Darryl Ponicsan never imagined that his first novel, "The Last Detail", called by one critic "...the first underground triumph of the 70s..." would be a continuing story. With the invasion of Iraq, however, the same elements that inspired the original - injustice, a senseless war, men of honor and duty caught in untenable positions - compelled him to revisit Billy Bad-Ass, Mule, and the hapless Meadows, and to see how his characters were faring in post-9/11 American life. The result is "Last Flag Flying", a story as tough and tender. sad and funny. as "The Last Detail". The boy Billy and Mule escorted to prison has come back into their lives, now a grieving man of 52, with a gut-wrenching request they cannot deny. What follows is a retracing of their steps from 34 years before, a journey from Norfolk, Virginia, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on a mission as heart-breaking - and as exhilarating - as the first.