Stephen Coonts

Stephen Coonts (born July 19, 1946) is an American thriller and suspense novelist.

Coonts grew up in Buckhannon, West Virginia, a small coal-mining town, and earned a B.A. degree in political science at West Virginia University in 1968. He entered the Navy the following year and flew an A-6 Intruder medium attack plane during the Vietnam War, where he served on two combat cruises aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65). He accumulated 1600 hours in the A-6 Intruder and earned a number of Navy commendations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross. (His navigator-bombardier was LTjg Stanley W. Bryant, who later became a Rear Admiral and deputy commander-in-chief of the US naval forces in Europe.)

After the war, Coonts served as a flight instructor for A-6 aircraft for two years, then did a tour as an assistant catapult and arresting gear officer aboard USS Nimitz (CVN-68). After being honorably discharged from duty as a lieutenant in 1977, Coonts pursued a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree at the University of Colorado, graduating in 1979. He then worked as a lawyer for several oil and gas companies, pursuing his writing interests in his free time.

Intruder

Intruder, usually referring to someone sneaking into someone else's territory without permission, may refer to:

Film and television

Literature

The Intruder (novel)

The Intruder is a children's novel by John Rowe Townsend, published in 1969. It was well-received, being shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and winning the Horn Book Award in 1970 and the Edgar Award in 1971. The book was adapted for television in 1971.

Plot summary

Sixteen-year-old Arnold Haithwaite is a sand pilot guiding parties of tourists over the sands at Skirlston (when the Admiral is not feeling up to it). But Arnold's quiet life is shattered when a stranger turns up claiming to be the real Arnold Haithwaite. Life at Cottontree House changes dramatically for the young lad and his father when the stranger worms his way into their lives. No one seems to have any sympathy for Arnold's predicament, except newcomers Peter and Jane, and even they are not sure he is not simply imagining the whole thing. Things come to a head when Arnold finds himself fighting the sea itself in the midst of a raging storm, with the stranger at his heels and Jane trapped by the rising tide in the ruins of an old church.

The Intruder (1999 film)

The Intruder is a 1999 Canadian-British psychological thriller directed by David Bailey. Jamie Brown adapted it from the novel of the same name by Brooke Leimas. It stars Charlotte Gainsbourg as a woman who begins to suspect that she is being stalked, possibly by her husband's first wife, who was murdered three years ago.

Plot

In a police station, a blood-splattered woman named Catherine confesses to killing her husband's first wife earlier that day. Although she produces the murder weapon, Detective Fordham does not believe her, as the crime occurred three years earlier. The rest of the film's events are told in flashback.

Catherine and Nick meet a gallery. As Catherine leaves, a mugger attacks her. Nick comes to her aid and, when he notices that she is injured, invites her to stay overnight at his apartment while she recuperates from a twisted ankle. The two quickly fall in love and get married. A widower, Nick does not like to talk his about dead wife, Stella. Curious, Catherine questions their friends: Badge, an art broker and former girlfriend of Nick who lives in the loft below them; Charlie, a mathematician and video game programmer who lives below them; and Daisy, Charlie's on-and-off girlfriend. Catherine learns that an intruder murdered Stella three years ago after an apparent struggle. Due to Stella's mental instability, she and Nick had a rocky marriage.

Flight of the Intruder

Flight of the Intruder is a 1991 film directed by John Milius, based on the novel of the same name by former Grumman A-6 Intruder pilot Stephen Coonts. The film stars Danny Glover, Willem Dafoe and Brad Johnson.

Plot

Lieutenant Jake "Cool Hand" Grafton (Brad Johnson) and his bombardier/navigator and best friend Lieutenant Morgan "Morg" McPhearson (Christopher Rich) are flying a Grumman A-6 Intruder over the Gulf of Tonkin towards North Vietnam. They hit their target, a suspected truck park which actually turns out to be trees. Morg is fatally shot in the neck by a Vietnamese peasant. Landing on the USS Independence with Morg dead, a disturbed Jake, covered in blood, walks into a debriefing with Commander Frank Camparelli (Danny Glover) and Executive Officer, Commander "Cowboy" Parker (J. Kenneth Campbell). Camparelli tells Jake to put Morgan's death behind him and to write a letter to Sharon, Morg's wife. New pilot Jack Barlow (Jared Chandler), nicknamed "Razor" because of his youthful appearance, is then introduced.

Flight of the Intruder (novel)

Flight of the Intruder is a novel written by Stephen Coonts in 1986 telling the stories of United States Navy aviators flying the A-6 Intruder – a two-man, all-weather, aircraft carrier based strike aircraft on missions during the Vietnam War. The main character is Jake "Cool Hand" Grafton, a naval aviator who appears in a series of sequels. The book, which was made into a movie of the same name and adapted into a video game, marked the beginning of Stephen Coonts' career as a best-selling novelist.

Plot summary

Flight of the Intruder begins with a night attack mission flown by Jake Grafton and his navigator Morgan “Morg” McPherson from the USN aircraft carrier, USS Shiloh, striking a target in North Vietnam. Although there are many militarily valuable targets in North Vietnam, Grafton and other aviators are instead routinely ordered to hit worthless targets—typically “suspected truck parks”. The pilots are barred from hitting the more valuable targets because of restrictive “rules of engagement” imposed on American forces. Despite the minimal damage even a successful strike will inflict on the enemy (whom the aviators refer to as “Gomers”), North Vietnamese airspace is heavily defended, making the missions extremely dangerous for the aviators. Grafton and Morg elude most of the defenses, but a stray shot fired by a lone farmer on the ground fatally wounds Morg.

Flight of the Intruder (video game)

Flight of the Intruder is a 1990 flight simulator developed by Rowan Software and published by Spectrum HoloByte for the PC DOS, Amiga and Atari ST. It was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991 with Imagineering as the developer and Mindscape as the publisher. The game was based on the novel of the same name and received as the successor of the first game of the Falcon (video game series).

Gameplay

This combat flight simlulator allows players the choice of flying either the Grumman A-6 Intruder or the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II from aircraft carriers against targets in North Vietnam. Players were challenged both by the comprehensive enemy defenses and the restrictive and complex rules of engagement of the period. Realistic features include unreliable missiles and smokey engines for the Phantom (as in real life, the trail would disappear in afterburner). At lower realism settings, F-4's has missiles and an internal cannon - in contrast to real USN whose F-4's were armed only with missiles. A wide range of mission types is available, from simple bomb runs or combat air patrols to SEAD missions requiring close cooperation between the callsigns involved. The player can plan each mission into detail. Based on a given amount of planes in his or her flight, he or she is able to choose from various armament options for each plane. A mission editor allows for changes in waypoints and also how friendly AI is supposed to behave in each phase of the mission. There is the option to use a default loadout and keep the waypoints unchanged, too.