"But that means we have only our land-based missiles…"
"But we will never launch first," Reagan told him quietly, leaning forward. "We do not threaten you, Mikhail. Let's eliminate our mutual land-based threats, and then we both can significantly decrease our submarine launch capability." Reagan leaned back, placing his arms on the wide chair back. "We will continue to develop SDI, and invite you to every test. When it works, and it will, we will share the technology with you." Reagan smiled broadly. "I give you my word!"
Following the Summit, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev was not assassinated. The world began to see him in a new light. The Soviet Union began to change. Eight months later at the 750th anniversary of Berlin, at the Brandenburg Gate demarking the symbolic division between the free West and the enslaved Soviet Union, President Reagan challenged Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall!"
Halfway around the world, the Horse & Cow was crowded with noisy submariners. It was late, near closing time; many sailors had been there for hours. Nine men crowded around a table near a perpetually vacant World War II submarine-stern-planes-seat at one end of the polished oak bar. The men watched an overhead television with rapt attention as President Reagan issued his historic challenge.
Master Chief Comstock, unmistakable even in his civvies, glanced at the red-bearded Lieutenant McDowell.
"Whadya think, Mac?" He raised his mug.
McDowell stood, and the remaining seven raised their mugs in silent toast, while the roomful of raucous submariners cheered.
"Ivy Bells!" McDowell said with a grin.
Nine mugs clinked together.
About the Author
Dr. Robert G. Williscroft served twenty-three years in the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He commenced his service as an enlisted nuclear Submarine Sonar Technician in 1961, was selected for the Navy Enlisted Scientific Education Program in 1966, and graduated from University of Washington in Marine Physics and Meteorology in 1969. He returned to nuclear submarines as the Navy's first Poseidon Weapons Officer. Subsequently, he served as Navigator and Diving Officer on both catamaran mother vessels for the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle. Then he joined the Submarine Development Group One out of San Diego as the Officer-in-Charge of the Test Operations Group, conducting "deep-ocean surveillance and data acquisition" — which forms the basis for this novel.
In NOAA Dr. Williscroft directed diving operations throughout the Pacific and Atlantic. As a certified diving instructor for both the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) and the Multinational Diving Educators Association (MDEA), he taught over 3,000 individuals both basic and advanced SCUBA diving. He authored four diving books, developed the first NAUI drysuit course, developed advanced curricula for mixed gas and other specialized diving modes, and developed and taught a NAUI course on the Math and Physics of Advanced Diving. His doctoral dissertation for California Coast University, A System for Protecting SCUBA Divers from the Hazards of Contaminated Water was published by the U.S. Department of Commerce and distributed to Port Captains World-wide. He also served three shipboard years in the high Arctic conducting scientific baseline studies, and thirteen months at the geographic South Pole in charge of National Science Foundation atmospheric projects.
Dr. Williscroft has written extensively on terrorism and related subjects. He is the author of a popular book on current events published by Pelican Publishing: The Chicken Little Agenda — Debunking Experts' Lies, now in its second edition as an eBook, and a new children's book series, Starman Jones, in collaboration with Dr. Frank Drake, world famous director of the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe and the SETI Institute.
Dr. Williscroft's novel, Slingshot, is in preproduction. It tells the story of the construction of the World's first Space Launch Loop. A second novel, The Starchild Compact, is in the final editing process. It is based on the discovery that Saturn's moon Iapetus is actually a derelict starship, and how Earth explorers eventually meet with the "Founders," who originally arrived on the starship and populated the Earth long ago. He is currently working on The Iapetus Federation, a sequel to The Starchild Compact, that tells the story of the World falling under the rule of a planet-wide Islamic Caliphate, where the Founders establish the Iapetus Federation, a loose federation of free off-world communities that operates under an updated model based on the U.S. Constitution, and carries out the traditions of the American Founding Fathers throughout the Solar System.
Dr. Williscroft is an active member of the venerable Adventurers' Club of Los Angeles, where he is the Editor of the Club's monthly magazine. He lives in Centennial, Colorado, with his wife, Jill, whom he met upon his return from the South Pole in 1982 and finally married in 2010, and their twin high school boys.
Glossary
1MC — Ship's announcing system.
Aquarium — The double-lock hull penetration in the Bat Cave used to deploy the Basketball, the fish, and to retrieve items from deployed divers.
ASR — Submarine Rescue Ship (Auxiliary Submarine Rescue) — Ships specially designed to rescue crews from downed submarines. They originally carried McCann Rescue Bells, later, two catamaran ASRs (the USS Ortolan and USS Pigeon) carried the DSRVs.
ASW — Anti-submarine Warfare
Baffles — The baffles is the area in the water directly behind a submarine or ship through which a hull-mounted sonar cannot hear. This blind spot is caused by the noise of the vessel's machinery, propulsion system, and propellers.
Basketball — A basketball-size, camera-carrying remotely operated vehicle (ROV) on a tether.
Bat Cave — The forward compartment on the Halibut used for special operations. Formerly the cruise missile launch location.
BCP — Ballast Control Panel; the console from which water is pumped into and out of a sub, and distributed fore and aft in the sub. The Chief of the Watch occupies this position, under the control of the Diving Officer or the OOD.
Belay that — Countermands an order just given.
Bird — A helicopter, often using a dipping sonar.
Boomer — Ballistic Missile Submarine.
BOQ — Bachelor Officers' Quarters; hotel-like quarters for bachelor officers.
Bottom — Bottom of the ocean, the seafloor. As a verb as in "to bottom," putting the submarine on the sea floor.
Bow — Front of a ship or sub
Bridge — The place on a ship from which it is driven. On a sub, it is the conning station at the top of the sail, (See Conn.)
Brow — Gangway onto a vessel from the pier or another vessel.
Bubblehead — Submariner
Can — Slang term for the fake DSRV (Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle) that was really the saturation DDC on the stern of Halibut.
Capstan — A revolving cylinder with a vertical axis used for hauling in a rope or cable.