Wild Blue Yonder: A Novel of the 1960s

Nate finally extricates himself from the grips of the Air Force, but in a parting shot is warned that he may not like the Real World; in fact, he’s told many troops re-up within a few months. Why is that? Nate wonders. He remembered seeing a wall plaque that read “If Man Has His Freedom, He Has Everything.” If that’s so, why would someone give up his freedom and having a life he can call his own, just to return to the confining aspects of military life? Nonetheless, Nate soon finds that his freedom is fleeting and conditional. Home Sweet Home? Right. What’s Uncle Ned, the philosophy professor, have to say about all this? Why are Chicagoans so cold? And who is that, standing quietly on the sidelines, three thousand miles away in the warm California sun, waiting for Nate’s homecoming drama to play out? Aw, you know who.

In which Nate discovers his…well, he discovers a great deal of what’s going on inside of him while attending the performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in Stuttgart with the grande dames, and even more with them afterwards. You know, about the children of the future and all that. He bids his fellow troops good-bye and boards the silver skybird for London to say adios to Tony, then to the U.S. and…freedom? We shall see.

Nate undergoes some radical personal changes after learning his story about the General was published without his attribution. His anger is tempered by throwing an I Ching, the fact that he’s FIGMO, the arrival of Tony with the new Beatles’ White Album, and an update on the children of the future discussion with the grande dames. A short chapter, but filled with portent, as you shall hear.

You may remember that Nate’s recruiter promised he’d become a jet aircraft pilot. This, of course, turned out to be nothing more than a ploy to get him to enlist, and he was disabused of this aspiration by the two instructors during Basic Training. Little did Nate know he’d end up the co-pilot in General Beauregard’s personal jet, as you will hear in this chapter. Nate’s terrified, and only doing it because he’s been ordered to; in fact, it’s his most important assignment as the base correspondent for the Stars and Stripes, and what looks like his best shot at seeing his byline in print.

It’s really such a great German tradition, Oktoberfest, a party to end all parties. Too bad Dylan spoils it for the troops. But then again, if he hadn’t, would they have met the three philosophy students from Heidelberg University? Would they have learned they were not the only children of the future?  A lot of Truth gets discussed over one-liter beer steins, as Alan, Tim, Henry Harold Henry and Nate exchange points of view with Thomas, Dieter and Herman. What do you suppose they agree on?