NED STEEL (Commander), Commanding Officer
MARLIN CRIDER (Lieutenant Commander), Executive Officer
PETER TARBOTTOM, lead contractor for Phoenix International
BOB ENNIS, Pressurized Rescue Module (PRM) Attendant
ART GLOVER, Pressurized Rescue Module (PRM) Attendant
EDDIE STANKIEWICZ (Machinist Mate Chief), Disabled Submarine team member
ROY ARMSTRONG (Navy Diver First Class), Atmospheric Diving Suit pilot
BOBBY PLEASANT, director
VANCE VERBECK, technical director
PAUL LEONE, ice pilot
ERIC DAHLENBURG (Vice Admiral), On-Scene Commander
MIKE NAUGHTON (Captain), Coordinator, Rescue Forces
NED STEEL (Commander), Rescue Element Commander
VANCE VERBECK, ice camp Officer-in-Charge (OIC)
PAUL LEONE, ice pilot
ALYSSA MARTIN, above-ice sonar array operator
SCOTT WALWORTH, RATS operator
FRANK SALIMBENE, Casa C-212 pilot
SALLY FIREBAUGH, cook
PAM BRUCE, supervisor
GREG HARTFIELD, Borei class submarine expert
STU BERMAN, Bulava missile expert
YURI KALININ, president
BORIS CHERNOV, minister of defense
MAKSIM POSNIAK, director of security and disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
GEORGIY IVANOV (Fleet Admiral), Commander-in-Chief, Russian Navy
OLEG LIPOVSKY (Admiral), Commander, Northern Fleet
LEONID SHIMKO (Rear Admiral), Commander, 12th Squadron
NICHOLAI STEPANOV (Captain First Rank), Commanding Officer
DMITRI PAVLOV (Captain Second Rank), First Officer
ANTON TOPOLSKI (Captain Third Rank), Navigating Officer
MIKHAIL EVANOFF (Captain Lieutenant), Central Command Post Watch Officer
IVAN KHUDOZHNIK (Senior Lieutenant), Torpedo Division Officer
ANDREI POPOVICH (Senior Michman), Torpedo Division Leading Petty Officer
OLEG DEVIN (Starshina First Class), Torpedo Division Petty Officer
ERIK GLINKA (Michman), Electric Navigation Party Technician
EGOR LUKIN (Chief Ship Starshina), Senior Enlisted
IVAN KOVALESKI (Captain of the Medical Service), Medical Officer
MATVEY BACZEWSKI (Captain Second Rank), Commanding Officer
PETR LUKOV (Captain Third Rank), First Officer
LUDVIG DOLINSKI (Captain Lieutenant), Central Command Post Watch Officer
EUGENY CHABAN (Lieutenant), Duty Officer
JOSEF BUFFANOV (Captain Second Rank), Commanding Officer
ANTON NOVIKOFF (Captain Third Rank), First Officer
DMITRI RONIN (Captain Lieutenant), Central Command Post Watch Officer
DEMIL POLESKI, ice camp director
JULIUS RAILA, Chief of Search and Rescue Services
JOSEF KLOKOV (Captain First Rank), Commanding Officer
GLEB LEONOV (Captain Second Rank), Executive Officer
ERIK TOPOLSKI (Captain Lieutenant), platoon leader
KIRIL BOGANOV (Captain Lieutenant), platoon leader
NICHOLAI OVECHKIN (Starshina First Class), patrol
MIKHAIL GRUSHENKO, rescue team member
PAVEL DANILOV, rescue team member
DANIL KRASINSKI (Michman), Operations Center Radioman
EDUARD DAVYDOV (Captain Second Rank), Intelligence Center Watch Officer
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I hope you enjoyed reading Ice Station Nautilus!
This was both a fun and difficult book to write, in that it allowed me to explore a region where submarines do not routinely operate, taking the reader both above and below the ice. Although I have not operated below the ice, I was fortunate to have visited a base camp atop the polar ice cap a few years ago while two submarines were shooting exercise torpedoes at each other, and I assisted with the torpedo recovery through the ice. I broke my hand while I was up there, and I’d like to say it was while saving the ice camp by wrestling a polar bear, but the truth is less exciting.
There are a lot of technical issues I did not explore in Ice Station Nautilus. I only scratched the surface with respect to the issues USS North Dakota’s crew would have to deal with if trapped beneath the polar ice cap without power. You could write an entire book covering the plethora of problems that would arise and how they would need to be addressed, plus there are issues with reactor cooling and recovery that make my head hurt when I think about them. Addressing every issue and how each would be resolved would have bogged Ice Station Nautilus down with technical details that are more appropriate for a nonfiction book on the topic rather than a novel, where the focus is plot and pacing.
Also, some of the tactics described in Ice Station Nautilus were 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 100 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 Navy jargon, I simplified the dialogue and description of shipboard 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, page-turning novel. Hopefully it all worked out, and you enjoyed reading Ice Station Nautilus.
ALSO BY RICK CAMPBELL
The Trident Deception
Empire Rising
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, the author of The Trident Deception and Empire Rises, lives with his family in the greater Washington, D.C., area. You can sign up for email updates here.