Who’s this Bill Leroy guy?

Who's this Bill Leroy guy?

Wanted: Technical Advisor Extraordinaire!
This is the true story of how I found my AMAZING, FABULOUS and EVER GREAT Technical Advisor:  The Great and Powerful Bill Leroy. When I first started writing the True Heroes military romance series, I wanted to make sure I got things right.  My heroes were PJs – the Air Force elite special forces. Pararescuemen.

So, I started online, finding every home page from every pararescue unit I could.  I emailed each one, asking if there was someone that would be willing to be my technical advisor for these books.  I promised that I wouldn’t pester them much, just wanted to make sure my facts were straight and that I had the right flavor, so to speak.

Crickets.

No one even emailed me back to say no.

So I went to work, reading everything I could find.  Books, websites, you name it.  

Enter Cowboy Bill

I’d just finished True Valor, the first book in the True Heroes series.  I’d just started True Courage – book two.

Living in the high mountains of Colorado, in a town of 800 people, I sometimes went to the local coffee place to write.  There I sat on this cool Autumn day when the door opened and in walked a handsome fellow wearing an Air Force flight jacket.  He sat at the table next to me and sipped his coffee.  I struck up a conversation.

“So, Air Force?”

“Yes,” he said.  He was really very friendly.  “Retired pilot.

“Really,” I said, trying not to over-react.  “What did you fly?”

“Helicopters.”

Now I fought the urge to get up and Snoopy dance. 

He continued,  “I flew Search and Rescue.”https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/HH60_Pave_Hawk_-_American_Air_Day_Duxford_(7125012961).jpg

SCORE!!!

I gushed about what I was writing and he verified that he had, indeed, flown the PJs.  Turns out he lived two doors down from me in the condos I lived in at the time. 

We became fast friends.  And, over coffee, we spent hours crashing a helicopter for the True Courage book. 

Thanks, Bill. 

Oh, and he agreed to write the intro to the Meet the 506th page.  Go check it out.  You’ll see why I love Bill Leroy!