Holding her own : a novel

WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Erin P. Carpenter (Creator)
Institution
Western Carolina University (WCU )
Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
Advisor
Pamela Duncan

Abstract: This creative thesis comprises the first three chapters of Holding Her Own, a novel whichexplores the career of a young warrant officer who trains on the AH-64 Apache helicopter twoyears after the United States Army lifts the ban on women in combat aviation. Seventeen-yearoldJean Pennegarde leaves her hometown in the foothills of the Rocky mountains after the towngossip spots her outside Planned Parenthood where she is trying to obtain contraception for heryounger sister, Rena. Saving her sister’s reputation is the first in a series of heroic acts that donot earn Jean the inner satisfaction she craves, and even as she proves herself competent amongan elite group of pilots, she finds that the better she gets at war, the further she drifts from peace.When Tripp Trombetta gets her pregnant on the flight out of Somalia, she faces a personal crisisthat rivals any humanitarian disaster she has yet to encounter--caring for her infant daughter.With her estranged sister refusing to disappear into her past, a man she considers a sperm donordemanding to marry her, and an insatiable baby screaming at her all through the night, Jean isgoing to have to find that which is harder than strength--forgiveness. She will either learn to livewith her mistakes and embrace her limitations or she will destroy the life and love she hascreated.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 2014
Keywords
Apache, aviation, combat, military, PTSD, women
Subjects
Women helicopter pilots -- Fiction
United States -- Armed Forces -- Women -- Fiction
Pregnancy, Unwanted -- Fiction

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