Losing Roxy (ePub)

LOSING ROXY is a novel based on real events and the life of Navy Seal Charlie Kincaid during World War 2. Part Cherokee, born into Southern poverty, Charlie trained as a diver and became the leader of the war's first underwater demolition team. His men experienced their first test, moments after the strike on Pearl Harbor, rescuing twenty-eight U. S. sailors trapped in the sinking USS California. Their missions sent them to New Zealand, Australia, and a dozen Pacific Islands, into the most dangerous combat areas on that side of the world. They dove and carried out clandestine missions under horrific weather and health conditions while constantly facing attacks by Japanese troops, bombers, and submarines.

But Charlie's life was not all hardship. Even as the bloody war ground on in Europe and the Pacific, he fell in love. Her name was Mattie, and she lived in New Zealand. Their love story offers a tender counterpoint to gritty battle scenes throughout the novel. The book is framed around actual love letters sent by the couple, newspaper accounts from 1941-44, material from various archives, and documented events involving Charlie's ship, the USS Rigel. We've also interviewed surviving shipmates.

Co-author Lynette Hedrick is a published author of short stories for Auckland's Eye Magazine and The Beauty Book 2015, and an accomplished painter with international sales. Bud Hedrick, like Charlie, is an American. He works in real estate when not adding male perspective to the book from his five years as Operations Officer on US Coast Guard cutters. Two developmental editors, Hillel Black and Kathryn Johnson, have advised us throughout early drafts. And, oh yes, one last detail might be of interest: Mattie was Lynette's mother.