Quote:
Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
Saw Hunt in the theater. Once. Meh.
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When I was a lowly petty officer, I was stationed at Naval Intelligence Command in Suitland (1981-1984).
One of the treats of the day, if you were into global events, was the daily Morning Naval Intelligence Briefing. It was always attended by the Commander, Naval Intelligence (one of the few "Commodores") but sometimes other flags would be there, if the situation was special. (And yes, anyone who worked in Naval Intelligence and had the right clearance could be there; it was in a huge command room where we worked 24/7, so if you were on watch you were in the audience so to speak).
Sometime in 1983, I believe summer, just about every surface ship of the Soviet Northern Fleet came banging out into the Atlantic. No one knew why, and I tell you there was a lot of freaking out. Over a week, the number of "stars" at the briefing went from one to ten.
And then "poof"... most of the ships just turned back, others scattered to summer exercises. No one ever figured it out.
So when I read Clancy's book a couple of years later, I have to say I really loved that the plot included a mass chase by the Northern Fleet and that no one on the US side could figure out why. That was realism.
Alas, his books have been downhill since then.