Vietnam Veteran Dennis Gibb’s New Novel Follows a Draftee-Turned-Helicopter-Pilot Through Combat and Survivor’s Guilt

Balle Balle Radio™ Entertainment Desk

Dennis Gibb, an Army veteran who served six years on active duty including a combat tour in Vietnam, has released a new novel, "Echo Oscar Mike, Charlie Sierra Mike Oscar: (End of Mission, Close Station March Order)," published through Newman Springs Publishing.

The book follows Phil Johnson, a college graduate who enlists during the Vietnam War rather than wait to be drafted, according to the announcement. Though Phil anticipates the standard trajectory through Basic Training and Officer Candidate School, he is instead assigned to helicopter flight training. After earning his wings, he anticipates deployment to Vietnam but is redirected to Fort Ord to train infantry soldiers, a detour the announcement describes as reshaping the course of his life.

The announcement states that Phil’s story turns on a fatal encounter that nearly destroys him legally, followed by deployment to Vietnam with a specialized task force carrying out dangerous missions. As his aircraft is shot down repeatedly and soldiers around him are killed, the novel centers on his struggle with survivor’s guilt, characterized as a more cunning foe than any battlefield opponent. The book asks whether Phil can come through the experience with his humanity, his body, and his sense of self intact.

Since his own combat tour, where he was wounded, Gibb has worked as a financial advisor to Native American communities and currently assists incarcerated veterans in their return to society, according to the announcement. That background, the publisher says, shapes the novel’s treatment of duty, trauma, and what comes after combat.

"This novel allowed me to explore the psychological and emotional landscape of soldiers caught between duty and devastation," Gibb said in the announcement. "Phil’s struggle with survivor’s guilt reflects the silent battles many veterans face long after combat ends, and I hope readers will gain deeper compassion for those who have sacrificed so much."

The novel is available in paperback and through Amazon, the Apple iTunes Store, Google Play, and Barnes and Noble, as well as through Newman Springs Publishing’s own site.

Studio CarryOnHarry will be watching whether Gibb’s own service record gives this one staying power beyond the usual veteran-memoir-adjacent fiction crowding the same shelf.

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