At All Hazards

Mark Seymour

Jan 2008 · Proofmark

About this ebook

Set against the turmoil of the late spring of 1975, "At All Hazards" tells the tale of the fall of Saigon to the rapidly approaching North Vietnamese Army.At the same time, however, a small team of embittered US veterans (Special Forces, Marines, and SEALs) has taken on a more personal task: stealing the crates of gold bullion lying in the vaults of the National Bank of South Vietnam.First, however, they must purloin expense money from a pair of CIA 'puzzle box' banks, one each in Paris and London, and, once in-country, procure enough military hardware (including a stolen tank) to fight their own 'little war' within the larger war raging around them.Then, too, they have to figure out a way to get it all out of town. As the roads are impassable and the NVA controls all waterways leading to the South China Sea, the only way out left to them is the sky.But everyone else in Saigon, both the tiny remaining US presence and its many allies among the South Vietnamese, are scrambling to get out the same way, using any aircraft, fixed wing or rotor, still flying.The team also has a unique problem: the gold weighs sixteen tons. Throw in a truck or two capable of carrying it, and the team itself, and they're going to need to find themselves one hell of an airplane. . .

About the author

Mark Seymour never went to the war of his generation. When he wanted to go, in the mid-1960s, Vietnam was still a 'sergeant's war' and interesting, but he was too young. By the time he was old enough to enlist, Vietnam had become a 'general's war', and the only thing to do in a general's war was get killed.Later on he ended up working for, in Forrest Gumps' phrase, that 'fruit company', and then for several pharmaceutical firms. Retired now, he is devoting himself to writing.