Sand and Fire

MWSA Review

Sand and Fire is a military thriller that starts with jihadists unleashing deadly chemical attacks against civilians in Sicily, Gibraltar, and remote villages in Libya’s Sahara Desert.

In this well written book, author Tom Young provides readers with detailed insight into the tactical operations and logistics of Marine infantrymen and Air Force flight operations as he spins a realistic and suspenseful emotion- packed combat story set in the vast waste lands of North Africa.

Working on intelligence that chemical weapons are in an isolated village, a heliborne force of U.S. Marines and paratroopers from the French Foreign Legion are met with a horrific ambush.Overcome by sarin gas, Gunnery Sergeant A. E Blount is taken captive along with three other marines and two legionnaires. Despite his weakened physical condition, he struggles to take care of his men.

Two friendsof Blount’sfrom Afghanistan -- Air Force Colonel Michael Parson and retired Army linguist Sophia Gold -- are also in country and become involved in the effort to find and rescue the missing warriors. Parson directs a joint Air Force operation and Gold’s United Nations humanitarian work with refugees becomes instrumental in seeking critical information about the terrorists and their lethal chemical weapons.

Readers are kept in suspense as Blount and his fellow captives cope with horrific threats from their jihadist executioners, and rescuers race to prevent beheadings and more attacks by chemical weapons.

Reviewed by: Joe Epley (2015)

Author's Summary

North Africa! A jihadist leader has seized a supply of sarin gas and is wreaking havoc: an attack on a nightclub in Sicily, and on a packed street in Gibraltar. Marine Gunnery Sergeant A.E. Blount, at six-foot-eight a formidable warrior and the grandson of one of the first black Marines, sets out with a strike force to kill or capture the terrorist. But it's a trap. Several Marines are killed, some are captured, and the jihadist promises that unless American forces withdraw, he will execute one prisoner a day. Immediately, Blount's friends and colleagues Sophia Gold, now with the UN, and Colonel Michael Parson, working with the United States Africa Command, rush to Libya to help coordinate rescue efforts. But the ordeal has only begun. Soon, they will all fight for their lives in the sand and fire of the desert.