Fire Mission

“Fire Mission” is a military term of support. When soldiers, under fire, call a “Fire Mission”, it is life or death. “Fire Mission” begins in 1982. Bernie Peterson is a flawed individual, a Vietnam Vet, a renaissance man. His love of women pervades almost every aspect of his life. Struggling with his own identity, flashbacks of Vietnam intrude constantly. Suffering from PTSD, guilt ridden over a divorce, struggling through graduate school, he is propelled into a teaching job at one of the most prestigious universities in America. How did it happen? Bernie's Vietnam connection with a gay soldier, sent to Vietnam by his crime boss father, to be killed. Bernie rescues the soldier. They bond. Al Morrissey Jr., instead of being killed in Vietnam, returns to his Mafioso family as a war hero. Bernie and Junior are closer than brothers. “Fire Mission” is foremost about the wonders of sex. Bernie is not some barroom hustler, looking to get laid, rather a sensitive human experiencing life. His natural iconoclastic sense of relationships are inspiring and realistic. It isn't just the encounters, it is the finesse that Bernie's exploits take. He is gentle, different, and never hurtful. His love making is a work of art. Bernie loves women, all women. His hiring on the tenure track baffles the establishment. Thrown into an environment where he has views and is courageous in voicing them, he is committed to students. He champions the idea that a prestigious educational institution can do more in seeking diversity. His championing of adjunct professors and assistants makes him an anathema to the establishment.