Welcome!
Welcome to the new home for Into the Wind on the world wide web. This website will be the place to go for all of the continuing stories of Joe, Rigel, and everyone else who takes flight into the wind! To navigate this page, please click on the verticle text and images above. You will always be able to link directly to the two most recent stories, as well as to the archive of all preceding stories in the Into the Wind series. As each story in the Into the Wind series builds on those that came before, we recommend first time readers start with the (numerically ordered) stories in the "Archive" section of the webpage. For more information about the various file formats you can use to explore the world of Into the Wind, please click on the buttons at the bottom of this page.
Changing Winds: 1948
The changing winds of the year 1948 blow Joe, Harvey, and Sandy in many different places, and facing many different challenges, from injured bodies, injured hearts, and injured international relations. Joe barely survives an assassination attempt, and soon Harvey suffers one of his own. As for Joe, it is a lucky break of sorts as his wife Ceile returns from Australia to be with him and they set about mending their marriage, including the step of adopting Frank Savage Jr. Then the Berlin crisis sends Joe into the air again as a pilot for the Berlin Airlift. Harvey fights a different battle: as a JAG lawyer to obtain justice for servicemen, including two African-American soldiers. Sandy, completing his undergraduate degree at USC, is swept back and forth by romantic crises and by forces he hoped to have left behind: the henge, and the henge being in unfriendly hands. The spectre of UFOs lurks; mysterious events intervene in the lives of all, and all three men have their romantic ills and successes, including Sandy who finally meets the girl of his dreams. But the year ends on a disturbing note as Joe's memory, disrupted by his near assassination, returns. And Preston begins a remarkable adventure.
Changing Winds: 1949
In the last year of a tumultuous decade, Joe, Harvey, Sandy face great challenges that since they don't break them, make them stronger, but no less mystified by a growing web of strange incidents including another case of attempted murder...against Ceile and Harvey. Joe, still flying for the Airlift, regains his memory of the murder attempt against him...but the memory just adds to unanswerable questions. Harvey's skills as a member of JAG are put to a severe test when he defends Byron Mahoney, an African American officer, against accusations of rape and attempted murder. Sandy, still reeling from events in 1948 must join a strange mission to Poland to find something that seems nearly useless but meets two strange figures. As the year the continues, Joe must deal with Pres' disappearance, which at least leads to a meeting with old friend Vorodenko, who has his own hazards to face in Moscow. Airlift finally over, the reunited Joe and Ceile make a decision to adopt...no less than Frank Savage Jr. Heading for home, they stop over in Ireland for a fascinating trip into both of their ancestries, oddly linked. Harvey and Melva's lives are disrupted by twin incidents: Harvey is "forcibly retired," and before he and a nervous Melva return to the States, lose their home to fire. Pres finally reappears but his fate is a grim one...and the year concludes with Sandy and Margaret's sudden decision to marry in January, 1950-as Sandy has been recruited to become a naval aviator.
Violent Winds: 1950
January 1950: A new decade and a new marriage and a new opportunity: Alexander Komansky, days before taking up duty in the Navy to train as an aviator, marries Margaret Whitfield, and the occasion is made more joyful when Joe and Ceile come. But the reunion is a mixed one as their marriage and the somewhat strained reunion climaxes in a strange meeting with the two men Sandy had encountered before: Villda and Dryatkin. Joe and Sandy, and their wives, must confront the fact that they are involved, without intending to, with the henges, the mysteries of which keep deepening. The year has its good points as Harvey successfully defends Byron Mahoney in his second trial for rape and intended murder; Sandy and Margaret’s marriage flourishes, even after taking on unforeseen duty of Margaret’s second cousin Gordon, a can of TNT. Joe and Ceile face separation from their son and from each other as Joe takes on duty for his old friend and nemesis Creighton. And Pres, beating the odds, has survived in Siberia but must survive a daring escape attempt. But, in July 1950, the Korean War commences, opening up three years of violence...
Crosswinds
Between 1951 and 1953, Joe and Ceile, Sandy and Margaret face into a variety of experiences that demand adjusting of sails...to get their lives, tossed about by the Korean War, and recent violent and mysterious events connected with henges, back into their control, though life continues to present challenges. For Joe, learning of Pres’ escape is then followed by months of unusual travel, meeting interesting people, and a daring escape from the USSR that demands a great deal of accounting for to the brass. Ceile’s insistence on serving as a flight nurse leads to near tragedy, but a declaration to find redemption as good wife and mother. Sandy’s duty as a helicopter pilot keeps him from combat, but his work of rescue, from the decks of an aircraft carrier is just as perilous—and surprising. By 1953, everybody is home and facing new challenges to adjust to: parenthood as children are born to the Gallaghers and to the Komanskys. Typically, their births are not typical...
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