Book review: Sewell - All Hands Down
Just finished All Hands Down: The True Story of the Soviet Attack on the USS Scorpion by Kenneth Sewell and Jerome Preisler
Good book, interesting view of the late 60's, the Cold War, and some difficult decisions and their impact on the country, the crew and families of the Scorpion.
In a nutshell, the story follows the actual incident from a Soviet assumption that the US sunk one of their subs thru the Soviet response in luring and then destroying the Scorpion.
For political reasons, the US Navy refused to consider hostile action as the cause of the loss, even though the evidence pointed that way.
Very interesting historical perspective or the Pueblo capture by the North Koreans, the impact of Walker's spying on US encrypted communications for the Soviets, the Scorpion and a bit about why and what the Soviets were doing.
What came through to me is the impact of these incidents on the members of the military, their families and the very difficult decisions which had to be made by the Navy and the US Government.
Essentially, the US ignored two acts of war and declined to escalate into a hot war, (or from nuking N Korea), even though reasonable justification could have been made.
Unfortunately, the results of these decisions placed a significant additional burden on the families of the Scorpion crew members.
Good book, interesting perspective on submarine operations and the impact of decisions made at the top.
Good book, interesting view of the late 60's, the Cold War, and some difficult decisions and their impact on the country, the crew and families of the Scorpion.
In a nutshell, the story follows the actual incident from a Soviet assumption that the US sunk one of their subs thru the Soviet response in luring and then destroying the Scorpion.
For political reasons, the US Navy refused to consider hostile action as the cause of the loss, even though the evidence pointed that way.
Very interesting historical perspective or the Pueblo capture by the North Koreans, the impact of Walker's spying on US encrypted communications for the Soviets, the Scorpion and a bit about why and what the Soviets were doing.
What came through to me is the impact of these incidents on the members of the military, their families and the very difficult decisions which had to be made by the Navy and the US Government.
Essentially, the US ignored two acts of war and declined to escalate into a hot war, (or from nuking N Korea), even though reasonable justification could have been made.
Unfortunately, the results of these decisions placed a significant additional burden on the families of the Scorpion crew members.
Good book, interesting perspective on submarine operations and the impact of decisions made at the top.