Sunday, October 14, 2007
Codename Litefoot, The Novel
Great New Novel: Codename Litefoot by Infinity Publishing, Robert A. Boyd, author. Available now at "buybooksontheweb.com. Type the word "CODENAME" in the search box and clck search. 743 pages, very graphic and highly detailed combat scenes. Minors should think twice before reading this one.
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2 comments:
This is a great novel. I couldn't put it down when I read it.
When someone identifies themselves with the term “sniper” and then tries to perpetrate a fraud, and goes on to portray snipers as psychos, burn outs and losers, then that affects all of us who look at being a sniper as something we want to be and do well.
This book review is about a piece of poorly written fiction presented as fact, entitled
Codename: Litefoot, by Robert Boyd.
Just be advised that, even as a first novel, this is pretty bad—full of stilted dialogue between characters who avoid using contractions with a passion and action scenes that make Rambo look like a contender for the Noble Peace Prize.
He so obviously wants to have been a part of something that he passes on the tired old urban legends of Vietnam to include incurable STDs & prostitutes having implanted razor blades in their nether regions.
The story is a work of “autobiographical fiction” about a young man who joins the Air Force in the 1960’s to learn how to become an aircraft mechanic.
He seems to go from one sadistic commander to another until he says that everyone’s favorite boogey man, the CIA, recruits him to serve as a sniper in Vietnam.
It’s easy to dismiss these ramblings, except for one thing—Robert Boyd wants us to believe it’s all-true, and that’s where I have a problem with him.
Matters came to a head Memorial Day 2009, when I read a news story about how Boyd was asked to address a veteran’s group in his persona as Litefoot the unsung sniper hero. A local fireman was interviewed about how he brought his two kids with him to see a “real veteran.”
Now of course, since Boyd says he worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, there is no record of any of this. I’m going to say this for the first and last time. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof and the burden of that proof is on the person making the claims.
There’s this notion by people brought up learning about Special Operations from movies and television shows that someone can be completely covert. The thing is, in the military, you can’t just have someone cease to exist. They still have to be accounted for; they have to be fed, housed and paid. Unit commanders have to account for their personnel. Flight manifests are made for aircraft passengers. People in Top Secret assignments have Top Secret sections of their
personnel files where they receive personnel evaluations, records of training received and the like. In my own career I attended schools the purpose of which were classified SECRET and compartmentalized with code words. I still had travel orders and receipts from those experiences. My Sergeant Major had a daily duty roster that listed me as on Temporary Duty.
But you get the point. I used the Freedom of Information Act to get LiteFat's (he is kind of chunkified) military personnel file and I investigated 8 major claims in his book and debunked all 8 through research. The full review is available for download at http://www.scribd.com/doc/125783578/The-Case-Against-Litefootv2-1
Boyd currently alleges that he is receiving disability for his non-existent service in Vietnam. He's a disgrace.
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