A secret war rages on in Laos and veteran USAF pilot Major Frank Delaney leaves his wife and four children behind to be a part of it. He has already fought in South Vietnam as a Forward Air Controller (FAC) and now returns to war--this time to fly and fight as a Raven* FAC with far fewer rules of engagement and maximum freedom to help find and destroy the enemy's capacity to make war. Flying low and slow in a propeller-driven, light observation aircraft, carrying no identification and wearing neither uniform nor insignia, he seeks out their positions and also provides close air support for indigenous Hmong or Laotian troops in contact with the enemy. "Hit my smoke " and "Cleared hot " are his battle cries as he marks the enemy's positions with white-phosphorous rockets, calling down USAF fighter-bombers flying from secret Thai bases to bloody their targeted killing fields with bombs, napalm, cluster bombs, and strafe--whatever munitions Frank believes are best for the situation. He then flies down to assess and report the results of the mission to the aircraft still on station and to "Cricket," his airborne command post. If enemy troops and antiaircraft gunners have survived the onslaught, they will be hell-bent upon revenge. Franks's wife, Marie, must again fight her war alone. Hers is especially wicked because her loved ones do not recognize her alcoholism as a disease that is a deadly form of war in its own right, with its own battles to be fought and won--or lost. While she knows that the disease can eventually kill her, her alcoholic's addiction overpowers her will to help her fight and win. There is, however, a glimmer of hope: she makes a promise that she will be alcohol-free by the time Frank returns home. After coordinating with the base locator to ship their household goods to their Phoenix home, she loads the family Lincoln with the children, their clothing and enough vodka to smooth her jangled nerves from yet another cross-country move. What about the children? Their parents' war becomes theirs when their peers cruelly tease them with such shouts as "Your father is a baby killer " To their credit, they stand up for their father and their skills in karate and judo serve them well if their tormenters get out of hand and take the first swings. Only later as they grow older and more resentful do they realize that their mother is an alcoholic and that they must carry the burden of managing the household. This, then, becomes their war, albeit a short one. * Volunteer American pilots who fly without uniforms or identification to skirt the strict neutrality mandated by the Geneva Accords. Yet as many as 70,000 enemy soldiers are fighting in-country at any given time, against them and the severely outgunned indigenous forces that the Ravens support.