Jeff Edwards is a retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer, and an Anti-Submarine Warfare Specialist. He is currently working as a civilian expert consultant to the Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Command, the Navy's think tank for high-tech undersea warfare. His naval career spanned more than two decades and half the globe -- from chasing Soviet nuclear attack submarines during the Cold War, to launching cruise missiles in the Persian Gulf.
He puts his extensive experience as a Surface
Warfare specialist to work in his new novel,
TORPEDO.
In a plot that could easily be ripped from
today's headlines, TORPEDO combines an accident
at a nuclear power plant, an illegal arms
deal, and a biological warfare attack, to
ignite a crisis that could draw Western Europe,
the Middle East, and the United States into
all-out war. TORPEDO mixes the elements of
a classic sea chase novel with state-of-the-art
technology to create a cutting-edge Surface
Warfare Thriller.
Sound Off! Got an opinion about this article? Make your voice heard on the Jeff Edwards discussion forum.
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March 31, 2005
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Top Gun, Crimson Tide, Iron Eagle, Navy Seals, A Bridge Too Far, Three Kings, Platoon, The Hunt for Red October, Full Metal Jacket, The Thin Red Line, Blackhawk Down, Men of Honor, Tears of the Sun, Down Periscope, Pearl Harbor, Casualties of War, Saving Private Ryan, K-19, We Were Soldiers, Wind Talkers, U-571, Hamburger Hill, Enemy at the Gates ... Did you spot the Surface Warfare movie in that bunch? No? Go back and look at the list again. Look hard this time. You still didn't find it? Okay, that was a trick question. There is no Surface Warfare movie in that bunch. Not counting the 1997 comedy film, McHale's Navy, I can't think of a single movie about the surface Navy since The Bedford Incident and In Harms Way were released in 1965. Barring the occasional cameo appearance of a frigate or destroyer in a movie otherwise dedicated to submarines, fighter pilots, or Navy divers, no one has made a Surface Warfare movie in about forty years.
There are Country Music songs that celebrate the Soldier and the Marine. The movie business has fallen in love with submarines, fighter jets, and helicopters. The news media runs footage of tanks and aircraft carriers nearly every day.
But who celebrates the frigate Sailor? Who recognizes and appreciates the accomplishments and sacrifices of the men and women who serve aboard our cruisers and destroyers? The surface Sailors of the United States Navy work and fight while nobody is watching. And sometimes they die while no one is paying attention.
A couple of years before the first Gulf War, thirty-seven Sailors were killed when a pair of Iraqi Exocet missiles nearly cut USS Stark in half. No one made any movies. Nobody wrote Country and Western songs when an Iranian mine did the same thing to USS Samuel B. Roberts. Nobody wrote books about the heroism of surface Sailors when USS Princeton was crippled by mines in the Persian Gulf, or when suicide bombers killed 17 Sailors aboard USS Cole.
I'm not carping because we 'skimmers' haven't gotten a movie in a while. This isn't about movies. It's not about songs on the radio, or news coverage. This is about something far more fundamental. I'm beginning to think America has forgotten that it has a surface Navy. For all intents and purposes, our cruisers and destroyers might as well be invisible.
It's one thing to be undetectable to the sensors and weapons of your enemies. It's quite another thing to go unknown and unnoticed by the citizens of your own country. So I'm going to take a whack at pulling back the cloak of invisibility. I'd like to introduce you to the men and women who walk the decks of your surface Navy. (If you happen to be a surface Sailor, then put a shine on your steel-toed boots and straighten up your military creases, because I'm about to introduce you to the citizens you protect.)
Who are these Sailors, and what do they do? First off, they're young. The crew of a typical cruiser or destroyer ranges in age from 18 to somewhere in the late 40s, but the number of crusty old-timers is fairly low. The average age on most ships is between 19 and 23.
Don't let their youth fool you. These kids are sharp! They operate, maintain, and repair incredibly complex systems, from the gas turbine engines that power their ships, to the world's most sophisticated radars, sonars, communications systems, weapons systems, and navigation systems.
The average surface Sailor is a technician, a tactician, a mechanic, and a firefighter. He or she has been trained in Theory-of-Leadership, Uniform Regulations, Tactical Doctrine, First Aid, Military Customs, Shipboard Damage Control, Visual and Electronic Communications, Navigation, Naval History, and a hundred other subjects. He knows how to patch a broken pipe, how to make an emergency life vest out of a pair of pants, how to isolate a faulty electrical panel, how to fight a raging fuel oil fire, and how to treat a sucking chest wound using a military ID card. He can read signal flags, launch high speed boats from a moving ship, and guide a helicopter to a safe landing in the dark. He can operate high-tech night vision equipment, lay down a barrier of Damage Control foam, and put two dozen 9mm rounds through a man-sized target silhouette in nothing flat.
