The Collins Agenda

About the Book

President Ronald Reagan said it best:

Freedom is not free

Freedom must be nurtured, protected and reconfirmed many times to survive. Here in America many assume freedom and security are birthrights, something that is automatic with citizenship. In the early years with our oceans for protection, we became complacent with our false sense of security until World Wars I and II in the early-to-mid 1900s. Further, the Cold War of the 1960s awakened the nation to the reality that the enemy does not have to come to our shores to attack. Freedom and security must be earned over and over.

Now a new threat has emerged through the coalescing of numerous societies resulting from the migration of many people and cultures to our shores. Most are welcomed members of the American family, sharing a strong belief in our Constitution and the same ideals and attitudes that built our nation. However, a few come, not to join and help build America, but to destroy America. Deep-seated anger spawned by radical thinking and tainted with warped religious beliefs fills the minds of those who set out to disrupt and destroy our American democratic-republic form of government.

People of that ilk are difficult, sometimes impossible, to detect because they appear to be above suspicion and reproach. A few might make their way into political positions of power. Perhaps, such a person could even become president of the United States.

This book is a novel and is therefore only a figment of the author’s imagination. However, it could happen right here in America. This fictional offering considers the ramifications of that possibility.

About the Author

Bob J Lyles was born in a log cabin in central Mississippi in 1940 just prior to the beginning of World War II. Times were difficult in that part of the country. His family soon moved to the Gulf Coast where his father worked in the shipyards to support his family and the war effort. The author went on to earn several degrees in engineering and business before entering the rocket propulsion industry in 1966.

His assignments with his company took him to Washington D.C. in the early 1980s where he interacted with NASA, the Air Force and the Navy as well as the legislative branch of the federal government. His interface with the various government functions provided him the opportunity to gain a cursory knowledge of Washington D.C. and the government/military/space industrial complex.

The author has written a number of papers and booklets involving rocket science, marketing and management. He retired as a vice president of his company after more than thirty years in the rocket industry.