Monday 1 May 2017

Red November by W. Craig Reed - Book Report #180

I can't help being fascinated by the cold war.

Submarines are so cloaked in secrecy that I simply find myself drawn to them.

I've read a few books on just how close we've all come to destruction and it leaves me chilled every time I hear such a story.  So it came as no surprise when close calls from the submarine fleet were revealed in this book.

What impressed me was how small innovations could have profound impacts on the opposing force.  When the Soviets moved to burst transmissions to communicate it sent the US into a massive effort find a way to locate the subs that suddenly became invisible.

Like a Tom Clancy novel there are no small players in the American military and it takes everybody doing their jobs to the best of their abilities to keep ahead.

What was revealed about the Cuban Missile Crisis surprised me leaving me thankful that the skippers of the Soviet subs were so clever and cool-headed.

The book reveals other mission right into the mid 1980's, anything after that is still classified.  Fair enough.

In the end I would dearly love to see a day where we put all this ingenuity to use as one people instead of constantly trying to find ways to undermine each other.

That said it is this very war against ourselves that moves our society forward as technologies become available commercially and the real work of peaceful progress takes place.  Our society lags about 30 years behind the advances made by the military.  So, in a weird way, we have managed to benefit from all of it.

The book was well written and at times felt just like a fictional thriller.  I liked the personal feel of the book as it started by first following the career of his father then moved into his own career in the submarine service.

I highly recommend this book.  Publishing it helps to make the world a better place.

W. Craig Reed's website is here - http://wcraigreed.com/

W. Craig Reed.


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