It's four in the morning in San Diego. Three black cars quietly pull into an empty Piggly Wiggly supermarket parking lot. Through the windshields you can see the flickering red glow of communications scanners. Doors open, trunks pop up, and the occupants quickly put on body armor and black raid jackets that say, "U. S. Marshal."  They grab weapons and door rams and gather around a briefing officer. She tells them exactly what they need to know to drive two blocks west, storm a house, and hopefully capture a top-fifteen wanted-list fugitive without incident. She wastes no words. The entire briefing lasts four minutes. A United States Marshal Service Fugitive Investigative Strike Team -- FIST Team -- is ready to roll.

Flying east, in hostile Laotian skies, a U. S. Air Force F-4 Phantom pilot knows an enemy fighter is locked on to him and only seconds away from firing its missiles. It crosses his mind that he might be about ready to buy the farm. But off in the distance, over all the radio chatter, a radar officer crisply says, "Steve, they're two miles north of you!" Captain Steve Ritchie immediately turns north, gets his own lock-on, shoots down two MIG-21s, and becomes the last fighter ACE of the Vietnam conflict.