FINAL FLIGHT

Stephen Coonts' first novel, Flight of the Intruder, told the story of Jake "Cool Hand" Grafton and his fellow A-6 Intruder pilots flying bombing missions over Vietnam from the deck of the carrier USS Shiloh. Now, in FINAL FLIGHT, Jake Grafton returns, this time as commander of an air wing on the super carrier USS United States, on patrol in the tension-ridden present-day Mediterranean.

After a particularly long cruise, the USS United States is in port in Naples and her crew is enjoying its first liberty in months. But something's not right. Several crew members have not reported back from their leave and a beautiful American reporter who boarded the United States in Tangiers may not be a reporter, or even an American. When one of Jake's men, in a hotel in Naples, witnesses an assassination attempt led by this woman, Grafton realizes the situation is much more serious than he suspected. What he doesn't know is that Colonel Qazi, an international terrorist, plans to board the United States and steal six nuclear weapons from her heavily guarded arsenal. Nor does he know that the plot is being financed by El Hakim, the power-hungry leader of an oil-rich Arab state. And most important, he doesn't know he, Jake, past forty and recently grounded by night blindness, is the only one who can stop Qazi, in one man-to-man aerial dogfight, one "final flight."

Fast-paced, action-packed, and filled with authentic technical details of modern aerial and nautical warfare, FINAL FLIGHT is at once a gripping, all too plausible thriller and a powerful, moving portrait of life on a super carrier in our ostensibly peacetime Navy.

The idea that grew into FINAL FLIGHT--terrorists stealing nuclear weapons from a U.S. Navy ship--occurred to me in 1976 while I was serving aboard USS Nimitz in the Mediterranean as an assistant catapult officer. I wanted to set the tale in the Med, so the terrorists probably should be Arabs. The logical place for terrorists to look for the weapons, a U.S. Navy ammo ship, would be a poor choice dramatically, so I opted for an aircraft carrier, the type of ship that I knew all too well. After the publication of Flight of the Intruder and its stunning success, I was laid off by my employer, an oil and gas company which had fallen on hard times. The company was in the process of selling its assets, firing all of its employees, and going out of business. I tried to get the Naval Institute Press, publisher of my first novel, interested in this tale of terrorist pirates in the Med, but they were not enthusiastic. I began writing anyway, and finally sent them 159 pages of manuscript. They didn't like it. The director of the press, we will call him Tom, flew to Denver and took me to lunch, where he broke the news.

"You can't write Arabs or women," Tom said. "All you can do is guys in cockpits or on steel ships. You can't do this book."

That bummed me out. I didn't write a word for three months. Was I a one-book author? Flight of the Intruder was doing well in the bookstores, but I wasn't going to be able to retire on the proceeds. I had to write another book or find another job.

After three months of moping, I got angry. I asked myself, "What the hell does Tom know? I wrote one good book, and I can write a second one." I sent my 159 pages to three New York publishers who had expressed an interest, and to my surprise, got three offers. I selected Doubleday, signed a contract guaranteeing me one million dollars for the book, then went to Annapolis and took Tom out for a beer. With a brew in hand, I dropped the bomb about the book he said I couldn't write. One million smackeroos. He almost turned blue. Now that was a moment!

Then I went home to write it. Doubleday wanted a Jake Grafton tale, so he had to be the hero. I knew the climax I wanted because I had seen a quote from a book called "Nine Lives," by Alan C. Deere, which I later learned had never been published in America. This quote made my juices flow. Here it is:

"About 3,000 yards directly ahead of me, and at the same level, an Me-109 was just completing a turn preparatory to reentering the fray. He saw me almost immediately and rolled out of his turn towards me so that a head-on attack became inevitable. Using both hands on the control column to steady the aircraft and thus keep my aim steady, I peered through the reflector sight at the rapidly closing enemy aircraft. We opened fire together, and immediately a hail of lead thudded into my Spitfire. One moment the Messerschmitt was a clearly defined shape, its wingspan nicely enclosed within the circle of my reflector sight, and the next it was on top of me, a terrifying blur which blotted out the sky ahead. Then we hit."

"Then we hit." Yeah, baby. That would be the moment, with the terrorists escaping in a transport with their bombs as Jake Grafton chases them in an F-14 Tomcat. Out of missiles and ammo for his gun, Jake has just one option--to ram. Head on, the two planes rush towards each other, filling the windscreens, and then they hit.

To get me to that moment I needed a good terrorist, so I created Colonel Qazi, my first attempt at a dramatic villain. I found I liked him. It must be something within my twisted psyche, but over the years my villains are the characters I like the most.

And Jake had to die. By the time I got most of the book written and was approaching the climax, the Naval Institute was in a legal hassle with Tom Clancy and me about the rights to our main characters, Clancy's Jack Ryan and my Jake Grafton. I decided to drive a stake through Jake's heart, kill him dead, so if the Naval Institute won the arbitration hearing, they would walk away with a corpse.

Artistically this choice made sense, or so it seemed to me at the moment. FINAL FLIGHT was about the lifers, the officers, sailors and Marines who made the service their life's work. Jake had to be as willing to make the final sacrifice as the minor characters in the book were or the tale wouldn't work.

Fortunately my good friend, Dale Mayer, with whom I shared an office in Denver, talked me out of killing Grafton. I made the ending ambiguous: Grafton was left falling toward the sea after the mid-air collision. In the final chapter, Toad Tarkington, Jake's back-seater, was told that Grafton is dead.

Even watered down, that ending was a big mistake! I really heard it from the fans, who like happy endings. The good news was that even as the fans were reading about Jake falling toward the deep blue sea, I had already opened his parachute for The Minotaur. Jake was alive and well, living in Washington, and up to his eyes in spies and killers.

FINAL FLIGHT did very well in bookstores around the world. As near as I can determine, this book has sold the best of any I have written to date. Whenever I get discouraged about writing or selling books, I remember Tom's face when I laid the good news on him.

Although the movie studios didn't pay for the film rights, the plot of terrorists stealing nuclear weapons from a Navy ship would surface a few years later in a feature film, curiously enough bearing the name of another of my tales, Under Siege. True, the movie differed in many ways from FINAL FLIGHT; still, the basic framework was strikingly similar. The aircraft carrier had become a battleship, the ocean was the Pacific, and the bad guys weren't Arabs, but the terrorists gained entry surreptitiously and the hero telephoned the admiral ashore, then refused to obey orders, just as he did in FINAL FLIGHT. Perhaps Art Buchwald was right when he said, "The only 'ism' that Hollywood understands is plagiarism."

A struggling screenwriter, Erik Venema, asked for permission to write a screenplay based on FINAL FLIGHT, and did so. Mr. Venema has his screenplay on the World Wide Web.

Hi Steve,
I just read Final Flight and have truly felt as though I am in mourning. The way you took moments to propel the story forward yet also gave us greater insight into the man Jack Grafton is/was made me feel his loss with surprising intensity. Your writing had such an affect on me that I sought out other books by you, and I can’t tell you my elation at discovering there are more Jake Grafton books. I have really enjoyed the commentary you have provided on your website. You truly have a new fan in me and I’m going out to get the next Jake Grafton novel today!
Thea Siewert October 2, 2008

Wow!! Final Flight is one of the most amazing books I have ever read. It is intense to the very end! Every twist and turn had me spellbound!
Ian D'Costa February 2, 2008

I just finished "Final Flight".
Awesome...
Glen Struble October 3, 2007

Mr Coonts
I'm a soldier that is deployed to OEF 7 plus extention. About 10 years back I picked up your book FLIGHT of the INTRUDERS and I couldn't put it down. When I
first got overseas last year I ran across your book FINAL FLIGHT, after reading it I went to the MWR on my FOB and picked up all of your book there. I'm missing a few of your new books but i just wanted to tell you that your a great author and I love reading your books. THANKS
SPC Steve SCHROEDER March 9, 2007

I do not have much time in my life to devote to reading - I am far too busy. I have just read my first of your books, 'Final Flight'. I will now take some time out of my life to read the others because I could not put this book down. My thanks for a good book ... and congratulations - it is not easy to capture my undivided  attention.
 Bish Ashleigh  February 19, 2007 

I'm sorry for being so "behind the times" - I have just finished reading your book, Final Flight and loved it. Having spent 4 years in the Navy in the early 70's, though, I do have one comment. It was a bit of a stretch to believe that
the sailors on board the USS United States would actually put the lives of their captain and the Admiral above keeping the nukes out of the hands of the bad guys. We were trained right from the beginning that we were all expendable and that applied to our officers as well as to the lowest rated man on the ship (USS Charles F. Adams DDG-2). But as my wife said, it's just a book. ;-) Thank you
for some fine entertainment."
Jim Bosworth July 7, 2006
 

"I just finished rereading "Final Flight". I like the second reading because I see things I failed to see during the first. There are several philosophical gems that must have taken some time to create and put in dialogue so subtly... I've started the second reading of "Under Siege." And I'm running into more gems. Excellent work!" -- Bill Champion August 25, 2005

"...I am a junior political science major at the University of California, Irvine....After graduation, I want to compete for a position as a naval aviator. I am writing you because I have read both of your books, Flight of the Intruder and Final Flight....Your works have been quite an inspiration for pilots, flight officers, military aviation enthusiasts....I would like to thank you for the hours of enjoyment I received from reading you books." --Andrew Valero

"This is the first time I have ever written to the author of a book I have read. But after reading Final Flight, I took it upon myself to let you know that your books are and were very much enjoyed....You made me feel as if I were right there in the cockpit aboard ship and on liberty....The people in your books seem like they are right there with you....Semper Fi Mr. Coonts. You keep writing and I'll keep reading. --Reid Potter

"I have just finished reading Final Flight. I found it to be a terrific adventure story. However, I must say that I am feeling a kind of hollowness in the fictitious death of Jake Grafton. I am sure you had your reasons to end this story in that way and I would be curious as to what those reasons are. This country needs its heroes and I guess I prefer them to be alive....I'm going to get another one of your books as soon as I can." --Bill Giersberg (Jake Grafton Lives!!)

"After reading FINAL FLIGHT, I got hooked on your Jake Grafton books and actively sought them out and read them. Much to the detriment of my sleep account. But thank you anyway. Eventually I found out about your web site. I read your article about becoming a writer. Although I have no plans to become a writer (especially after reading the article), it has enhanced my appreciation of the skill and craft of good writing. Consequently I enjoy reading more than I did before. Thank you for such a nice gift, which will stay with me for the rest of my life." --Dave Tamayo May 8, 1999