CORPS JUSTICE

       Corps Justice is an official title for a group of security specialists.
       Technically for legal purposes they are employees of Stokes Security International (SSI) and their normal activity is the standard but still exciting and dangerous work you might imagine. If one needed a lab or factory made more secure they might call SSI. If a traveling executive was heading to a potentially troublesome area, an SSI bodyguard team might be procured. Should a small army be needed for protection, the detachment from SSI might not be huge but each member was worth a dozen troops. One more important job SSI did was provide intelligence on anything and everything when normal channels were closed, insufficient, or just too dicey to use.
       SSI was founded a few years before 9/11 by Calvin Stokes sr., a career Marine Corps officer who upon retirement had used his contacts and the growing need for a private military. Stokes' company was successful from the first day and just grew bigger and better and more in demand over the next few years. It was the senior Cal Stokes who initiated the Corps Justice "contingent" inside SSI for the special missions that it was sometimes called on to perform or which just seemed something that needed doing.
       The tenets of the Corps Justice were simple to state but full of meaning:
1. Protect and defend the Constitution.
2. Protect the weak and punish the wicked.
3. When laws hinder the first two tasks, let a moral compass guide to the completion of the job.
       Stokes and his wife died in the 9/11 attacks. His son, Cal Stokes jr. joined the Marine Corps as a tribute to his parents and to help get justice for all those killed. He might have gone the officer route like his father but chose instead to enlist and serve his country as a just another grunt, a title he was more than a little proud to be called.
       Though the junior Stokes must have known he would some day become part of SSI, he was not finished with his duty to his country when on leave tragedy struck him, told in the first recorded adventure. He and his fiancée, Jessica, were the targets of a stupid gang initiation. Several young but dangerous punks attacked them planning to use their deaths to become 'made men'. Jessica would die from her wounds and Cal Stokes almost as well but not before he killed four of the attackers and injured a fifth. The injuries that Stokes suffered and his determination for justice against the gang leader brought an end to his military career. Waiting to help, though, were his soon-to-be family at SSI.
       
       SSI had not floundered after the death of its creator but had actually thrived and grown even more in the capable hands of the young Stokes' older cousin, Travis Haden, a former SEAL and now CEO of SSI. When the heir to SSI needed help mending and then getting back on his feet and starting a new life, Haden and his team were there and in the years and adventures that followed, SSI and Stokes made a very good combination.

       I had a lot of fun with the Corps Justice series and since it is still ongoing, I hope that enjoyment continues for some time.
       The folks at SSI are perhaps a tad too perfect but that is part of the fun. Yes, they do get their behinds kicked once in a while but it is never really that bad a whuppin' and they always give better than they get. Not realistic, truthfully, but a lot of fun nevertheless and since I read for enjoyment, well, there you are!
       The first couple of books had me wondering, as much as I liked them, whether they 'qualified' for a site devoted to 'spies' but in the course of the saga the main character, Cal Stokes, created the Jefferson Group at the behest of the President and began handling secret assignments for the Chief Executive. Tada! It definitely now fit.
       This series is meant for people who want fast action, wild conspiracies, and dynamite excitement. And those readers get what they came for and then some. They do not get long-winded descriptions or overdrawn contemplation. They get bad guys causing trouble and Stokes and company showing them error of their ways. I like it!