About the Author

Dedications

There are many branches on the paths we follow in life. Some lead to adventures and others lead to mysteries. When I was a small boy, I happened onto the path that led me to the County Library. There I found both adventure and mystery in abundance.  Among the shelves of dusty books, I encountered James Churchward's works on Mu. That starting point led me to the broad field of speculative history and to wondrous tales of forgotten cities and lost civilizations.

When contemplating the massive stone figures of Easter Island, the towering pyramids of Egypt, and the mysterious structures of Stonehenge, I asked just how did they shape and move those massive stones? In Machu Picchu and other Incan ruins, very large stones with irregular surfaces were precisely fitted to match adjoining similar stones. They fit so precisely, a cigarette paper could not be placed between them.  How was that done?

The spate of UFO sightings in 1947 prompted further youthful exploration. One book I located, The Book of the Damned, was from the early 1900s. This was the first published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort.  Within the pages of Charles Fort's work, I found remarkable descriptions of UFOs similar to Ezekiel's wheel within a wheel.  Could these have been modern hoaxes? My conclusion then favored an unsolved mystery, and it still does.

The Guardian series is an imaginative story winding through the widely spaced pillars of incomplete human history. Guardian Force, Earth Guardian, Guardian Probe, Guardian Strike, and Guardian Thunder are pure science fiction brimming with high adventure and military strategy. The author's hope is that the books will provide science fiction enthusiasts an enjoyable and memorable read. So relax, lean back, and enjoy a modern imaginative fable set both in the past and in the year 2511 and beyond.

Guardian Force

This book is dedicated to the memory of

Ollie Mayberry Van Sickle, my Mom

and Lorna Gusner, my daughter.

Inspiration by Gepeto, who was a gift of love from Guide Dogs for the Blind, San Rafael, California, and for another such wondrous gift, Limo who has with great patience and courage taken up the fallen baton and filled some mighty big paws.

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Earth Guardian

With an abiding respect, the author dedicates this book to the personnel of the United States Navy Submarine Force, especially to the memory of United States Submarines remaining on eternal patrol, serving with integrity and an uncompromising devotion to duty.

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Guardian Probe

Early on the morning of October 25, 1944, an admiral ordered Commander William Dow Thomas, Commodore of a small guardian destroyer screen, to attack a vastly superior Japanese force east of Samar Island in the Philippines Sea. The four American destroyers Hoel, Heermann, Samuel B. Roberts, and Johnston began their defensive action to protect their carriers.

Zigzagging through smoke and intermittent rain squalls— and frequently bracketed by the explosions of incoming heavy ordnance from Japanese battleships, cruisers, and destroyers— the "small boys" of Taffy 3 engaged the attacking Japanese force and pressed their attack against overwhelming odds.

In the hours that followed, the men of the United States Navy displayed incredible valor, courage, and tenacity, such as is seldom recorded in the annals of history, reminiscent of the courage displayed by the Spartans at Thermopylae during King Leonidas’ stand against the overwhelming forces of the Persian King Xerxes.

The aircraft and the “small boys” of the United States Navy blunted and then turned the powerful Japanese attack into a retreat. During the battle, United States Navy losses included: 1,583 killed and 913 wounded; two escort carriers, two destroyers, and one destroyer escort sunk; and twenty-three aircraft lost. The Japanese Imperial Navy’s casualties are unknown, but two battleships were damaged, three heavy cruisers sunk, three heavy cruisers and multiple destroyers were damaged, and fifty-two aircraft were lost.

The author respectfully dedicates this book to the men of Taffy 1, Taffy 2, and especially Taffy 3, with special notice of the sacrifices of the "small boys" and the airmen who fought with raw courage and inflicted greater losses than they suffered. It is with a sense of deep admiration that I include in this dedication Lieutenant Commander Ernest E. Evans and the crew of the USS Johnston (DD-557), who, without waiting for orders, took the battle straight to the Imperial Navy and its battleships, pressing the attack against staggering odds.

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Guardian Strike

Without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.

– President George Washington to Marquis de Lafayette,

15 November 1781

The author respectfully dedicates this book to the men and women of the United States Navy, past and present. It is with a sense of deep respect that I in particular include in this dedication the ships of the US Navy task force—consisting of two heavy and three light cruisers with eight destroyers—that engaged a more powerful Japanese task force consisting of battleships Hiei and Kirishima, light cruiser Nagara, and fourteen destroyers off Savo Island on the night of November 12-13, 1942.

The only two US Navy admirals killed in a surface engagement during WW II were lost in this battle. This incredible nighttime close-range melee might serve as the dictionary definition of ships going into harm’s way. During the engagement, several US Navy destroyers attacked and closed to point-blank range, so near to the Japanese battleship Hiei that it was unable to depress its main guns far enough to return fire. As a direct result of this climactic sea battle of Guadalcanal, two American light cruisers and four destroyers were lost, and the battleship Hiei and two Japanese destroyers were sunk....

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Guardian Thunder

God, Corps, and Country, this book is respectfully dedicated to the United States Marine Corps. Being exemplary in their history of courage and service, a dedication to a single Unit or an individual is difficult. Nevertheless, it is with admiration and respect that Major General Oliver P. Smith and the First Marines Division, who with incredible courage fought their way from the Chosin Reservoir 70 miles distant to the port city of Hungnam in Korea, are especially noted. Likewise, is Father Vincent R. Capodanno, chaplain of the third Battalion, Fifth Marines, who was killed in action 4 September 1967, 30 miles south of Da Nang, in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam; he was a man of God.

Out of a sense of admiration for a man who met and with fortitude overcame spiritual adversities, the author also respectfully dedicates this book to the memory of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. Novelist, short story writer, playwright, essayist, born September 9, 1828 Yasnaya Polyana, Russian Empire and died November 20, 1910, Astapovo, Russian Empire.

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