The Long Escape

About the Book

A ten year old and his family embark on a heroic escape from the former East Bloc Communist country of Czechoslovakia to seek a new life in the West free of oppression. Faced with unforeseen perils, heavily armored borders, three separate cultural changes, and never knowing what the next day brings, a family of four leave their entire lives behind and thrust themselves into situations with potentially devastating outcomes.

Join the Rehacek family as they struggle during a journey across multiple border crossings between Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Austria, and Germany as they seek freedom and prosperity. Just imagine yourself standing in front of an open field covered with tall barbed wire fences, machinegun operated control towers, heavily armored guards with dogs, and hidden mine fields and you must somehow cross to the other side with a wife, a ten year old, and a six year old.

Once you manage to cross from the Communist ruled Iron Curtain to the West alive and uninjured you have to live in a country that has a different culture, different customs, and everyone speaks a different language.  As you struggle along the political channels of immigration you wonder if the next day you and your family will have a bed to sleep upon and enough food to eat.

About the Author

I was born in a small town in central Czech Republic (formally known as Czechoslovakia) called Kutna Hora. When I was ten years old, my family and I emigrated to the United States in 1985 upon spending more than a year in Germany seeking political asylum with immigration.  We lived for some time in Rapid City, South Dakota, but due to the lack of available jobs for my Mom and Dad, in 1986 we moved to San Jose, California. There I attended Oak Grove high school and upon my graduation I moved to Los Angeles and attended the University of Southern California seeking a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering.

I graduated in 1996 and found a job with Rockwell International (later merged with Boeing) as a dynamics engineer working on the Space Shuttle and Russian MIR space station. After six years I transferred to Edwards Air Force Base as a subsystems engineer where I work to present day. During my seven years at Edwards AFB I had the pleasure to work on multiple state-of-the-art projects designed to protect this wonderful nation from enemies foreign or domestic.

In 1999 I married my wife Slavka, born Czech Republic, in 2003 my wife brought to the world our son Daniel Patrick, the first Rehacek born in USA, and in 2007 Daniel received his wish, a baby sister Julie Ann.

As an Aerospace engineer I have published many technical reports supporting the current project I was involved with. Several years ago my family and I had the Idea to publish The Long Escape to ensure that the public and future generations are aware of what ordinary people had to endure living behind the Iron Curtain under the Communist regime and the heroic struggles they undertook to be free from oppression and constant harassment.