Secret War

Tom Ryan, best-selling military novelist, has arranged a ride to familiarize himself with submarines. On August 10, 1991 he arrives at USS Haddock (SSN 621) as it prepares to depart San Diego for Japan. It would be a final deployment before going to the shipyard for nuclear defueling and decommissioning. The transit is routine with plenty of opportunity for training. It doesn't stay routine when Haddock is diverted to search for three Soviet submarines that had deployed from their base. Then events in the Soviet Union result in Haddock being given unprecedented orders. As history is made in Moscow events proceed under the ocean. Join Tom Ryan aboard Haddock and enjoy the ride. The goal in writing Secret War was to give a realistic picture of submarine operations. While it is fiction, I tried to be as accurate as possible in depicting operating, casualty and tactical procedures. Catherine McDonough, wife of my first Executive Officer on Haddock, Martin McDonough, read the novel and helped me edit. She and her husband offered several suggestions that, I believe, made this book better. Martin went on to command USS Tunny (SSN 682). Her comments after finishing her first reading were: "As a Submariner's wife, I have heard so much of this activity (barring the torpedo launches of course) before. I read this to Marty exactly as I felt it was meant to be read, as if we were actually onboard. It brought back many memories for us both. The years of hearing phone conversations between Marty and crewmembers especially as Engineer made it all very real again. Even today when Marty is with Submariners whether active duty or retired, all these terms and plant names etc. come to life again. "Yes there were chapters where I had to read very quickly as Marty was anxious to hear the outcome. Marty often would answer the questions as I read them, in advance of me getting to the next sentence and they were just as you wrote. It was a good test of his memory!" This was exactly what I was trying to achieve. Revision 1.31 incorporates numerous edits and employs a distinctive font for dialog passed over the announcing systems.