I enjoyed writing the Russian paratrooper chapter in Blackmail, drawing on my personal experience. I’m a submariner who also happens to be a qualified paratrooper — I earned my wings at Fort Benning, Georgia. I was planning to go Marine Corps at the time, but for several reasons ended up going submarines. I wore my jump wings on my uniform for a few years, garnering quite a few odd looks and questions. A paratrooper aboard a submarine is obviously an odd lash-up.
Also, the usual disclaimer — some of the tactics described in Blackmail are generic and not accurate. For example, torpedo employment and evasion tactics are classified and cannot be accurately represented in this novel. The dialogue also isn’t one hundred percent accurate. If it were, much of it would be unintelligible to the average reader. To help the story move along without getting bogged down in acronyms, technical details, and other military jargon, I simplified the dialogue and description of operations and weapon systems.
For all of the above, I apologize. I did my best to keep everything as close to real life as possible while developing a suspenseful (and unclassified), page-turning novel. Hopefully it all worked out, and you enjoyed reading Blackmail.
ALSO BY RICK CAMPBELL
The Trident Deception
Empire Rising
Ice Station Nautilus
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RICK CAMPBELL is a retired navy commander who spent more than twenty years on multiple submarine tours. On his last tour, he was one of the two men whose permission was required to launch the submarine’s nuclear warhead — tipped missiles. Campbell is the author of The Trident Deception, Empire Rising, and Ice Station Nautilus. He lives with his family in the greater Washington, D.C., area. You can sign up for email updates here.