NURSE LINDA VILLANI
AND HER LOVE
FOR
PRESTON CUNNINGHAM
A Novel
By
Robert A. Chapin
Copyright 2007
This story is not intended as literal account or an exact portrayal of any persons living or dead. Obviously, it has been important to the author to protect the identity of some of the characters in this story, and for that purpose, names and descriptions have been changed.
An excerpt from “Orphans Of The Mourning”
Prologue
This story was originally written in 1991 when I found a diary from my days in Vietnam. It was originally written as an autobiography and later changed to a novel. It has taken me nearly 20 years to complete, but on my fourth attempt, it has finally become a dream fulfilled.
* * *
Sergeant Preston Cunningham is reassigned from a civilian status position while serving with the Army in Frankfurt, Germany into the heat of battle in Southeast Asia. In Vietnam he finds himself carrying out the duties of a company scrounge - someone who has been given the commander’s blessings to do whatever necessary to make the war machine tick. He is ordered to “acquire” whatever items are needed - both for personal pleasure and for the good of the unit.
Cunningham is captured and tortured by the enemy, spends 30 days recuperating in a U.S. Army POW Hospital in Long Binh - falls in love with his nurse and eventually returns to the U.S. He is assigned to The Pentagon as a staff driver for his new commanding officer: Major General Michael Hollingsworth who urges Preston to attend West Point. Having taken the General’s advice, Preston graduates from the military academy and General Hollingsworth personally assigns the new young lieutenant into an elite group of “operatives” working in The White House.
Hollingsworth is instrumental in the promotion of Cunningham to the youngest Four Star General in The Army. During his tenure, Preston finds and arranges a clandestine covert operation which successfully assassinates Osama Bin Laden and as a result is elected the first Vietnam Veteran President of The United States.
The United States Army Prisoner of War Hospital September 1968
Somewhere between the rescue and his arrival at the hospital, Preston lost consciousness. His only recollection was being taken off the helicopter and placed onto a Gurney where he was immediately wheeled into surgery.
He awoke in the recovery room to the exchange of medical terms. “A contusion to the infraorbital foreman, extending to the maxilla, into the alveolar process. The patient also suffers from severe trauma to the upper right lateral incisor.
“Poor guy! Sound like he’s in pretty rough shape.” Preston mumbled - opening his eyes for the first time since surgery.
“Sergeant, those are your charts and x-rays the doctors are reviewing.” the nurse said, gently rubbing his arm.
“I’m Lieutenant Villani. You went through a tough and we have just completed surgery to close the wound over your eye. You’re going to require dental work to repair and reconstruct your upper jaw and teeth. You also suffered three broken ribs, but everything has been treated and you are going to be just fine.” the lieutenant explained.
A debriefing officer entered with a list of questions, but Preston was still dazed from the effects of the anesthesia.
It would later be determined that the new pilot veered off course during the storm and ended up in Cambodia and efforts were conducted to locate the remaining members of the crew, but at that point, their fate was unknown.
A U.S. Army covert operations team gathering intelligence information came within several hundred yards of the building where Preston and Kelliher were held captive but were unable to proceed with a rescue without assembling a team several days later.