B Duane Whitlow

Target B Duane Whitlow

"Target: Villa!" Throughout history, the lives of ordinary men and women as well as the lives of those in power have been dramatically changed for good or bad, broken or even destroyed, by the individual ambitions and actions of just one person living among them. It was no different in New Mexico and Chihuahua, Mexico, from 1916 through 1923. Pancho Villa made sure of that. On March 10, 1916, at 0400 hours, tiny Columbus, New Mexico, was brutally attacked by 300 Villistas. Reactions were swift, thanks in part to the latest modern communication device - the telephone. General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing at Fort Bliss in El Paso and President Woodrow Wilson in Washington were notified of the raid almost immediately. Within 36 hours, Wilson ordered Pershing to form the Punitive Expedition and enter Mexico. From across the country, 6,000 troops and recruits were hastily mobilized. On March 15, 1916, the first wave of 3,000 American soldiers entered Mexico uninvited in pursuit of Villa. Eleven months later, General Pershing's battle-hardened troops limped back across the border without as much as a fleeting glimpse of the Generalissimo. On July 19, 1923, Pancho Villa was assassinated in his motorcar by unknown gunmen lying in ambush under a bridge near Parral, Chihuahua. Using fictional and non-fictional characters, Target: Villa! brings to vivid life the daring raid on Columbus, New Mexico, the ill-fated Punitive Expedition and the mysterious death of the Generalissimo through the eyes of ordinary men and women. It is primarily the story of a nineteen-year-old Texan, Johnnie Mac James, who had joined Villa's army to avoid capture on a murder warrant in El Paso. James' experiences, the places he goes and his plight, as well as that of his comrades along the way, make the actual historical events unfolding around them explode. It is a book about love and war, greed, deception, and double-cross, all played out behind one man's lust for power. Target: Villa! tells the story of America's first terrorist in a way we can all understand. Especially for those of us who were alive on September 11, 2001. B. Duane Whitlow