745
A Memoir of World War II

by Carl F. Heintze

In the Dictionary of Military Occupations
the code number is 745.
It stands for rifleman, basic.
His job is to close with the enemy, to kill capture
or wound him and to take his ground.

In 1944 as World War II came to its final stages the desperate need of the Allies and the Axis was for manpower. Casualties were heavy in the last months of the war on both sides. Both  sought any one they could find capable of fighting.

Carl Heintze suddenly found himself  reclassified from limited service (as a “tailor”) to general service, (as a rifleman, basic). He was given the briefest training and sent to Europe as an infantry replacement: a body to fill a gap in ranks left by death or wounds.

This memoir is the story of how he succeeded in fulfilling that challenge, of how he made it through seven and a half months of combat, of how he shared in victory, of the men with whom he fought and what happened to them, told as he remembered it eight years later. It is a story rife with pain and endurance, the lot of the infantryman, a 745.

Selected Poems
1940—1990

by Carl F. Heintze

These poems were gathered from more than one hundred others I have saved over the years and those which I wished people to read. I stopped writing poetry in my fifties (with an occasional lapse) and these verses span approximately the time from when I entered college until I became a grandfather. I am proud of one or two, but less enthused by others.

I never thought of myself as a poet—indeed, I am not sure what a poet is—but if it means wringing from personal experience some words that seem to belong together, then I think these pages fulfill that definition.

Many poems are concerned with war and death. I would like to think they also reflect a time when war and death or the cold war and death were important themes in history. They certainly reflect how I felt about both at the time.

I do not know why I stopped writing poetry, but clearly it was in part because I no longer needed it as a means of expression. Nevertheless, I think it worth saving these poems, if only because they are a record of the past. —CFH

Going Home

by Carl F. Heintze

Going Home is the story of a Japanese-American who was born on Kauai and returns to the island to attend his mother’s funeral.

Wilson Tanaka is engaged in developing a non-invasive heart device (that has not been working properly) and is also is in the process of being divorced by his wife of ten years, a Silicon Valley corporate executive.

On Kauai Wilson meets an Irish-American pediatrician. He later runs into her at the mainland hospital, where his device is being tested. Difficulties with the device persist. Just as it is about to be tested again Wilson is called back to Kauai, because of his father’s illness, leaving his pediatrician friend to stand by her patient alone. Read how Wilson resolves this impasse and reaches a decision about how his life will evolve.

The author has been an annual commuter to Kauai, Hawaii, since 1975 and the island remains one of his favorite places. Going Home is the result of one of those visits. On his way back to the mainland Carl sat next to a Japanese-American who had just attended his mother’s funeral. The result: first a prize winning short story and then this novel.

Two
on
Two

Two Novellas

by Carl F. Heintze

Two stories about couples who struggle to find their way to
love and fulfillment.

In the first, Sunset, a pair of aging San Francisco lawyers, one divorced, the other widowed find their friendship turned to love as they were engaged in a case involving a Texas oil company named Sunset, owned and operated by a single  family.

The second novella, Uncertain, details what happens during the Vietnam War when a woman hospital chaplain in Monterey meets a general who has been relieved of his command in World War II because he would not order further attempts at advance in the battle for the Huertgen Forest. The chaplain is opposed to war, the general is uncertain where he stands, still striving to repair his damaged reputation, only to find the chaplain is  uncertain about her future  as well.

Read a sample from Two on Two

326 pages • 5" x 8"
ISBN: 978-1-61170-070-1

Published by: Robertson Publishing

Crush
&
Heat

Two Stories of the Napa Valey

by Carl F. Heintze

The Napa and other valleys north of San Francisco Bay are the settings for these two novellas.

In Crush Charles Henry, a San Jose newspaper reporter, is enlisted by Gina Cefalu, a wealthy Napa Valley widow and former high school classmate, to try and find her missing son who has mysteriously vanished from his home and his marriage without leaving a message.

Henry agrees, but only after Gina has awakened the feeble flame of their former romance. Henry’s search proceeds through the Napa Valley and beyond with visits to the missing man’s brother, estranged from his mother, the brother’s wife, with hints from Esperanza, a woman who works at he Home Vineyard, the winery Gina has inherited from her husband. Along the way are surprises and twists and turns before the end of the search.

Heat is about another valley and another time long ago. A boy, Charles, perhaps Charles Henry, is working picking windfall peaches for his Uncle Will. The ranch lies at the edge of wild lands on which deer and even mountain lions range. A fire threatens the ranch and its crop, requiring of Charles and Uncle Will swift and difficult actions.

Read a sample from Crush & Heat

212 pages • 5" x 8"
ISBN: 978-1-935125-86-0

Published by: Robertson Publishing

181 pages • 5" x 8"
ISBN: 978-1-935125-03-7

Published by: Robertson Publishing