Author Description

For submariners and cryptologists: an enlisted sailor's story. Cryptologist Seaman Calvin Thompson is the SPOOK RIDER, an ELINT-oriented Cryptologist on his first Cold War deployment aboard the USS Barracuda, a fast attack submarine with 100+ high-performance crewmen. While disconnected from the real world for two months aboard 'Cuda, one of the US Navy's least habitable ships, he learns that the mission requires long periods of dull reconnaissance rewarded occasionally with spikes in wartime-simulated activity against the Soviet Russian navy. The submarine of the era is a "men-only" domain where Cal finds submariners alternately bored, restless, crass and jaded. They freely objectify women, are sometimes racist and find high humor in the misfortunes of anyone aboard. Around the clock, they are the ultimate professionals, getting the job done despite the extreme living conditions. Though realistic, the Barracuda's operations depicted in SPOOK RIDER never happened. Any similarity to recorded or recalled events is purely coincidence, or the names have been changed to protect the guilty. This story is deemed UNCLASSIFIED by the National Security Agency and the U.S. Department of Defense.