Jack Estes

A Soldier's Son Jack Estes

A Soldier's Son deals with the impact of war on a veteran and his family. In 1968, Mike Kelly's chopper is shot down at night, over the jungles of Vietnam. The enemy is near. The crew is dead. Most of Mike's team is dead and Mike makes a life altering decision, to leave a wounded marine behind.



Now, it's 2004 and Mike is a successful journalist and author, living in a big house on the lake, with his family. But he is still haunted by memories of Vietnam and it is getting worse as the war in Iraq is raging. His wife, Claire, is threatening to leave him, unless he takes medication and gets help with his post traumatic stress disorder. His daughter Madie is in college. She feels her father ignores her, and is only concerned with her brother Mick and craves her father's love. Mick is a high school baseball player. Mike loves his son dearly but their relationship is changing. Mick is tired of his dad being so controlling. He keeps pushing his son to work harder so he can play baseball in college. He makes him get up before dawn to hit baseballs and work out . "You want to be all-state, don't you?" Mike asks. Days before Mick graduates, he and his best friend Griff join the marines and life at home diseintegrates. Claire is furious and blames Mike. Mike is having daily flashbacks of his war, and develops an uncontrollable fear for Mick's safety. When Mick and Griff are sent to Iraq Mike mentally unravels. Soon, he travels to Iraq as an embedded reporter, in a desperate attempt to save his son.