Todd Tucker
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About the Author
TODD TUCKER attended the University of Notre Dame on a full scholarship from the US Navy. After graduating with a degree in history in 1990, he volunteered for the nuclear submarine force, and made six patrols onboard the USS Alabama. He lives in Valparaiso, Indiana.
Other Books by Todd Tucker
“Oh God, thy sea is so great, and my boat is so small.”
Glossary of Acronyms
1MC — An announcing circuit heard by the entire ship
2MC — An announcing circuit heard in the engine room
4MC — An announcing circuit used exclusively to announce serious casualties
7MC — An announcing circuit for communications between the EOOW and the OOD.
AC — Alternating Current
ASR — Submarine Rescue Ship
BCLU — Battery Charging Line Up
BRI — Bearing Repeater Indicator
BST Buoy — “Beast” Buoys, an emergency communications beacon
CAMS — Computerized Atmospheric Monitoring System
CNO — Chief of Naval Operations, the highest ranking officer in the Navy
CO — Commanding Officer
COD — Carrier Onboard Delivery
CODC — Commanding Officer’s Display Console
COW — Chief of the Watch
DC — Damage Control or Direct Current
DCA — Damage Control Assistant, the junior officer in charge of the boat’s damage control gear and Auxiliary Division.
DOD — Department of Defense
DR — Dead Reckoning, an estimate of position based on course, speed, and time
DSRV — Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle
EAB — Emergency Air Breathing, a system of breathing masks that plug into fixed manifolds throughout the ship.
E Club — Enlisted Club
EDO — Engineering Duty Officer
EOOW — Engineering Officer of the Watch, the highest-ranking watchstander, and the only commissioned officer, in the engine room of a nuclear submarine.
ESM — Electronic Support Measures
ET — Electronics Technician, an enlisted rating
EWS — Engineering Watch Supervisor, the senior enlisted man in an operating engine room.
Fitrep — Fitness Report
GPS — Global Positioning System
Hipac — High Pressure Air Compressor
JO — Junior Officer, an officer on his first sea tour
LET — Logistics Escape Trunk
MBT — Main Ballast Tank
MCC — Missile Control Central
Medevac — Medical Evacuation
MM1 — Machinist’s Mate, First Class
MS1 — Mess Specialist First Class, a head cook
NATO — North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Nav ET — Navigation Electronic Technician, enlisted men in charge of the ship’s numerous electronic systems for navigation.
Navsea — Naval Sea Systems Command
Navsea-08 — The title given both to the office in charge of Naval Nuclear Power, and the admiral at its head.
NIS — Naval Investigative Service
NOAA — National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NTM — Notice to Mariners
ODAS — Ocean Data Acquisition System
O-5 — An officer’s rank: A commander in the navy, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force, Army, or Marine Corps
O-6 — An Officer’s rank: a captain in the Navy, a Colonel in the Air Force, Army, or Marine Corps
OOD — Officer of the Deck, the top watch officer on a submarine at sea.
OS — Officers’ Study
PD — Periscope Depth
POTUS — President of the United States
PRC — People’s Republic of China, the Communist Nation of China
PSI — Pounds per Square Inch, a unit of pressure
QM1 — Quartermaster First Class
RM1 — Radioman, First Class
ROC — Republic of China, Taiwan
ROTC — Reserve Officer Training Corps, a source of commissioned officers consisting of training units at colleges and universities
RPM — Revolutions per Minute
S1-C — One of a series of prototype nuclear power plants used for testing and training naval operators. S1-C was located in Windsor, Connecticut.
SAS — Sealed Authentication System, used to validated launch coded for nuclear weapons
SGWL — Steam Generator Water Level, pronounced “Squiggle.”
SOA — Speed of Advance
SRDRS — Submarine Rescue Diving and Recompression System
SSN — A nuclear-powered attack submarine
SSBN — A nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine
Subpac — Commander of the Submarine Forces of the Pacific
TDU — Trash Disposal Unit
TEU — Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit, a measure of a cargo unit on a container ship.
TMA — Target Motion Analysis
USNA — United States Naval Academy
USNS — United States Naval Ship, a non-commissioned ship that is property of the US Navy.
USS — United States Ship, a designation given to commissioned ships in the United States Navy
VA — Veteran’s Administration
VHF — Very High Frequency
X1J — A phone circuit connecting the captain to the officer of the deck.
XO — Executive Officer, the second-highest raking officer onboard
Prologue: East China Sea
For three days, as the big container ship Ever Able steamed northward from Singapore, Captain Colin Wright listened to the Chinese military circuit. The Chinese had appropriated a radio frequency along with a huge rectangle of ocean, declaring to the seafaring world that both were off limits indefinitely. The Captain didn’t understand a word of Chinese, although he could foresee a day when fluency in Chinese would be required in his profession. But, sensing that it was somehow important, he listened anyway.
He eavesdropped on their chatter in the mess hall while he ate, on the bridge while he stood watch, and in his stateroom as he slept. When he toured the vast cargo areas of the ship, he took with him a handheld radio so he wouldn’t miss a second of the unintelligible conversations that had become his constant companion. He tried to decipher what he could from their tone, which sounded in turn bored, aggressive, frantic, and even taunting. The crew became used to the sound of static and Chinese voices that surrounded their brooding captain like a cloud.