Presses, is based in part on his adventures as a staff writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The newspaper’s dining critic for a decade, he also reported on military affairs, travel, the national restaurant scene and the 1996 Olympic Games. His first novel, It Takes Two, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. He has written for Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine, Los Angeles Times, Florida Historical Quarterly, Atlanta and Charleston magazines and was a longtime columnist at Creative Loafing, the South’s leading alternative newsweekly. Mackle wrote and produced segments for Nathalie Dupree’s popular television series, New Southern Cooking, and authored a drama about gay bashing for Georgia Public Television. Along the way, he managed a horse farm, served as a child nutrition advocate for the State of Georgia, volunteered at an AIDS shelter, was founding co-chair of Emory University’s GLBT alumni association and taught critical and editorial writing at Georgia State University.