Hank Searls

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The Penetrators by Hank Searls. The cover of the 1979 British paperback edition of his 1965 novel.

Hank Searls (born Henry Hunt Searls in 1922) is an American author and screenwriter. His novels include The Crowded Sky (1960), which was adapted as a movie with Dana Andrews) and The Penetrators (1965, writing as Anthony Gray).

Set in the corridors of power of the USAF's Strategic Air Command The Penetrators is the story of a maverick Royal Air Force exchange officer who leads a mock Avro Vulcan bomber attack on the USA. Replete with quotes from Curtis LeMay, Robert S McNamara and other key figures of the Cold War era, The Penetrators foreshadowed the kind of richly detailed, political-military thriller which later became the trademark of Tom Clancy. The book also strongly argued the case for the US's manned long-range bomber force, which was then in danger of being phased out in favour of ICBMs.

Searls' novel The Pilgrim Project was adapted for the screen as the 1968 Robert Altman movie Countdown.

Based on his own novel of the same title, Searls wrote the screenplay for the 1978 Angie Dickinson TV movie Overboard. He wrote a biography of Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. The Lost Prince: Young Joe, The Forgotten Kennedy. This became the basis of the 1977 TV movie Young Joe, The Forgotten Kennedy, with Peter Strauss in the title role.

The cover of the 1962 British paperback edition of The Crowded Sky.

Searls' other military and aviation-themed novels include: The Astronaut, Pentagon, Hero Ship, The Big X and Altitude Zero. He also wrote the novelisations of the movies Jaws 2 and Jaws: The Revenge.