The Hills Went Boom!

Join with the United States Marine Corps newly formed Reconnaissance Battalion. The year is 1952 and twelve enlisted men; eleven Marines and one US Navy Corpsman have completed their yearlong Reconnaissance, Demolition and Survival training.

The twelve are known as "Recon Unit One" and their mission is to conduct clandestine and highly classified raids on tunnels and caves in the Chinese Communist controlled mountains of North Korea.

The missions are complex and filled with danger from many sources. Operating well North of the UN mandated DMZ, in enemy territory; these twelve have been sent to destroy the caves and tunnels of North Korea, most of them built during the Japanese occupation.

The Unit must parachute into zones occupied by enemy forces, secure the area, reconnoiter the caves and tunnels then destroy them and "get out" using methods here-to-for unused for these purposes. The reader will identify with some or all of the men who make up this elite force. They come from all walks of life, in post World War II America, and have the same frailties and strengths most of us share.

As with all things military there are moments of humor, as well as those moments of danger. Those moments that rekindles our memory and touches our hearts, minds and souls.

-Hank Acker