Jacob's Travels
Col. Jules M. Seletz, MD

THE BOOK

Jacob's Travels, Book Three in the Quartet, Pass In Review, begins with Major Jacob M. Stein's return from Vietnam. In Book One, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we read about Jake's heritage, his coming of age and his failure in college. Book Two, Jacob's Ladder, describes his years at VMI, his deployment to Korea as a second lieutenant and finally, his successfully obtaining a medical degree, acquiring surgical training and entering into marriage.

Now it is time to accompany Jake as he travels in and out of marriage, returns to the army and during three years in West Germany visits the European capital cities, Eastern Block nations, Russia, Israel, Morocco and Botswana in sub-equatorial Africa.

At the end of his three-year tour of duty, Jake plans to return to the United States on the QE2 ocean liner to complete his military career at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He completes the circle from second lieutenant after VMI to colonel at West Point, only to come down on orders for the Gulf War—Desert Storm—in Southwest Asia during Book Four, Jacob's Novels.

FOREWORD

When planning to write such a novel as Pass in Review, I knew that on December 31, 1999, the world would witness the end of a year, a decade, a century and a millennium. It seemed appropriate to write historical fiction that spanned the twentieth century; one that traced the progress and evolution of technology; from the telegraph to cyberspace, from the horse and buggy to outer space.

A novel of that length would not be acceptable to modern publishing standards, so it seemed fitting for it to become a quartet of four books, each to be published sequentially around the end of the century. The title of the Quartet, Pass in Review, reflects the command issued at military ceremonies, a command repeated frequently throughout all four books, for troops to march past a reviewing officer. It is also meant to indicate a review of the lives of five generations of a semi-fictional family experiencing monumental changes throughout the century. Finally, it pertains to a historical review—social, scientific, technological and geopolitical of the entire 20th century.

Book One, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, covers a period from the end of the nineteenth century until the late Forties. Book Two, Jacob's Ladder, begins where Book One finishes and continues into the Sixties. Jacob's Travels, Book Three, transports the reader into the Nineties and Book Four, Jacob's Novels ends at the beginning of a new millennium—Y2K.

As a surgeon and military officer for 45 years and the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant of the late 19th century, a parallel of my own life became the basis for the semi-fictional family. The books include a Jewish ethnic background; a strong military presence; medical training, including evolution of modern medical technology; Prohibition and the Great Depression; the cultural changes and technological progress that took place throughout each of the ten decades and participation in the wars and military conflicts of the era. These included the Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, the cold war in Europe and finally, the Persian Gulf War—Desert Storm.

I am delighted you have chosen to read all four books of Pass in Review. I know you will enjoy traveling through time, from a tiny shetel in nineteenth-century Russia, to the capital cities of Europe, sub-equatorial Africa, parts of the United States, the Middle East, Southwest Asia and finally ?to an idyllic setting in the heart of the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

It is my realistic belief that some future author will use Pass in Review as a basis for writing, at the end of the twenty-first century, its sequel, Pass in Review Again.

DEDICATION

For all the people responsible for my most rewarding life:
To name only a few;
My parents, Abraham and Anne Seletz,
without whom I would never have made it.
My beloved, totally supporting wife,
Rilda Marie Daigle Parker Seletz.
My mentor in civilian surgical practice,
Stewart Armstrong, MD,
Professor of Clinical Surgery,
Boston University School of Medicine.
My military mentor during the early years,
Lieutenant Colonel David Williams,
U.S. Army, Medical Service Corps.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

As Jacob's Travels, Book Three of the Quartet, Pass In Review, goes to press, I must acknowledge the numerous members of my family for their years of patiently watching me at the word processor, proofreading manuscripts, offering constructive criticism and listening calmly to my explanations and ideas.

I must also mention those at Denlinger's Publisher's for their patience and understanding as well as their assistance in preparation of manuscripts to become available first in electronic form and then as a printed and bound book.

Most of all, I owe a monstrous debt of gratitude to Marcia Buckingham, Acquisitions Editor at Denlinger's, for her enthusiastic encouragement and for my opportunity to break into print when no other publisher or literary editor I had contacted over a five-year period of time demonstrated any confidence or faith in my novels.

The author offers his extreme gratitude to Trudy Stockton,
Library Aide at the Lincoln Public Library
in Lincoln, New Hampshire,
for her most generous contribution--voluminous hours
of meticulously proofreading the entire manuscript,
line by line and word by word

THE AUTHOR

Jules M. Seletz graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1953 as a second lieutenant and the Chicago Medical School in 1958 with an MD. Following five years of postgraduate training at the Boston City Hospital, he practiced as a General and Peripheral Vascular Surgeon for 35 years.

He enjoyed a 41-year military career in the United States Army that included a 19-year break in service to practice surgery in the civilian sector, rising to the rank of full colonel. He served as a second lieutenant in the field artillery in 1953 during the Korean conflict and later in his military career, Colonel Seletz deployed as a military surgeon to Morocco in North Africa in 1985, West Germany in 1987, Botswana in sub-equatorial Africa in 1989 and finally to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in Southwest Asia during Desert Storm in 1991. He was retired from the army in 1994 while stationed at West Point.

As the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant, Dr. Seletz used his own life, during which he spent 45 years as a surgeon and military officer, as the basis for the semi-fictional family found in the Quartet, Pass In Review.

He feels this work should appeal to a wide and diverse readership with its Jewish ethnic background; a strong military influence; medical training, including evolution of modern medical technology; Prohibition and the Great Depression; the United States participation in the "Wars" and the cultural changes and technological progress down through the decades. The historical content should be of interest to our student population.

Dr. Seletz is a part-time resident of Marblehead, Massachusetts, but lives and writes in Lincoln, New Hampshire, in the heart of the White Mountains where he enjoys skiing and mountain hiking with his wife of Acadian heritage. Together, they have seven children and twelve grandchildren.

In addition to the Quartet, Pass In Review, with its four books, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jacob's Ladder, Jacob's Travels and Jacob's Novels, Dr. Seletz has also written two other historical fiction novels; Pulp, Potatoes, and Ployes, an Acadian Odyssey and Lincoln Logs, the establishment of the Town of Lincoln, New Hampshire.

Dr. Seletz spent seven years as a physician surveyor for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations—JCAHO—the nationally and internationally accepted accrediting body for the Healthcare Industry. He had several occasions to survey hospitals that have experienced untoward incidents, mishaps and catastrophic outcomes known as sentinel events.

From this experience he has also written five mystery/medical thriller novels about fictitious events: Sentinel Event; Not Another Sentinel Event; Code Pink, A Sentinel Event; West Point's Sentinel Event and Sentinel Event on the High Seas.

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