Introduction
491 Words
Introduction
This is the first Delta Force romance story I ever wrote.
I had written twenty-five other stories before I tackled this one. Curiously, that did little to diminish the fear factor of starting a new series, especially one like this one.
Could I capture an entire mission in a short story?
The mission and the romance were at odds. One happens extremely fast, it’s Delta Force after all, and the other needs time to grow. How could I possibly combine two such disparate elements?
The excitement and stress of a mission, combined with romance, had its own trap that I wanted to avoid. I didn’t want these to be tales of heat and action that would lead to fiery s*x (no matter how fun that might be to write) rather than to lasting love.
But as I mentioned in the first collection, I wanted to also show the incredible skills that it takes to belong to the world’s most elite military team.
In this story, I focused on the HALO jump. It is considered to be the most difficult and dangerous parachute jump of them all.
Jumps are often initiated at great altitudes, airliner altitudes. In attempting to avoid possible radar detection, the jumper freefalls for most of that distance at terminal velocity, opening the parachute at the last possible moment.
Potential problems include: frostbite (it can be minus fifty or lower at altitude), straying off target, a late opening means a minimum of time remains to cut away the primary chute and go to the reserve chute if there’s a problem… The list goes on at great length. Jumpers can even get the bends if their climb to altitude happens too fast, or the cabin pressure is changed too suddenly, so they have to pre-breathe pure oxygen (a fire hazard) to flush the nitrogen out of their systems.
Of course, it didn’t sound like enough fun, so I added a storm. It’s just the evil writer that I am.
One thing puzzled me though. Delta Force operators are not held to strict military guidelines regarding grooming. In order to be able to infiltrate various places, they’ll often grow longer hair and beards. Some will even take this liberty to extremes, but that wasn’t an issue for this story to explore.
However, the challenge of blending in during an infiltration can be easier as a couple. There’s the added issue in the Arabic and Muslim world, that women may not touch or directly address men who are not of their family.
So where does Delta Force get their women?
This story was written well before the laws were changed allowing women to serve in all combat positions in the US military.
I found one obscure reference that they tapped, of all curious outfits, the US Coast Guard. I’ve since had career Coasties argue that this wasn’t possible, but we’re talking Delta Force here, so they would have kept it pretty quiet.
Possible or not, I was awfully glad to find Teresa Mann was willing to serve.
- Writer
