Book Review – The Sixth Battle

Have you wondered what a modern carrier battle would look like?  Of course you have!  Well, wonder no longer.  The Sixth Battle [1] describes the clash between Russian carrier task forces and a US carrier (fictional Forrestal class complete with ... yes! ... Tomcats!) isolated off the southeastern coast of Africa against the setting of a Russian sponsored invasion of South Africa. 
 
The geopolitical situation is nicely setup without being tedious and boring and offers solid context.  The land battle is described with engaging detail and personal interest but the focus of the book is on the naval battle with the Russian carriers (Kiev and Kuznetsov classes) attempting to support the invasion with land attacks while simultaneously preventing the badly outnumbered American carrier from interfering.  The Russian plan to isolate the US carrier group from reinforcement is brilliant and quite plausible as are the American attempts to respond.  In the end, the plot comes down to the battle between the Russian naval and land based aviation and the American carrier group and is told with a fantastic combination of suspense, realism, and detail.
 
Along the way, the plot presents scenarios involving chemical/nerve gas warfare and the use of tactical nukes in anti-submarine warfare.  The tactical nuke scenario, in particular, draws the reader into the debate and gives a feeling for the complexities of the decision making involved as well as the tactical considerations and methodology of employment.  I know we have readers who are firmly convinced that tactical nukes should be used and this offers a window into that scenario.
 
Anti-ship strike scenes assemble and make clear all the factors that go into a strike and how they fit together.  Essentially, they merge all the aspects discussed on this blog, and which so many people struggle to understand, into clear, detailed, riveting descriptions.
 
One can’t help but come away with a profound understanding of why carriers should operate in groups of four.  The sheer number of aircraft required to carry out a strike is daunting and the relegation of so many aircraft to supporting roles (CAP, BarCAP, tanking, EW, etc.) which results in shockingly meager “full” strikes of only a dozen or so aircraft hammers home the very small size of a single carrier air wing.  Of course, today’s downsized air wings have even fewer aircraft available for actual strike action.  Disturbingly, today’s carriers could not possibly execute the actions described in the book.
 
The book also offers a clear feel for the vast operating area of the oceans when conducting naval/carrier warfare and the difficulties in finding and engaging a surface group – another aspect that blog readers often struggle to comprehend.
 
Yet another key facet of the book is that it grants an appreciation for the force multiplication value of tactics as opposed to the pure evaluation of individual weapons as so many of today’s naval observers and analysts tend to do.  The reader comes to understand that people and tactics rank ahead of weapon specifications in importance to overall combat effectiveness.
 
The value of EMCON and electronic warfare is quite evident in both the detection efforts and the actual strikes and demonstrates how it all ties together in the overall maneuvering, tactics, and combat.
 
The role of Tomahawk carrying ships such as the Burkes is noteworthy and, again, emphasizes the need for large escort groups and the value of tactical flexibility that numbers grant.
 
To summarize, in addition to being a hugely entertaining and believable story, the author presents what amounts to a primer on naval battle and carrier warfare.  This book should be required reading for followers of this blog. 
 
The book is very well researched and offers great detail without becoming tedious.  A perfect balance between detail and story telling.
 
Read it!
 

 

 
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[1]Tillman, Barrett, The Sixth Battle, Bantam Books, 1992, ISBN 0-553-29402-8

Book Review – Sailing Warships of the US Navy

Here’s a book for anyone who is a fan of the age of sail.  Donald Canney’s Sailing Warships of the US Navy[1] presents a description and history of every sailing warship the US built.  The 200+ page, large format (10” x 12”) book is organized into chapters that address specific time periods and trends such as “The Frigates”, which covers the Constitution and her five sisters, “The Ships of the Line”, which covers the larger ships, and “American Sloops of War”, among many others.
 
The individual ships are presented in a roughly chronological order with context that places them within national and world events so that the justification comes through clearly.  Each ship write up includes a detailed service history, contemporary artwork of the vessel, where available, and large photos of the builder’s plans for those that exist and speculative plans for those that lack surviving builder’s plans.  The plans are the highlight of the book, for me, as I love to study the evolution of sailing ships through the sequential changes in their designs.  It is interesting to compare the attractive, curved, flowing lines of British ships with the harsher, more angular and horizontal lines of American vessels.
 

The section on ships of the line was especially fascinating.  We’re all familiar with the Constitution and her sisters but few are familiar with the American ships of the line.  The USS Franklin, for example, built in 1815 was a stunningly attractive ship with magnificent lines and the detailed plans bring it to life.
 
The ship histories are well written and informative without being dry and offer a glimpse into the times and the challenges of building and operating a navy.  Even then, cost, Congressional approval, material availability, production time lines, and fitting out were concerns no less important or different than today.
 
At the other end of the spectrum, the chapters on the smaller sloops, brigs, and schooners are equally fascinating.
 
The author even includes a chapter on “Vessels of the Northern Lakes”.  We forget that a robust naval war occurred on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain.  Remember Oliver Hazard Perry?  It is interesting to see the how the ship designs were modified for shallow draft operations on the lakes.
 
It is interesting to note some of the trends that manifest throughout the various ship histories.  The American emphasis on armor (in the form of much heavier and stronger framing than British counterparts) and firepower (overgunning) compared to standard British practices stands out and one can’t help but believe that those trends contributed to American naval successes.  These trends continued through WWII before being abandoned, unwisely, by the Navy.
 
While the book is, admittedly, a niche book, I highly recommend it for the naval historian.  Potential model makers will especially find the book to be a treasure trove of information.
 

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[1]Canney, Donald L., Sailing Warships of the US Navy, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 2001, ISBN 1-55750-990-5

Book Review – "Target: Subic Bay"

Here’s a book review that gets my recommendation less for its story than for the niche subject, a Pegasus class hydrofoil, and the thought provoking usage of the vessel.[1]
 
Target: Subic Bay, by Mack Tanner, is a fictional story whose premise is a North Korean instigated overthrow of the Philippine government through the use of a few nuclear weapons and a rogue Philippine rebel acting as a front and an American admiral’s use of the Pegasus class vessel’s capabilities to attempt to thwart the coup.  Think about it … how would you go about thwarting a North Korean and nuclear weapons-backed coup with just a single Pegasus class hydrofoil? 
 

The storyline, to be honest, is solidly entertaining but nothing special.  What is special is the author’s descriptions of the many capabilities of the vessel (special ops landings, a UAV, the SLAM land attack version of the Harpoon, Harpoons, sonobuoys, the 76 mm gun, and the vessel’s extreme speed, etc.) and how a little unorthodox thinking can take advantage of those capabilities.  One’s thoughts can’t help but be drawn into the world of unconventional naval tactics and comparing those tactics against the unimaginative – and generally ineffective – actions of today’s risk averse Navy.
 
A very minor point is that the cover artwork does nothing for the book and is a disappointment.  One hopes it would have depicted a Pegasus vessel doing heroic things but such is not the case.  Of course, the cover artwork has no bearing on the value of the book, itself!
 
The Pegasus class hydrofoil was a fascinating and unique craft that stirs the imagination, even today.  The class was never given a chance to shine and that’s a shame.  This book offers a window into the possible uses of such a vessel and the book is worth the read for that, alone.
 
 
 
 
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[1]Tanner, Mack, Target: Subic Bay, Zebra Books/Kensington Publishing Co., 1992, ISBN: 0-8217-3936-0

Book Review – Ironclaw

Desert Storm saw the advent of a slew of first person books by various service members.  Ironclaw[1] is one such and is the story of then Lt.(j.g.) Sherman Baldwin who flew an EA-6B Prowler (VAQ-136) off the USS Midway during the conflict, having joined the ship mid-cruise, straight out of training, at the start of the air war.  The book offers a refreshing change from the usual fighter pilot story and gives a different perspective of the Desert Storm air war and carrier flight operations.
 
The book opens with a detailed, first person account of his first night cat, tank, and trap experience after arriving on the Midway.  The descriptions of the terror and techniques are riveting.  You’re in the cockpit with him, helping him balance stick and throttle.
 

Baldwin describes the challenge of attempting to be a Landing Signal Officer (LSO) for the first time and recognizing and grading landing approaches.  He also notes the challenges and, occasionally, the risks in handing out landing grades to pilots who may not appreciate the candor.
 
You get a good feel for the constant awareness of fuel level that hangs over a pilot during a mission.
 
He describes a night rendezvous with an E-2 Hawkeye that suffered a navigation failure in bad weather and was lost.  In the process, his Prowler suffers its own sensor failure (icing) and he has to fight off disorientation and loss of instruments.
 
Other highlights include:
 

• Recovery of a Hornet with a fuel leak that required an emergency deck clear with seconds to spare.
• A night mirror-image practice strike during the days immediately prior to the start of hostilities.
• His first SEAD combat mission of the war and the seeming wall of AAA as well as SAMs.
• Confusing his own chaff and flares with exploding anti-aircraft fire and frantically trying to evade the decoys.
• The tension of a jamming mission with enemy aircraft in the air and fighter cover leaving to engage.
• The constant challenge and difficulty of aerial refueling.
• The unique challenge of landing on Midway which had much more pitch and roll than other carriers.
• The danger of maneuvering an aircraft across a slippery deck whose coating has worn away.

The value of this book is that it presents the Desert Storm air war from a different perspective - that of a Prowler rather than the typical fighter pilot book.  It is written in a very easy to read, informal style that focuses on the feelings, fears, and uncertainties of a new pilot thrown into a war.  The author offers an intimate look at carrier and aircraft operations from a personal perspective.  If you enjoy ‘inside’ looks at military occupations and the ‘what’s it really like’ kind of writing, this is the book for you.

 
Disclaimer:  I have no connection, whatsoever, with the author, the book, or the publisher. 
 
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[1]Baldwin, Sherman, Ironclaw, William Morrow and Co., Inc., 1996, ISBN 0-688-14303-2

Book Review – Electronic Greyhounds

The Spruance class destroyer (DD-963) was, arguably, the best ASW vessel ever produced but it had another, more impactful claim to fame.  It was the first ship designed by industry instead of the Navy/BuShips.  This practice of abdicating design capability and responsibility to industry has plagued become the standard Navy practice ever since.
 
The Spruance construction contract was awarded in 1970, prior to the advent of the digital age and widespread Internet use.  Thus, documentation on the class is sparse and limited largely to brief, repetitive entries in a handful of books.  This changed, however, in 1995 when Capt. Michael C. Potter, USNR, authored Electronic Greyhounds, the definitive book on the Spruance class design, construction, capabilities, and operations.[1]
 

The hardcover (roughly 8.5" x 11") book is a 270 page masterpiece of documentation with hundreds of references and citations from all manner of sources.  In fact, the note citation sources are nearly as fascinating and informative as the chapters themselves!
 
The book’s content can be best summarized by the chapter headings:
 
1.   Destroyers during the Cold War, 1948-1962
2.   Destroyers on Trial:  McNamara, Rickover, and Vietnam
3.   The Navy Adopts Total Package Procurement
4.   The DX/DXG Project
5.   The DD963 Design Competition
6.   Design Selection and Completion
7.   Construction and Controversy
8.   Fleet Introduction, Engineering, and Supply
9.   Gunnery, Electronics, and Antimissile Weapons
10. Strike Weapons
11. Antisubmarine Warfare
12. The Kidd (DDG993) Class
13. The Shield of the Fleet:  The Aegis Cruisers
14. Operations
 
Even the Appendices are fascinating:
 
Appendix A. Documents on the Origin of DX/DXG
Appendix B. A Tour of a Spruance-Class Destroyer
Appendix C. Name Histories
Appendix D. Specifications
 
Dozens of photographs and drawings support each chapter and illustrate key points.  The ship’s internal layout schematic is particularly interesting as is the profile photo with every electronic sensor/comm device labeled.  Understand, though, that this is not a coffee table ‘picture book’ by any means.
 
If there’s something you want to know about the Spruance class and it’s not in this book, it’s probably classified.  That said, be aware that this is not a lively, entertaining, near-fictional storytelling.  It is a deep-dive, scholarly tome with an emphasis on documented facts.  As such, it is not for the casual reader looking for adventure stories about ships although the chapter on ‘Operations’ is fascinating.  This book is a comprehensive reference for the reader looking for facts and details about the Spruance class and, as such, is very highly recommended.
 
 
Author:  Among Capt. Potter’s impressive and varied naval assignments, he served on a Spruance destroyer and as a defense contracting officer.  He also worked in industry as a systems analyst and project manager.  His background makes an ideal basis for researching and writing the history of the Spruance class.
 
 
Disclaimer:  I had a brief correspondence with the author suggesting that he write a similar book about the LCS.  Beyond that, I have no connection with the author, the book, or the publisher.
 
 
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[1]Capt. Michael C. Potter, USNR, Electronic Greyhounds, The Spruance-Class Destroyers, Naval Institute Press, 1995, ISBN 1-55750-682-5

Book Review – “Brave Ship, Brave Men”

In WWII, at Okinawa, the US Navy countered Japanese kamikaze attacks with a system of outlying picket ships that screened the invasion force.  The picket ships were subjected to unending, brutal suicide attacks and, although the pickets succeeded in their task, the US Navy paid a huge price in ships and sailors.
 
One such picket ship was the USS Aaron Ward (DM-34) which underwent a horrific kamikaze attack by ten planes and suffered six kamikaze crashes and two bomb hits while shooting down four attackers in a 52 minute ordeal.  Not only did the ship not sink but it kept fighting effectively the entire time.  Does anyone think a Burke could do that?
 
Brave Ship Brave Men[1] tells the story of that battle. It's stunning reading especially against the backdrop of the weakly built ships of today, made worse by minimal manning.
 
The author writes in a highly readable, semi-fictional style (reconstructed dialog and thoughts) which makes the events vivid and alive.  The reader is immersed in both the daily routine of the ship preceding the battle and the terrifying events of the battle.  The routine events paint a picture of wartime life aboard the ship which, alone, makes the book well worth the read.  This leads directly into the battle itself and the writing style places the reader in the middle of the action and chaos, with combat, casualties, destruction, and damage control swirling around.
 
Brave Ship Brave Men reads like Red Storm Rising except that it actually happened.
 
The book graphically slams home the various lessons I preach on this blog about armor, ship construction and strength, weapons density, redundancy, damage control, emergency measures and equipment, adequate manning, etc.  When you read the book and compare the Ward to what we have today, you realize how far we've fallen.
 
If you want to understand the ‘how’s and why’s’ of what I preach on this blog, this book provides the answers.  Read the book, ‘experience’ the battle, and then reassess your understanding of naval matters.

 

Aaron Ward after the battle.
Note the armored aft 5" unmarked despite the mangled devastation
all around it. That's what armor is for.

 
____________________________________

 
The Ward was a Smith/Sumner class destroyer converted to a minelayer.  Anti-aircraft armament consisted of [1, p.29]:
 
3 × 5”/38 cal. dual guns
2 × 40 mm quad Bofors AA guns
2 × 40 mm dual Bofors AA guns
8 × 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns
 
 

3-May-1945  -  Note the times in this brief sequence of events during the battle:
 
1829 hr  -  Shot down Kamikaze
1830 hr  -  Shot down Kamikaze
1831 hr  -  Kamikaze and bomb hit on ship  -  mount 44 destroyed, mount 53 on manual/local
1859 hr  -  Shot down Kamikaze
1904 hr  -  Shot down Kamikaze
1908 hr  -  Kamikaze hit on ship
1913 hr  -  Kamikaze and bomb hit on ship
1913 hr  -  Kamikaze hit on ship
1916 hr  -  Kamikaze hit on ship  -  mount 43 destroyed
1921 hr  -  Kamikaze hit on ship  -  various 20 mm mounts destroyed
 
In addition to the gun mounts damaged or destroyed, almost every compartment and piece of equipment on the ship was damaged or destroyed.  However, despite the immense amount of destruction, the majority of the gun mounts were still functioning albeit at reduced efficiency at the conclusion of the battle.  This is testament to the design and ruggedness of WWII ships and the recognition by the designers that amid all the damage, the weapons MUST continue to function.
 
 
 
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[1]Brave Ship Brave Men, Lt. Cmdr. Arnold Lott, USN (ret), Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1964, ISBN 1-55750-523-3

Book Review – “United States Navy Destroyers of World War II”

We haven’t done a book review in a while so let’s do one!

 

The Fletcher class destroyer was the iconic destroyer of WWII but have you wondered why?  Why did it become an icon?  What characteristics made it so successful?  How did it evolve?

 

John C. Reilly, Jr.’s book, “United States Navy Destroyers of World War II”, answers these questions and many more.  As the name suggests, the book is an exploration of the pre-war evolution of US destroyers which culminated in the Fletcher class and its successors the Sumner and Gearing classes.

 

The book is soft-covered (there is a much more expensive hard cover version available) in an 8-1/2 x 11 inch format which provides ample area for the over 200 b&w photos, most of them quite close up and revealing all manner of detail about equipment.  Each photo is accompanied by detailed captions explaining what you’re seeing.

 

The book begins with a brief history of the beginnings of destroyers and then examines the evolution through the Farragut, Porter, Benham, Sims, Benson, and Gleaves classes and then, of course, the Fletchers along with the following Sumner and Gearing classes.  It is a treat and highly informative to flip through the pages and see the visual evolution of the classes as the form of the Fletcher becomes more and more evident with each succeeding class.

 

Of intense interest are the descriptions of the debates and considerations that went into each succeeding design and how real world experience fed back into the evolutionary process.  The role of the General Board and BuShips in developing designs really stands out and is made all the more emphatic when compared to the absence of any guiding design authority today and the almost random nature of today’s ship designs.

 

A chapter on anti-aircraft (AA) roles, evolution, and impact on tactics and ship design is utterly fascinating.  Diagrams of various AA projectiles is most illuminating.  Passages such as,

 

On 12 June [1940] the General Board forwarded a memorandum to CNO.  This summarized fleet AA firing of 1939-40 and concluded that ‘the firing is generally ineffective, that a large amount of ammunition is expended in obtaining only occasional effective hits, and that anti-aircraft gunnery – as at present developed – does not provide reasonable security against air attack.’[1]

 

emphasize the degree of testing and honesty about results that is sorely lacking today (not withstanding the Navy's pre-war torpedo testing fiasco!).

 

Additional topics such as the development of radar, the role of the torpedo, the rationale for armor, the shift in focus from anti-surface to anti-air, the importance of topside weight, the development of the 5” gun, and more are all detailed through the discussions of the development of the various classes.

 

I look at the development and evolution of the destroyer and can’t help but be impressed by the logic and common sense as well as the feedback of real world experience that inexorably led to the ultimate destroyer, the Fletcher class.  Every new design/class along the way built on the preceding class and represented a marked and steady improvement.  In contrast, we seem to have no steady development and improvement with today’s ship classes.  Indeed, each new design/class seems almost worse than the preceding one!

 

This book is a treat and a feast for the eyes and the mind and I highly recommend it.  A reader will come away with a detailed understanding of ship design, ship evolution, the role of equipment in the development of tactics, and many more aspects of ship development, in general, and destroyer development, in particular.

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer:  I have absolutely no connection, whatsoever, with the author, the book, or the publisher.  As a point of interest, I picked this book up decades ago for the price of $9.95. I shudder to think what inflation has done to the price!

 

 

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[1]John C. Reilly, Jr., “United States Navy Destroyers of World War II”, Blandford Press, 1983, ISBN: 0 7132 1026 8

Book Review - "Hornets Over Kuwait"

ComNavOps has offered occasional book reviews and I’ll try to include a few more in the upcoming year.  ComNavOps loves books written by the men who were there.  There’s nothing like hearing it from the horse’s mouth.  Of course, that doesn’t guarantee that the horse is right but it’s a pretty good start.  One such book is “Hornets Over Kuwait” (1) which, as the title indicates, is about a Marine Hornet pilot in Desert Storm.  The pilot was, at the time, a 30 year old Marine Corps Captain flying with VMFA-451 (Warlords).  The book is written from the day to day perspective of the pilot rather than attempting to delve into the larger strategic or operational picture.  As such, we get a fantastic glimpse of the pilot’s limited but up close view of the war. 

He describes:

• The striking degree of confusion and uncertainty surrounding the initial movement to the Gulf and the sheer magnitude of the logistics required to get a squadron into theater.
• Problems caused by women deploying with the unit.
• Interesting assessments of the F-18 including a somewhat surprising comparison of its air-to-air capabilities against the F-15 Eagle and F-16.
• The monotony of endless, routine CAPs.
• The adrenaline and terror of the first strike mission and the feelings associated with being shot at by AAA and SAMs.
• The Hornet’s air-to-ground performance.
• The overwhelming importance of tankers on nearly every mission.
• Interesting thoughts about the two seat F/A-18D which the author deems useful for FAC but not much else.
• The confusion of the Close Air Support (CAS) effort and the lack of peacetime training for the task.
• Aerial communications problems and overuse of the radio.
• Intel and bomb damage assessment (BDA) as being woefully lacking due to lack of peacetime training.
• The high and unexplained dud rate for iron bombs and the failure of electrical fuzes.
• Base life between missions which consisted of TV, cards, food, and mail and packages from home, among other activities.

The book is as noteworthy for what it doesn’t describe as what it does.  What it doesn’t describe is peer-opposed air operations.  Instead, the book clearly conveys that Desert Storm was, essentially, a live fire exercise conducted in a leisurely manner, the more so after the first few days.  The author/pilot even acknowledges this in his preface and throughout the book.  Thus, the applicability of the author’s experience to a peer level war is quite limited.

The author has done a magnificent job of providing a head down, lower level perspective of a pilot in Desert Storm combat.  The gems and insights scattered throughout the book make for a completely absorbing tale that is every bit as entertaining as fiction but carries with it the fascination of reality.  I highly recommend it.

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(1)“Hornets Over Kuwait”, Jay A. Stout, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1997, ISBN 1-55750-835-6

Sound Familiar?

ComNavOps has been reading the book, Boyd (1), and was struck by a passage that could have been written today.  See if this doesn’t sound overwhelmingly familiar.

“By 1978, both officers and enlisted personnel were leaving the military services in large numbers.  They left not because of pay, as military leaders had said for the past few years, but because they were displeased with what they saw as a lack of integrity among their leaders.  They thought careerism inhibited professionalism in the officer corps.  The military also was having readiness problems;  expensive and highly complex weapons systems were fielded before being fully tested.  These systems were not only expensive to buy but expensive to maintain, and they rarely performed as advertised.  Stories began to appear in the media of America’s “hollow military”.

The military’s answer was to place more emphasis on what it called the “electronic battlefield” by buying even more expensive and more high-tech weapons.  Somewhere in the military there must have been those who sensed the system was headed toward a meltdown.  If so, no stepped forward to change it.”

Lack of integrity in leadership, officers more interested in career than profession, readiness issues, untested weapons, budget problems, hollow forces …   This could be a summary of the posts on this blog!

The military experienced a resurgence in the 1980’s but instead of maintaining and building on that surge, allowed themselves to regress back to the same problems.  This is serious condemnation of leadership, both civilian and uniformed, but it also offers the hope that we can pull out of these problems, as we did before.  Recovery and resurgence starts with recognizing the problems which is what I try to do on these pages.  If recognition can occur, recovery can begin.

(1)Boyd, Robert Coram, Back Bay Books, NY, 2002

Missile Inbound

ComNavOps occasionally offers a recommendation on a book of naval interest.  Today’s offering is Missile Inbound by Jeffrey Levinson and Randy Edwards (1).  The book describes the Iraqi Exocet missile attack on the USS Stark in May 1987.  Stark was hit by two Exocet missiles, killing 37 crew, and nearly sank.

One of the enduring questions surrounding the incident is why the Stark failed to defend herself.  The ship and command element certainly had every reason to anticipate danger.  As the book notes, in the months prior to the attack, Iraqi aircraft flew around 340 missions, launched 90 or so Exocet missiles and hit around 40 ships.  The Iraqi pilots were not exactly known for their discriminating targeting skills.  Thus, the Stark had ample warning that they were sailing in dangerous waters.



USS Stark



The status of the various sensors and weapons is extensively discussed and documented as well as the mental mindset of the CIC crew. 

The damage control efforts by the crew bordered on miraculous and the events are told in great detail in the form of individual crew member’s stories.  As has been repeatedly stated in this blog, the number one attribute for successful damage control is adequate (meaning excessive) numbers of crew and the book’s descriptions drive that point home.  As noted,

“… the ship did not have enough men to support critical “reflash watches” until the first rescue-and-assistance teams from the Waddell and Conyngham came aboard at approximately 0400.  Consequently, previously extinguished fires would flare up again, creating an unbearable work burden for the crew and threatening the ship.  The crew were bone-weary from fighting the conflagration, and by early morning the intense 100-degree heat and humidity of the Persian Gulf were having a debilitating impact as well.  By midmorning the crew’s effectiveness was rapidly waning as a result of exhaustion.”

The legal aftermath and subsequent investigations are explored in depth and are every bit as fascinating as the attack and saving of the ship.  Rules of Engagement are described and the conflicting requirements of self-defense and politics are spelled out.

In summary, the book is a highly readable and entertaining (if such a word can be used to describe a tragedy) writing.  It paints a compelling picture of a ship operating in a war zone with a peacetime mentality.  The various lessons from the incident should serve as pointed reminders to us, today, as we sail into unfriendly ports (Cole), go eye to eye with China, and design ships that have neither the structural strength nor manning to fight and survive in combat.

I highly recommend this book especially to readers who wish to better understand the reality of combat, ship design, damage control, ROE/politics, and how all these factors relate to our current Navy.

(1) Missile Inbound, Jeffrey Levinson and Randy Edwards, Naval Institute Press, 1997, ISBN 1-55750-517-9