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.
[Have an opinion on this article? Go to the Discussion
Forum to sound off.]
By Jeff Edwards
The U.S. Army recently court-martialed six members of the 656th Transportation Company for theft of military equipment. Eight other members of the 656th were given Non-Judicial Punishment, including reductions in pay, fines, and loss of rank. The unit's Commanding Officer, Major Cathy Kaus, was fined $5,000.00 and sentenced to six months in jail. She is scheduled for release on Christmas Day.
On the surface, it looks like an open and shut case. Members of the 656th took Army vehicles without authorization. The Uniform Code of Military Justice classifies that as theft, and the Soldiers in question are paying the price for their crime. But was it a crime?
At any given point during my two and a half decades in the Navy, my division was short of something. Sometimes we were short of a whole lot of somethings. The military supply system managed to get us most of what we needed, most of the time, but we could not always get the supplies or parts required to complete our mission.
I've been retired from Active Duty for less than a year, and I can't see that the situation has changed much. The men and women who serve our country in uniform don't always get what they need to do their job. Anyone who tells you otherwise is peddling snake oil.
I'm not laying this problem at the feet of the military supply system. The logistics necessary to support a military deployment are staggering. Factor in the chaos inherent in combat, a fierce desert climate, and some of the nastiest terrain on the planet, and the difficulty goes up by an order of magnitude.
Sometimes, shortages are the fault of the service members themselves; they're running low on parts or supplies, and forget to order replacements. This is an error that most Soldiers or Sailors only need to make once. The memory usually lingers long after the Sergeant or Chief has conducted remedial training on the subject, and the finger-shaped bruises have begun to fade from the offender's windpipe.
Sometimes it's simply a matter of money and/or timing. If you've never served in the military, here's a rule of thumb for you: A $60,000.00 High Voltage Power Supply will never ever explode in a shower of sparks and blue smoke when your Quarterly Repair Budget is fat. The errant component will perform flawlessly until your available repair funds are somewhere on the order of $14.27, and then...BANG! There goes your radar, or communications system, or missile system.
