An Honor Delayed

The story begins in May 2008 where our hero, Jonathan Dobeck, now 89 years old lies dying in Walter Reed Hospital. At the same time his wife and children are at the White House where the President is about to award Jon the Medal of Honor. The story then travels back in time to 1941 when Jon and his future wife, Lauren meet. He is at MIT studying complex puzzles and deciphering codes. His brilliance does not go unnoticed by the Signal Security Agency, a forerunner of the CIA, and he is recruited by it to help in the code-breaking activities against our enemies during the war. During his tenure at Arlington Hall, he becomes involved with a beautiful co-worker. After a short while, it became apparent to Jon that this woman and some others at the facility might be traitors. He makes his superiors aware of the situation and they ask him to continue the affair to find out if she is disloyal. He continues the affair. Because of his love for his fiancée Lauren, he is racked with guilt. His work uncovers espionage. Having proven to his superiors at Arlington that he is indispensable, they recommend him to become the assistant to General Archer, who is one of the great fictional war-time heroes in this story. Jon enters the war with the rank of full Captain. After D-Day, Jon accompanies Archer along with a detachment of US soldiers to meet the fictional General Dichter for a key strategy meeting outside of Bastogne, Belgium. Just as the meeting was to take place, the Germans attacked with full fury, killing about twenty US soldiers. Archer, Dichter and five other survivors were all gravely wounded. Jon, severely wounded himself manages to save the survivors while single-handedly killing at least ten of the enemy soldiers, some in hand-to-hand combat. Jon is recommended for the Medal of Honor. The succeeding chapters of the book concern Jon's tenure at the CIA and various exploits he had there during his career.