THE DUTY CREW by Peter Glassman

THE DUTY CREW chronicles December 25, 1972 as the last Christmas of the Vietnam War at Queens Naval Hospital, Long Island. The North Vietnam president’s goal is to accelerate establishing peace talks by bringing violence to all military hospitals in the United States. Ho Chi Minh has an agenda of terrorism and murder for the Duty Crew at Queens Naval Hospital to incite U.S. public reactions against the war, while President Nixon wants to end the war by political arbitration. Three women become aware of the internal and external assault on Queens Naval Hospital. Movie Star Iona Dell spends Christmas in Hanoi as her fans promote an activist presence at the U.S. hospitals. She realizes too late that Hanoi has American sympathizers directing terrorism outside and within their walls. Newswoman Thule Thornbush wants only anti-War slanting of the adverse events on this Christmas Day in the hope she will obtain a position on the staff of the New York Times. LT Minerva Zettler as the Duty Crew Nurse-of-the-Day is the only person identifying the deaths as murders and raises the issue of intrigue inside the hospital. Her fiancé, LT Paul Norman as Junior Medical Officer-of-the-Day realizes almost too late that Zettler’s life is in danger by the murderer inhalation therapy technician. It takes the small Navy and Marine Security Duty Crew and mobilization of the Hospital’s Vietnam returnee patients to stem Ho Chi Minh’s plans for death and destruction on American soil. The events on this Christmas Day forever alter the lives of the three women.