Better Than a Rabbit s Foot

by S.S. Hampton Sr.

Mainstream Military Fiction

Tags: Iraq War, romance, sex, lucky charm, rabbit’s foot, leg garter, yellow ribbon

Sergeant Jerry Stanton is a young soldier serving in the War in Iraq. He is a gunner on a gun truck nicknamed “Lucky Bear,” one of those tireless workhorses that escort supply convoys from camps in Kuwait to destinations scattered throughout the war-torn country. In the early morning hours before a scheduled mission, a dust storm howls across his camp and threatens to bring convoy operations to a halt. Worse, the camp receives word that a gunner from his company was killed by an IED while on a convoy mission in Iraq. Unlike most soldiers, Jerry doesn’t carry a lucky charm, but upon receiving news of the death of the gunner, he begins to mull over the merit of a good luck charm—only, what would work for him? Perhaps mail call will provide the answer.

18 pages, ebook

First published July 31, 2012

About the author

Stan Hampton, Sr. is a full-blood Choctaw of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a divorced grandfather to 13 wonderful grandchildren, and a published photographer and photojournalist. He retired on 1 July 2013 from the Nevada Army National Guard with the rank of Sergeant First Class; he previously served in the active duty Army (1974-1985), the Army Individual Ready Reserve (1985-1995) (mobilized for the Persian Gulf War), and enlisted in the Nevada Army National Guard in October 2004, after which he was mobilized for Federal active duty for almost three years. Hampton is a veteran of Operations Noble Eagle (2004-2006) and Iraqi Freedom (2006-2007) with deployment to northern Kuwait and several convoy security missions into Iraq.

He has had two solo photographic exhibitions and curated a third. His writings have appeared as stand-alone stories and in anthologies from Dark Opus Press, Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy, Melange Books, Musa Publishing, MuseItUp Publishing, Ravenous Romance, and as stand-alone stories in Horror Bound Magazine, The Harrow, and River Walk Journal, among others.

As of April 2014, after being in a 2-year Veterans Administration program for Homeless Veterans, Hampton is officially no longer a homeless Iraq War veteran.

Hampton graduated from the College of Southern Nevada with an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Photography – Commercial Photography Emphasis, in May 2014. He is studying for a Masters degree with a double major in Art with Sculptural Emphasis, and English with Creative Writing Emphasis, at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. A long range goal is to obtain a doctorate in archaeology—hopefully to someday work in and photograph underwater archaeology.

After 14 years of brown desert in the American Southwest and Iraq, he misses the Rocky Mountains, running rivers, yellow aspens in the fall, and the warmth of burning cedar wood in a fireplace during snowy winters.

Hampton can be found at:

Dark Opus Press
https://www.createspace.com/3685965

Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy Publishing
http://www.edgewebsite.com/books/dans...

Melange Books
http://www.melange-books.com/authors/...

MuseItUp Publishing
https://museituppublishing.com/bookst...

Ravenous Romance
http://www.ravenousromance.com/anthol...
http://www.ravenousromance.com/anthol...

Amazon.com Author Page
http://www.amazon.com/SS-Hampton-Sr/e...

Amazon.com. UK Author Page
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SS-Hampton-Sr...