THE HEROES OF HERAT

Army Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) John Pughsley is nearing the completion of twenty years service to his country. The decorated veteran of the nation’s longest war, the War on Terror, has completed a yearlong assignment as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan. As he rotates home, he has a decision to make. Does he remain a soldier in order to complete a thirty year career as his father had done, or does he retire early and fulfill the desires of his wife and take over her father’s construction company in Lexington, Virginia?American president, Burrell Ollerich, desires to end the nation’s longest war and to completely remove all American forces from the Middle East. The Taliban in Afghanistan isn’t satisfied with Ollerich’s time table and has plans of their own to speed up America’s withdrawal from the region.Iran, Al Qaeda, and ISIS are players in the chess game being played in the region, the United Nations, and in LTC Pughsley’s world. Heroism is demanded by the American soldier and others as they face impending doom by terrorism on the world stage. 3