The Monkey Drowns is the second in a series depicting the life of a military wife. The first book, The Scorpion Stings tells of a small town, nave girl who marries a career Army officer, moves twelve times in five years and then finds herself in primitive Iran of the 1960s. The Monkey Drowns carries the story further to when the family moves from Iran back to their hometown, Tucson, Arizona. The Army sends her husband to the University of Arizona for his Masters Degree in Industrial Management. After graduation her husband is sent to Korea and then back to the States for further training in order to go to Viet Nam. During these long absences, our heroine carries on the familys duties, taking care of three children, managing finances and the usual household jobs. The 60s was a time of great upheaval; chaos was everywhere with the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. Anti-war protestors were burning draft cards and shutting down universities and disrupting the Democratic convention in Chicago. It was a difficult time for wives if the man of the house was in Viet Nam. Upon the joyous return of her husband, the family again moves several times, finally ending up in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where he is a student in Command and General Staff College. Upon completion of the year-long school, the family is once again sent to Iran where her husbandis an advisor to the Shah of Iran. The year is 1970 and the change in Tehran is remarkable. The Shah has been working hard to drag the country from the seventh century into the 20th century. As he brings in more Westerners to help him, the more resistance he encounters. The Shah is convinced that Saddam Hussein is planning an attack and initiates war games in order to be ready. In the meantime, Ruhollah Khomeini has been kicked out of Iraq by Saddam Hussein for fomenting trouble and he moves to Paris where he discovers the simple tape recorder. He commences sending recordings of his speeches back to the mosques of Iran resulting in major riots. Throughout all this, our military wife continues dealing with ordinary household events as well as wild dog attacks, kamikaze drivers, and the birth of her fourth child in an Iranian hospital. President Nixon arrives for a three day visit while bombs are set off all over Tehran. When the Pentagon requests her husband to extend his tour in Iran for a third year, he declines, in favor of returning to Viet Nam. He was concerned that his children might be the victims, if the radicals decided to bomb the American School. While he is in Viet Nam his replacement in Tehran is murdered. This story is mainly about the difficulties a military wife has to overcome. To quote Major General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Jr.: Military wives, in my humble opinion, are the un-sung champions of the Department of Defense. Read this book and appreciate what military families face during foreign and domestic assignments. It is all there, in charming detail.
