U.S.S. Seawolf

by Patrick Robinson

  “Which leaves us to organize a Navy Board of Inquiry, right?”

  “That’s it, Joe. It’ll happen in San Diego, under the auspices of CINCPAC. Makes sense. CINCPAC is Captain Crocker’s Commander-in-Chief. He’s the guy who decides what happens downstream of the inquiry.”

  “I just hope it doesn’t get messy…but I know it’s unavoidable.”

  “You can say that again. The U.S. Navy simply cannot lose a billion-dollar SSN and not have an official and formal explanation to both the government and the taxpayer.”

  “Jesus. You mean the Board of Inquiry hearings have to be public?”

  “Hell, no. They’ll be held in camera, with a lot of witnesses. But the findings will be made public. The Board’s report will have to be published, with its recommendations.”

  “And that’s where life could get a little tough…if they start recommending the severest reprimands, or even censures, of the senior officers of the ship.”

  “Might not even stop there, either,” replied Admiral Morgan.

  “Huh?”

  “In a case such as this, they could actually recommend the court-martial of the CO or his XO, or even both.”

  “A court-martial? Hell, Arnie, I wouldn’t think so. We don’t court-martial for carelessness. Only the Brits do that, and even then they usually find the captain not guilty. It’s been years since the Navy court-martialed anyone for anything that was not actually criminal.”

  “Maybe, Joe. Maybe. But there is nothing ordinary about this case, and I’m interested to hear whether anyone decides to draw a firm line separating a genuine but inexcusable mistake from gross negligence. This is a very, very big loss…it’s beyond imagination that a captain with firm orders not to get detected proceeded to do so, two or perhaps even three times, and then crashed into a Chinese destroyer…I mean, Jesus…it sounds like the boat was being driven by some kind of nut.…Joe, I would not be surprised to see a recommendation for a special court-martial. Unless they got some real classy alibi.”

  “Well, I hope they don’t feel the need to go that far…because that’s likely to muddy up the waters real bad. As it is, that Board of Inquiry is going to be told their brief, and indeed their powers, are restricted to those actions that led up to the submarine’s loss of propulsion in the South China Sea. They are not empowered to ask any questions beyond the moment when the Chinese moved in to assist them. Otherwise we’ll end up with a public report, which details the whole gruesome saga. Which no one needs.”

  “Hell, no. We gotta avoid that, Joe. In fact, I think for the purpose of this inquiry we’ll have a Navy lawyer from the Pentagon sitting in at all times, to make sure our guidelines are strictly followed.”

  “I don’t think we can avoid that, Arnie. But this might mean that the senior officers of the submarine may feel they have to be legally represented. Some of them might. I wonder whether the captain himself might be advised to do so.”

  “Well, I think he would, Joe. And this will almost certainly mean the President will insist Linus has some hotshot attorney in his corner. I don’t have a problem with that. In fact, I think it’s better we advise the President that’s what ought to happen. In Linus’s interests.”

  “Of course, we don’t even know whether Linus was personally involved in this debacle.”

  “No. We don’t. But I somehow doubt Judd Crocker achieved it all on his own.”

  0900. Thursday. July 27.

  The Oval Office.

  “Arnie, do I have the power to stop this?”

  “Yessir. But you’d have to do it publicly. You’d have to say, Look here, guys, I’m the goddamned Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces and I hereby order you not to inquire formally into the loss of USS Seawolf. Do not come up with any conclusions or recommendations. Just forget about the whole thing.”

  “Well, I plainly cannot do that.”

  “Not if you like working here.”

  “What I meant was, can I just ask you to express on my behalf a general disapproval of putting these brave men through some kind of a trial? Might my disapproval not be enough?”

  “Nossir. It would not. The Navy is obliged to inquire into the loss of any warship. We cannot just put it down as bad luck and write the ship off. No one would put up with it. Least of all the Senate Armed Forces Committee. We cannot be held unaccountable for our actions. Not least because such an attitude would be held over our heads forever…What do you need? Another five billion? And you don’t even have to explain where it goes?”

  “Well, Arnie, I really do not want any criticism or blame attached to anyone over this.”

  “Sir, you might make that view known. It worked for the Brits after the Falklands War back in 1982. They found it politically convenient to avoid any courts-martial, which there probably should have been…they lost seven ships, for Christ’s sake. But there was no action beyond regular Boards of Inquiry. But I do not think your admirals would ever approve of a presidential restriction being put upon the men inquiring into a very serious disaster that cost the Navy a coupla billion dollars.”

  “How about the other tack, Admiral? How about I threaten not to approve the massive increase in shipbuilding budgets unless they do what I say over this inquiry?”

  “Sir, if anyone other than my loyal self ever heard you say that, proceedings would begin to have you removed from this office. Remember, sir, it’s Linus. His presence, right in the thick of this mess, makes you an interested party…interested to see your son exonerated from whatever blame there may be.”

  “Arnold, I am interested. I do not want Linus in disgrace. And I’m not having it. You heard my threat. Do not ignore it. Though I shall deny ever having said it.”

  “Sir, I am going to pretend I never heard any of the last few sentences you have uttered.”

  “That may or may not be a wise move on your part. It could cost your beloved Navy a couple of aircraft carriers.”

  “Then so be it, sir. The budget veto is your privilege. But I could not recommend you use it as a blackmail weapon to save Linus’s reputation.”

  The President stood up and walked to the end of his office and back. And then he asked a question that had plainly been on his mind: “Have you seen the preliminary reports from Seawolf?”

  “Nossir.”

  “Are they in? Have the admirals read them?”

  “I do believe so, sir.”

  “Do you have any idea what they contain?”

  “Nossir. Except there was a mighty problem right before the collision in the South China Sea.”

  “Do you have details?”

  “Nossir.”

  “Could I demand to see the reports?”

  “Yessir.”

  “Would they acquiesce?”

  “To the parent of one of the officers? I doubt it.”

  “No, Arnold. To their Commander-in-Chief.”

  “Possibly, sir. But they have one weapon that will always finish you. Any one of them could just say, ‘This is tantamount to corruption. I resign from the Board and I shall have no hesitation in making my reasons public. Crooked President.’

  “Knowing them, sir, they might all do it. You are contemplating very dangerous ground. But right now I have no reason to believe Linus is in any danger. Take a worst-case situation…let’s say he made some kind of mistake, maybe compounding another. That’s not life-threatening. Maybe a reprimand or a letter of censure. Maybe nothing. Just a warning. It’s part and parcel of command in the U.S. Navy.”

  “Arnold, I do not want my son to be reprimanded publicly. Do you understand me?”

  “Yessir”

  “Can you and I save him from that? With the combined powers of persuasion that we have?”

  “Nossir. The Navy will not tolerate interference in a case as serious as this. Long after you’re gone, they’ll still have to answer to Congress.”

  “Then we’ll just have to see about that. Thank you, NSA. That’s all.”

  0930. Mon
day, September 11.

  United States Navy Base.

  San Diego, California.

  The Board of Inquiry was charged with investigating “the circumstances surrounding the accident to USS Seawolf some time before 0600 (local) on Wednesday, July 5, 2006, in the South China Sea.” It was convened in the main conference room under the Chairmanship of Admiral Archie Cameron, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet.

  A tall, graying man of 55, Admiral Cameron was a former Fifth Fleet Commander. In the 1990s he had served for several years as commanding officer of the state-of-the-art guided missile cruiser USS Ticonderoga, and was regarded as a potential CNO when Joe Mulligan retired.

  Seated to his right was the Commander of the Seventh Fleet, Vice Admiral Albie Peterson. To his left sat Rear Admiral Freddie Curran, Commander Submarine Force Pacific Fleet (COMSUBPAC). Flown in from New London was the newly promoted Trident commander, Captain Mike Krause. The final member of the five-man board was Captain Henry Bonilla, commanding officer of Seawolf’s Sister ship, USS Jimmy Carter.

  At the end of the long mahogany table sat Lt. Commander Edward Kirk, the Pentagon’s attorney, whose task it was to restrict the inquiry to those matters relevant to the effective seizure of the American submarine by the Chinese. Not, understandably, the aftermath. Everyone was given to understand that when Lieutenant Commander Kirk spoke on a point of order, his words were to be heeded at all times. Those orders came from Admiral Mulligan in person.

  And the CNO had serious reasons for ensuring that the inquiry did not somehow get out of hand. For the month previous to the opening session, he and Admiral Morgan had endured bruising hours with the President’s personal advisers, all of whom were attempting to arrange the fairest possible treatment for Lt. Commander Linus Clarke.

  The CNO had argued for a week that the preliminary reports were private to the United States Navy, and that no one beyond CINCPAC should have access to their contents, certainly not the parent of one of the significant officers. Certainly not the father of the man who might very well have had the conn of the submarine on that fateful morning.

  But the President’s men had come out fighting, arguing that as Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces he had the right to see any documents he so wished. For five days the rights and wrongs of the Presidential position had been debated, and finally it was agreed that the deadlock should go to immediate arbitration, and the decision of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Tim Scannell, would be final.

  General Scannell took only a half hour to rule against the President, on the grounds that it would compromise him unforgivably throughout the investigation. It would be, he said, “just plain wrong for the President to be seen trying to gain any advantage whatsoever for Lieutenant Commander Clarke. Certainly he cannot be seen attempting to obtain a preview of the case, and then acting on it, against the interests of other serving officers.”

  Nonetheless, the President had secured one advantage for his son, a most unusual advantage in a U.S. Navy Board of Inquiry. He had gained permission for Linus to have one of the best lawyers in the country sitting with him throughout the entire evidence. The attorney was the urbane and learned Philip Myerscough, who was not permitted to make any statement whatsoever, but was permitted to question witnesses. Admiral Mulligan made it clear that he would not tolerate any civilian cross-examining witnesses, as they might in a regular court of law. However, Mr. Myerscough would be allowed to “probe and clarify” certain points of evidence. But he would answer at all times to Admiral Cameron and, if necessary, to Lieutenant Commander Kirk.

  Judd Crocker’s father, the 66-year-old Admiral Nathaniel Crocker, himself a former destroyer commander, had flown to the West Coast to meet with his son and visit his daughter-in-law. And for the past few weeks he had taken a keen academic interest in the forthcoming case. The moment it was agreed that Lieutenant Commander Clarke would be permitted an attorney in his corner, he insisted that Seawolf’s CO should also have one.

  He appointed an old friend with whom he had attended the Naval Academy in Annapolis back in 1960—Art Mangone, who had lasted only six years in dark blue before leaving to take a belated law degree at UCLA. Art liked the law better than he liked submarines, and had been practicing in La Jolla, the coastal suburb of San Diego, since 1976. The investigation of USS Seawolf would grant him a chance to combine knowledge acquired in both his careers.

  “The only thing I know about Mangone as a lawyer is that he plays golf to a five handicap,” said the admiral. “But I trust him, he’s a gentleman, and he’s free.”

  “Spoken like a true Boston Yankee,” observed Judd.

  And now the scene was set. Captain Crocker and his attorney, plus Lieutenant Commander Clarke and his, would sit in the courtroom throughout all of the evidence.

  And now Admiral Cameron called the Board of Inquiry to order, read out the formalities, and requested the first witness to enter the room and swear to tell the truth.

  The routine examination of each witness would be undertaken by the vastly experienced ex-Polaris commander Rear Admiral Curran. At the conclusion of his questioning, other members of the board would ask their questions and then the two attorneys would be permitted to elaborate on certain points should Admiral Cameron deem it relevant.

  After the regular establishment of identity and career, Lt. Andrew Warren, Seawolf’s Officer of the Deck, turned to face Admiral Curran directly.

  “Lieutenant Warren,” he said. “Will you tell us where you were between the hours of oh-four hundred and oh-eight hundred on the morning of July fifth this year?”

  “Yessir. I was on duty in the submarine Seawolf in the South China Sea. I served as Officer of the Deck.”

  “And did your duties take you to various different stations in the submarine?”

  “Yessir.”

  “And did you spend some time in the control room?”

  “Yessir.”

  “And were you able to see who had the conn at all times?”

  “Yessir. Whenever I was in there.”

  “And would you mind telling the board who did have the conn during your watch?”

  “Yessir. For a short while, maybe a half hour when I first came on duty, Captain Crocker had the ship. Then he went to his bunk, and Lieutenant Commander Clarke took over. I was in the conn at the watch change.”

  “And how would you describe the period of time while Commander Clarke had the ship?”

  “Fine, at first, just like always. But then something terrible happened.”

  “Would you describe that?”

  “Yessir. At around oh-five-thirty, our sonar picked up a Chinese destroyer coming toward us at flank speed.”

  “Lieutenant Commander Clarke had the conn, correct?”

  “Yessir. And then the destroyer slowed right down. We were twenty-four hundred yards off her starboard beam.” I had the conn while Linus Clarke used the periscope. He ordered me to keep the ship straight and level, which I did.”

  “And then?”

  “Lieutenant Commander Clarke was going in closer. He was after some close-up shots of the extra-large housing for the towed array, which he could see on the stern.”

  “Did he say he was going in closer?”

  “Yessir.”

  “And did you reply?”

  “Yessir. I said, ‘steady, sir, we don’t know how long that towed array is.’”

  “Do you normally issue that kind of advice to your Executive Officer?”

  “Nossir. In this case I meant it as some kind of a warning. In good faith, sir.”

  “And did Lieutenant Commander Clarke reply?”

  “Yessir.”

  “And what did he say to you?”

  “He said, ‘don’t worry, Andy.’ Then he said he would not go in closer than a mile. I remember he said the towed array ‘won’t be that long, will it?’ And he mentioned that it would be angled down in the water, not straight out like a submarine.”

  “And
what happened then?”

  “Well, by now Master Chief Brad Stockton was in the control room, and he spoke up suddenly. He said he thought the CO should be informed we were ‘groping around the ass of a six-thousand-ton destroyer.’ I remember his words very well.”

  “And was he issuing those words to Lieutenant Commander Clarke in an informative way, because he thought the XO did not know what he was actually doing?”

  “Oh, nossir. He was telling the XO to inform the CO of our actions.”

  “And did the lieutenant commander heed that warning?”

  “Nossir. He said there was no need to alert the CO. He was just going to take the destroyer’s stern a mile off and take some pictures.”