Immediately, Al Surprenant called Commander Rick Hunter, who walked into the courtroom and swore to tell the truth before being seated.
After identification, the SEAL Commander admitted under oath that he had the gravest worries about the possible conduct of Commander Reid under pressure. He and Lt. Commander Headley knew each other well, and had discussed the “unreliable” nature of the CO, even before the mission began.
“When you first transmitted your distress call to Shark, while your men were fighting and dying in the open boats, did you think help would come?”
“Not if Commander Reid had his way. I knew it would not come.”
“Did you think you had a chance to survive?”
“Only if Dan Headley took over the ship, in a big hurry.”
“But for Lieutenant Commander Headley’s actions, would you and your men have been killed.”
“Yessir.”
“Do you think he deserves to be court-martialed?”
“Nossir.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’s just about the best officer I ever met. And he saved all of our lives.”
“Do you intend to make any protest whatsoever if Lieutenant Commander Headley is found guilty of mutiny?”
“Nossir. But I shall resign my commission immediately.”
“After a working lifetime in the Navy? And the very real prospect of becoming C-in-C of SPECWARCOM?”
“Yessir. I could never feel the same about the service if they convicted Dan Headley.”
“Thank you, Commander.”
Locker Jones arose. “You stated that you and Lieutenant Commander Headley knew each other well. That was not quite the whole truth, was it?”
“Sir?”
“You and Dan Headley are boyhood friends, correct? Best friends, correct? You went to school together, correct? Your father employs his father, correct?”
“All correct, sir. I am privileged to have him and his father as my friends.”
“Is it not probable that you would never hear a word against Dan Headley, from anyone?”
“Very probable. Because he does not do things to cause people to utter words against him.”
“He has now, Commander.”
“But not by people who really know him, sir.”
“And you think you know him well enough to say he could not be guilty of the crime with which he is charged?”
“I know him a lot better than you do.”
Locker Jones had had enough sparring with the towering wounded hero of the Burma operation. “No more questions,” he said.
Al Surprenant next called the SEAL Commander Rusty Bennett, who confirmed the counselor’s earlier contention that he had tried to remonstrate with Commander Reid about his decision not to move the ship forward in the Gulf of Iran mission to assist the wounded SEAL.
“And do you recall his precise words, Commander Bennett?”
“Some of them. I told him the rescue was at my request to go in and save the life of one of my most valued men. He then reminded me that I had no rights whatsoever on his ship. Told me he would not have this interference. Then he said, ‘What exactly is this? Some kind of damned conspiracy? Well you’ve picked the wrong man to make a fool of….’ Then he said we had waited until he was asleep and then flagrantly disobeyed his orders.”
“And what did you think of this outburst?”
“Seemed very strange. You know, like paranoia….”
“OBJECTION! The witness has no idea about the meaning of such a medical term…”
“Sustained.”
“How about nuts?” offered the SEAL from the coast of Maine.
“Better,” said Captain Dunning.
“OBJECTION! The Commander has no right to be making wild statements about insanity.”
“I’ll take the word of an experienced Navy SEAL commanding officer that in his opinion someone seemed nuts,” replied Captain Dunning. “Overruled.”
“And now, Commander,” said Al Surprenant, “let me ask you the same question I asked Commander Hunter. Do you hold a strong view about the possible conviction of Lieutenant Commander Headley?”
“Yessir. I shall resign my commission if they find him guilty of mutiny.”
“Reason?”
“Same as Commander Hunter’s. Dan Headley saved the SEALs’ lives.”
“No more questions.”
Locker Jones had none either, and the SEAL team leader left the room, clearing the way for Al Surprenant to bring in a succession of minor witnesses, Lt. Commander Josh Gandy, Master Chief Drew Fisher, Lt. Matt Singer, all offering unerring support for the XO. He brought in two more SEALs, the wounded Rattlesnake Davies and Lt. Dallas MacPherson, who both offered the opinion that they would have been killed but for the appearance on the scene of USS Shark.
He then called, in fairly quick succession, the three psychiatrists who had independently examined Commander Reid. One of them was definite: There was nothing wrong with Commander Reid, and on that he could not be shaken.
The other two were not so sure. Neither would say he was crazy, but they both agreed he held some very strange views, for a U.S. Navy commander.
Al Surprenant questioned and badgered, overstepped the bounds of polite interrogation and then dived back behind them against a barrage of “OBJECTIONS” from the prosecutor. Once he nearly had an admission that Commander Reid was just too strange, too bound up in his perceived French antecedents, to be trusted with a modern nuclear submarine.
But a belief in reincarnation, and indeed spiritualism, simply did not constitute “crazy.” Surprenant proved eccentricity, and he proved a profound instability. He almost proved a long-held emotional cowardice on the part of the CO. But he did not obtain an admission that Commander Reid was so unbalanced as to have been relieved of command on that particular morning.
It was immediately after the lunch break when the defense finally called the accused Executive Officer to the witness chair to testify under oath in his own defense. And before he did so, counsel requested permission to “read just two or three lines from Section Three of Navy Regulation one-zero-eight-eight, which the prosecution apparently deemed irrelevant.”
And he then stated, very simply, “Intelligent, fearless initiative is an important trait of military character. It is not the purpose of these regulations to discourage its employment in cases of this nature.”
Lieutenant Commander Headley sat motionless in the witness chair as the short but powerful words were read out to the court. He saw Captain Dunning nod, and he continued to sit bolt upright, immaculate in his uniform, as he began to answer his counsel’s questions, firmly and without hesitation.
“And when it came right down to it, why do you think Commander Reid refused to help the SEALs?”
“Two reasons, sir. One, he did not want to be associated with another disaster, like he had in another life. Two, he kept yelling that the planet Mercury was in retrograde.”
“He what?”
“He told me that the mighty planet that controls us was stilled in the heavens and that by dawn it would be in retrograde — going backwards, that is.”
“Did you have any comment?”
“I believe I just said, ‘No shit?’ I found it a bit bewildering, given the urgency of our situation.”
“Did this conversation take place in front of anyone?”
“Nossir. This started in his cabin. But then it continued back in the control room in front of everyone after the SEALs had transmitted their call for help.”
“Did you go back to the control room, leaving the CO in his cabin?”