‘Opening the Great Depths’ for What?

Review by Bill Doughty

At the end of John Piña Craven’s masterful memoir, “The Silent War,” Craven praises the team of military and civilian warriors who supported the silent service and helped win the Cold War: “They taught us that eternal vigilance is not enough. They taught us that society must organize for the deterrence of nuclear war and the preservation of world peace. These are still missions of the people of the world’s free democracies, and we must again organize a band of individuals whose lives are dedicated to these missions.”

I reached for Craven’s book, subtitled “The Cold War Battle Beneath the Sea,” after reading a new comprehensive history of deep-sea exploration: “Opening the Great Depths: The Bathyscaph Trieste and Pioneers of Undersea Exploration” by Norman Polmar and Lee J. Mathers (Naval Institute Press, 2021).

Polmar and Mathers credit Craven’s innovative role in leading key Cold War tactics including creating systems to “rescue trapped crewmen in sunken submarines down to crush depth, allow divers to work at 600 feet, and locate and recover small objects down to 20,000 feet.” The Navy deployed Craven’s brainstorming ideas in classified intelligence missions, according to the authors. In 1964 “Craven had succinctly defined a program that the Navy would pursue until the end of the Cold War and beyond.”

The first practicable idea for a vessel capable of reaching the bottom of the ocean came from an eccentric European scientist who served as a balloonist in the Swiss Army in the First World War. Auguste Piccard was at the center of the “excitement and turmoil that physics was experiencing” one hundred years ago. Piccard “rubbed elbows with” Albert Einstein, Max Born, and Marie Curie, among other revolutionary scientists and explorers.

“Opening the Great Depths” opens with a get-together in New York hosted by Amelia Earhart, where Piccard meets fellow adventurer Charles Lindbergh. Piccard envisioned a metal “balloon” that could sink to the bottom of the ocean and then –– with a system of lead pellets and petroleum as ballast –– be able to float back to the surface.

Auguste Piccard’s development of the first bathyscaphe, spelled “bathyscaph” by Polmar and Mathers (who also present measurements the English rather than metric system), is a story of international cooperation. The first working bathyscaphe was funded by King Leopold of Belgium. Development was led by scientists in Switzerland and supported by the French Navy. It was built in Italy and tested in Portuguese territorial waters and near the Horn of Africa.

Lieutenant Larry Shumaker, Assistant Officer in Charge; Lieutenant Donald Walsh, Officer in Charge; Dr. Andreas B. Rechnitzer, Scientist in Charge; Jacques Piccard, Co-Designer and Technical Advisor of Bathyscaphe Trieste, Nov. 16, 1959.

Jacques Piccard, Auguste’s son, took over for his father and accelerated development of Trieste, named for the town in Italy where it was built. The younger Piccard, who stood 6’5” according to John Craven, reached out to coordinate directly with the United States Navy in further development of the new technology. The Navy acquired Trieste in the mid 1950s through the new Office of Naval Research.

ONR was created after the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. With a bathyscaphe, the “Navy would gain the capability to operate in the deepest ocean depths.” Exploration of the ocean’s depths would be spurred by the Soviet Union’s advances in space, leading to the launch of Sputnik in 1957.

In late 1958, a young submarine officer who saw himself stuck behind a desk in an administrative billet at Submarine Flotilla 1, volunteered to oversea, operate, and maintain Trieste. Lt. Don Walsh conducted the first dives near San Diego. Trieste was “re-welded to Navy standards” and readied for deep dives off Guam. Other key members of the early dives were Dr. Andy Rechnitzer, Navy Lt. Lawrence Shumaker, Giuseppe Buono, and Jacques Piccard.

Polmar and Mathers provide a brief history of discovery of the deepest trenches in the ocean. Their book is comprehensive and detailed, often reading like a logbook filled with names of personnel, places, support ships, and missions. The authors describe “white” and “black” operations, focused on finding either U.S. or Soviet debris or equipment on the ocean bottom.

Walsh and Piccard aboard Trieste

The Navy first deployed the Trieste, in part, to search for life at the deepest part of the ocean for a specific purpose: “Was there a depth below which complex life could not survive? The answer to that question might determine whether the deep-ocean trenches would be used for the long-term disposal of radioactive and other hazardous waste material.”

In the best chapter in the book, Polmar and Mathers describe the tension as Piccard and Walsh took a long “elevator ride” through the thermocline, passing two layers of phosphorescent plankton, and heading into the hadal depths for the first time. The bathyscaphe suffered small leaks and a cracked entry tube window. The temperature inside the bathyscaphe was 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Piccard and Walsh ate chocolate bars and peered out as best as they could, unsure when the bottom would appear. After more than four and half hours they reached the “six-three hundred fathoms” –– 37,800 feet, significantly deeper than anticipated.

Their discovery of “a shrimp and a fleet of madusae proved that the ocean’s deepest depths contain complex life forms.” Piccard thought he saw a "sole" on the bottom, but that sighting was unlikely a fish.

The team received a heroes’ welcome  in Guam, Hawaii, and Washington D.C. President Eisenhower presented Piccard, Walsh, Rechnitzer and Shumaker with awards in the presence of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Arleigh Burke. Lt. Walsh received the Legion of Merit. He would go on to have a distinguished naval career, retiring as a Navy captain. Jacques Piccard, a non-citizen, was awarded the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award.

“Piccard was especially proud of a White House letter dated 9 February 1960 that stated in part, ‘As a citizen of Switzerland, a country admired by all the free world for its love of freedom and independence, you have the gratitude of all the people of the United States for helping to further open the doors of this important scientific field. Sincerely, Dwight D. Eisenhower.”

As the general who led the liberation of Europe from Nazi fascism in WWII, Eisenhower was revered in the free world. America’s commitment to international cooperation –– along with a “major influx of American dollars through the U.S. government’s Marshall Plan” –– led directly and indirectly to the development of shipyards, refineries, and research that helped build the Trieste bathyscaphe.

President Eisenhower dines in the crew's mess aboard USS Seawolf (SSN-575) off Newport, Rhode Island, Sept. 26, 1957. With him are Chief Hospital Corpsman Milton W. Tucker; Press Secretary James Hagerty (partially visible); and Seaman Apprentice W.J. Dooling, the youngest man in Seawolf's crew. (NHHC)

Meantime, the Cold War and space race were heating up at the end of the 1950s and through the 1960s, where relations with the Soviet Union were about competition, not cooperation.

The Navy saw that “advancing undersea technology was vital to the security of the United States,” according to Polmar and Mathers. “Classified operations for the Trieste were suggested in the summer of 1961.” The Navy, Air Force, and CIA reportedly considered using Trieste to locate and retrieve debris from the ocean floor. 

Trieste was deployed for the search of the USS Thresher (SSN-593), a nuclear-powered submarine lost 220 miles east of Boston on Apr. 10, 1963. The Navy was concerned about the sub’s nuclear reactor “potentially contaminating waters close to the U.S. eastern seaboard,” according to the authors. “And, the Navy had to examine the wreckage in an effort to determine the cause of her loss.”

"Overhaul and Refiitting Bathyscaphe Trieste," painting, watercolor on paper, Salvatore Indiviglia, 1961. (NHHC)

Unfortunately, the Trieste itself was subject to numerous casualties and limitations over the years, including fires, leaks, corrosion, mechanical failures, insufficient battery power, and propulsion motor issues –– a “maintenance nightmare.” Mare Island Naval Shipyard architects, under the supervision of chief design engineer Herbert L. Graybeal, designed a more advanced float that was stronger and safer. The Trieste II was born. Eventually three versions of Trieste would serve, but nomenclature was (perhaps deliberately) confusing for what would be Trieste, Trieste II, Trieste III, and/or DSV-1. For simplicity, I’ll refer to all versions of the Trieste bathyscaphe throughout this review as “Trieste.”

As the Cold War heated up, on May 28, 1964, Secretary of the Navy Paul H. Nitze assigned Trieste and the Deep Submergence Program to the Special Projects Office. The “Deep Submergence Systems Project” became a separate agency under the direction of chief scientist Dr. John Piña Craven. (Craven is a descendant of a long line of Navy officers; he served as an enlisted battleship sailor in World War II, and he earned his PhD with help from the G.I. Bill. Craven's Special Projects team developed the Polaris Fleet Ballistic Missile.)

Among other duties leading DSSP, Dr. Craven headed the recovery effort for a hydrogen bomb that had fallen near Palomares after a U.S. Air Force B-25G strategic bomber collided with a refueling tanker off Spain’s Mediterranean coast on January 17, 1966.

USS Scorpion (SSN-589) outside Claywall Harbor, Naples, Italy, 10 April 1968, one of the last known photos of Scorpion before the submarine was lost with all hands in May 1968 while returning to the U.S. from this Mediterranean deployment (NHHC).

Chapter 14 of “Opening the Great Depths” begins with this chilling line: “The year 1968 was a very bad year for submarines.” The authors refer to the losses of Israel’s diesel-electric submarine Dakar and France’s Minerve, both lost in the Mediterranean; the Soviet Golf II ballistic missile submarine K-129, lost in the Pacific; and the USS nuclear-propelled submarine Scorpion (SSN-589), lost in the North Atlantic. Even the U.S. Navy’s deep submersible Alvin, operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, was lost off the coast of Massachusetts in October, 1968. Response to any recovery operations was complicated by events on the world’s stage involving the Navy: the War in Vietnam and North Korea’s seizure of the U.S. intelligence ship USS Pueblo (AGER-2).

Polmar and Mathers present the history of Trieste’s role in the late 60s matter-of-factly with emphasis on personnel, dates, stats, and details. For a more personal account and for context, readers may want to do what I did and turn to Craven’s “The Silent War.” Craven writes about his lead role in the search for USS Scorpion and then the clandestine search for the missing Soviet submarine.

Always the innovative thinker, Craven proposed a way to go inside a sunk submarine. According to Polmar and Mathers, “Dr. Craven’s idea was that a vehicle small enough to enter one of the Scorpion’s 21-inch torpedo tube might help to determine if her loss had been caused by an internal or external torpedo explosion.” That idea resulted in “flying eyeballs” developed by the Naval Undersea Center in San Diego.

USS Ruchamkin (APD-89) in Hampton Roads, Virginia, with USS Mountrail (APA-213) beyond, Jan. 16, 1967. (NHHC)

Fifty-three years ago this month, above the site of the USS Scorpion, Craven and his team were aboard the support ship USS Ruchamkin (APD-89) when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, July 20, 1968. They listened to Voice of America's report and thought of how their efforts at reaching the limits of inner space coincided with what was happening in outer space. After all, their team had reached the deepest part of the ocean less than ten years earlier.

“Dr. Craven recorded that when Armstrong placed his foot onto the Moon’s surface everyone in the wardroom thrust their hands above their head –– a sporting celebration for ‘score!’ An anonymous voice shouted out, ‘No, dammit, no! Two small steps!,’ referring to Trieste’s simultaneous work at a depth of 11,100 feet.”

On July 30, the team retrieved some debris from the Scorpion, including the ship’s sextant. Subsequent testing showed that the main battery had exploded; the submarine was not torpedoed.

Trieste and the Deep Submergence Program entered the 1970s in “neglect and decline,” a period when funding trickled away, support evaporated, and billets dwindled. The future would be with unmanned vessels. Nevertheless, Trieste and other submersibles were used in recovery operations off Hawaii as well as monitoring for radiation contamination from transponders near Midway Atoll.

The Navy’s eccentric and ubiquitous Adm. Hyman G. Rickover, who headed the Naval Reactors Directorate, had the bathyscaphe deployed in response to the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972. The mission: investigate USS Seawolf’s nuclear reactor, which had been dumped in 1959 in 9,000 feet of ocean 120 nautical miles off the East Coast.

Among Trieste’s last missions was a series of dives in the eastern Pacific off Acapulco, southern Mexico at a depth of 16,141 feet. The expedition was part of an effort to investigate plate tectonic dynamics, according to Polmar and Mathers. “The effort sought to identify a permanent disposal site for high-grade nuclear waste –– radioactive waste with half-lives in hundreds or thousands of years.”

Acclaimed filmmaker James Cameron, left, and Dr. Don Walsh, a retired U.S. Navy captain, stand at the Trieste research bathyscaphe, which reached the deepest known part of the earth's oceans, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench near Guam, on Jan. 23, 1960. Lt. Don Walsh and scientist Jacques Piccard were original pilots of Trieste, which is now at the National Museum of the United States Navy at the Washington Navy Yard. Cameron piloted his Deepsea Challenger nearly seven miles to Challenger Deep on March 26, 2012. Cameron donated Deepsea Challenger to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. (MC1 Gina K Morrissette)

Polmar and Mathers wrap up their book with a "post script" mentioning the recent history of deep submersibles, where unmanned vessels have taken over but where people still have a role, including filmmaker James Cameron, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan, scientist Howard P. Talkington, and explorer Cmdr. Victor Vescovo, USNR (Ret.).

The authors provide an important history for readers interested in undersea research. This book includes a personal perspective in its foreword by “U.S. Submersible Pilot No. 1” Don Walsh, Captain, U.S. Navy (Ret.), PHD. It also has an introduction from author Polmar; glossaries of abbreviations and designations; comprehensive notes, a bibliography, and two indexes.

"Opening's" dedication, which is similar to the conclusion of Craven’s indispensable “The Silent War,” reads: “This book is dedicated to the adventurers and scientists, both military and civilian, who in frail craft challenge the Earth’s most inhospitable environment –– the deep ocean.”

For Memorial Day: ‘Service Before Self’

By Bill Doughty

The first-person stories in “Walk In My Combat Boots” haunt this Memorial Day. This is the second of a two-part Navy Reads review of this important book filled with the voices of combat warriors, medics, and defenders of freedom. Part one was posted May 21.

"Walk In My Combat Boots" by James Patterson reveals “the courage, the sense of duty, [and] the patriotism of this young generation,” according to Adm. William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy, ret.).

This weekend the nation is commemorating and honoring those who have fallen in combat. We should also reflect on the service and sacrifice of young men and women who served in recent war zones and saw death first-hand, up close, heartbreakingly personal.

Lt. Col. Sherry Hemby, 455th Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight commander, ensures the brackets are in working order on a C-130 Hercules for an aeromedical evacuation flight to Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, June 28, 2011. (Senior Airman Krista Rose)

Many of the patriots in this book are children of military veterans. Such is the case of Sherry Hemby, an Air Force flight nurse who remembers her dad: He taught me about patriotism –– to think of others. Service before self.”

Andy Prososky, a United States Marine veteran, is the son of a Navy Corpsman who served in Vietnam.

While serving in Iraq nearly two decades ago, he mastered the ability to compartmentalize, to not think of family and home, especially when out on a mission. “I don’t care about me, only my Marines,” he says.

Prososky encapsulates the tragedy of war in one episode involving RPGs, IEDs, a JAG, and a Marine killed in action. “Back home people ask me what death is like. You can’t explain it. It’s not dramatic, there’s no music, it’s sudden, it’s violent, it’s reality.”

Marine Cpl. Rory Hamill

The final section of this book is titled “Coda: Memorial Day.” And the final featured interview and story is by former Marine Corporal Rory Patric Hamill, son of two Navy parents. An extended excerpt follows:

“The amazing thing our brains do for us is compartmentalize any kind of trauma.

And therein lies the problem: people don’t address PTSD or what psychologists call a moral injury –– the feeling of overwhelming shame and guilt, even rage, anger, or betrayal over compromising your moral conscience. If you don’t address these actions and reactions, they come back to haunt you down the road.

I learn all this stuff later. Much, much later …

…The demons from all my deployments start eating away at me day and night. I can’t sleep, and I’m drinking too much. I’m smoking like a chimney. I’m not seeing my kids, and I’m shirking my responsibilities –– and it’s all because I’ve been ripped out from the familial structure of the military. And I miss the camaraderie.

From day one in the military, your entire day is regimented. It’s scheduled and structured down to the minute. You have a mission. You go out and get it done. Now I don’t have anyone telling me to do anything. I don’t have anyone keeping me in check.

My second marriage ends.

I find myself sitting outside a marsh by my dad’s house in Atlantic City. I’m sitting in the driver’s seat, holding a pistol.

I raise it to my head, about to end my life, when for maybe a half second my kids flash through my mind.

What the fuck am I doing?

I start crying.

I disassemble my weapon, take all the bullets out of the magazine, and throw everything out of the car.

I need to address this. I need to get some help.

I get diagnosed with PTSD. I start seeing a therapist full-time and get my head out of my ass. I quit binge drinking and stop smoking, which I’ve been doing since I was thirteen. I learn the importance of exercise and nutrition and taking care of myself. I begin to claw and scrape my way out of my self-loathing. I stop hating myself for everything. I stop blaming myself for my friends dying and every other shitty thing that’s ever happened to me.

I start speaking to other people about my experiences.

Over time, I start to learn to love my fate. Instead of letting it control me, send me into a deep, spiraling depression. I discover a way to turn it around for good –– to help others. If I can help one person every day, regardless of how I do it, then that’s a win for me. If I can use my experiences, my story, to help a person every single day, then everything I’ve gone through in my life is worth it.”

Hamill writes with appreciation about the honor of receiving the Purple Heart from President Barrack Obama at Walter Reed Hospital.

Cpl. Rory Hamill, a combat-wounded Marine, pauses to look at the Navy Sailor's Creed on the wall of the base gym on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., Dec. 4, 2017. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Matt Hecht)

 

James Patterson, Matt Eversmann, and Chris Mooney help people tell their stories in “Walk In My Combat Boots” –– tragedies and victories, comedy and pathos. Mostly pathos, considering the sacrifices required in war.

We honor the men and women lost in war on Memorial Day. And we also remember those who gave so much in service to their country. True heroes live the values of honor, courage and commitment. They confront demons and find the truth. True patriots ensure we think of others and ask why we go to war. “Service before self.”

With Respect to the Truth ...

Review by Bill Doughty

Here's a mind-expanding book that offers cosmic advice for the future – and the advice is most welcome today. 

Can we distinguish between facts and beliefs? Do we understand why some people reject science and secular values of truth, compassion, equality, freedom, courage and responsibility? Are we ready for a world in which humans could be irrelevant but under the control of more authoritarian leaders? Oh, and by the way, "what is the meaning of life" (and why is that the wrong question)?

According to philosopher-scholar Yuval Noah Harari in "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" (Spiegel & Grau, Penguin Random House, 2018), twin revolutions of infotech and biotech are bringing about big data algorithms and bioengineering as the world races to embrace artificial intelligence.

"What we are facing is not the replacement of millions of human workers by millions of individual robots and computers; rather, individual humans are likely to be replaced by integrated networks," Harari writes.

USAF maintainers prepare an MQ-9 Reaper drone at Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, July 23, 2019. (SSgt. Mozer O. Da Cunha)

This is a challenge already for the U.S. Air Force as it accelerates artificial intelligence technology:

"AI might help create new human jobs in another way. Instead of humans competing with AI, they could focus on servicing and leveraging AI. For example, the replacement of human pilots by drones has eliminated some jobs but created many new opportunities in maintenance, remote control, data analysis, and cybersecurity. The U.S. armed forces need thirty people to operate every unmanned Predator or Reaper drone flying over Syria, while analyzing the resulting harvest of information occupies at least eighty people more. In 2015 the U.S. Air Force lacked sufficient trained humans to fill all these positions, and therefore faced an ironic crisis in manning its unmanned aircraft."

Harari said the future may see "the rise of a new useless class" as we experience higher unemployment and a shortage of skilled workers. "Today, despite the shortage of drone operators and data analysts, the U.S. Air Force is unwilling to fill the gaps with Walmart dropouts."

In a rapid explanation of human history – from the African savannah through the Crusades and effects of the Industrial Revolution to today's Nuclear Age and into tomorrow – Harari provides an ominous warning:

"The challenge posed to humankind in the twenty-first century by infotech and biotech is arguably much bigger than the challenge posed in the previous era by steam engines, railroads, and electricity. And given the immense destructive power of our civilization, we just cannot afford more failed models, world wars, and bloody revolutions. This time around, the failed models might result in nuclear wars, genetically engineered monstrosities, and a complete breakdown of the biosphere. We have to do better than we did in confronting the Industrial Revolution."

Why worry about the growing influence of algorithms? Harari says the shift in authority from human control to networks of algorithms "might open the way to the rise of digital dictatorships."

One important question for our time, he says, is "who owns the data?"

Harari reminds us how George Orwell in "1984" warned of televisions watching us and controlling free will and freedom of choice. Biotechnology, memory storage capability and data assimilation are advancing exponentially and can be controlled centrally. Imagine the new technologies in the hands of authoritarian leaders.

"In fact, we might end up with something that even Orwell could barely imagine: a total surveillance regime that follows not just all our external activities and utterances but can even go under our skin to observe our inner experiences. Consider, for example, what the Kim regime in North Korea might do with the new technology. In the future, each North Korean citizen might be required to wear a biometric bracelet that monitors everything that person does and says, as well as their blood pressure and brain activity. By using our growing understanding of the human brain and drawing on the immense powers of machine learning, the North Korean regime might be able for the first time in history to gauge what each and every citizen is thinking at each and every moment. If a North Korean looks at a picture of Kim Jong-un and the biometric sensors pick up the telltale signs of anger (high blood pressure, increased activity in the amygdala), that person will be in the gulag tomorrow morning."

Harari warns, "Democracy in its present form cannot survive the merger of biotech and infotech," where authoritarian governments could control citizens "even more than in Nazi Germany."

In "Mein Kampf," Hitler wrote about the importance of constant repetition; his propagandist Joseph Goebbels said, "A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth."

Using lies and intimidation, dictators like Hitler and Joseph Stalin in the previous century controlled people's minds through a cult of personality, belief and anger. "The dictator might not be able to provide citizens with healthcare or equality, but he could make them love him and hate his opponents," writes Harari.

Stalin shamelessly embraced false stories and propaganda as he controlled minds, persecuted dissenters and killed millions of people, including in Ukraine, where his imposed famine became a weapon.

More recently, after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and occupied Crimea in 2014 he lied about Russian troops being involved. Later, he and Russian nationalists claimed Ukraine is not a sovereign nation and should be part of Mother Russia.

"Ukrainian citizens, outside observers, and professional historians may well be outraged by this explanation and regard it as a kind of 'atom bomb lie' in the Russian arsenal of deception. To claim that Ukraine does not exist as a nation and as an independent country disregards a long list of historical facts – for example, that during the thousand years of supposed Russian unity, Kiev and Moscow were part of the same country for only about three hundred years. It also violates numerous international laws and treaties that Russia has accepted and that guarantee the sovereignty and borders of independent Ukraine. Most important, it ignores what millions of Ukrainians think about themselves. Don't they have a say about who they are?"

Fortunately, the U.S. Navy stands with its friend, the democratic nation of Ukraine.

Cmdr. Tyson Young, right, CO of USS Carney (DDG 64), meets with a Ukrainian Navy music conductor after a Ukrainian Navy performance during exercise Sea Breeze 2019 in Odesa, Ukraine, July 4, 2019. Sea Breeze is a U.S. and Ukraine co-hosted multinational maritime exercise held in the Black Sea and is designed to enhance interoperability of participating nations and strengthen maritime security and peace within the region. (MC1 Kyle Steckler)

Unfortunately, people throughout the world are unaware of verifiable facts. We are ill-equipped to deal with future "deep fake" attacks, attempts to interfere with free elections, and mind control by digital dictators.

Harari shows that human nature makes us susceptible to false information, and the so-called post-truth era may have started millennia ago with belief systems that reject science and objective reality. Fiction, for many people, is more palpable and believable than fact.

What to do? Harari says we should meditate in order to achieve greater consciousness, which he calls the greatest mystery in the universe. He says, "The big question facing humans isn't 'what is the meaning of life?' but rather 'how do we stop suffering."

This book is a good companion to Harari's other works, "Sapiens" and "Homo Deus." As with his previous works, "21 Questions" goes beyond nations, ethnicities, religions and human consciousness to present a cosmic perspective in examining big questions in search for ultimate truth and wisdom.

Air Force Drones On

Review by Bill Doughty

Air Force Lt. Col. T. Mark McCurley does his best to downplay the Navy's support, development and use of unmanned aircraft – remotely piloted aircraft – in his personal wartime memoir "Hunter Killer: Inside America's Unmanned Air War" (Dutton, 2015). 



Still, it's worth a read, especially as McCurley, writing with Kevin Maurer, recounts the hunting and killing of terrorists, especially the targeting of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American of Yemeni descent who inspired three high-profile terrorist acts: Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's shooting and killing of 13 people, Umar Farouk Abdulmautallab's failed "underwear bombing" attack aboard an airliner heading for Detroit, and the Boston Marathon bombers.

McCurley describes tracking terrorist leader Abu Musad al Zaaqawi for 480 hours only to fail the mission when an operator accidentally hit a space bar. McCurley shows how UAVs were used in Operation Steel Curtain and the Second Battle of Fallujah, assisting Marines. And, he describes – without ever mentioning the name of the mission – his involvement in the Navy SEALs' Operation Red Wings.

He takes credit for the Air Force zeroing in on the location of the SEAL team who had been ambushed in mountains of Kunar Province, Afghanistan, believing he heard a transmission from Marcus Luttrell (author of "Lone Survivor").

"We took pride in knowing we were the only aircraft able to make it to the area that day. The Predator's unique qualities were an asset in such a dangerous location. The Air Force would never put a human pilot in harm's way in those weather conditions given the threat from the Taliban, and even hough we lost two predators, my aircraft provided the first pictures of the crash site and possibly confirmed Luttrell's position through his radio transmission. Without that information, it would have taken a lot longer to launch the rescue operation."

McCurley does not mention the hero of Operation Red Wings by name: U.S. Navy SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy. He does reveal the personal frustration and remorse of not being able to provide more support.

Several times in "Hunter Killer" McCurley spotlights differences between Air Force RPA and Navy Top Gun, even denigrating volleyball-playing stereotypes. The remote pilots' community comes across as disunited, disconnected but not disaffected by the lethality of some of their missions.

MQ-1 Predator (Senior Master Sgt. Stanley Thompson)

Those pilots see the "proximity of death" when their drones are used to bring lethality in high-definition. "No other pilots got to see the target like we did," he writes.

"Fighter pilots also rarely saw the whole engagement. They just got the call and put bombs on target. The closest they got to the fight was strafing runs and the occasional flash from the bomb or missile as it passed their windscreen. Their proximity to death and violence stirred their blood, but the images in their targeting pods were tiny and fuzzy compared to our high-def pods, keeping them remote to the effects on the ground. Our targeting pods not only showed us everything, but also lingered over the carnage, searing the images into our brains. Our experience was far different from that of the fighters."

The sights, sounds, smells and scorching heat of the Navy-operated Camp Lemmonier in Djibouti make it a desolate hell-hole, where McCurley says he got little support, especially from operations officer "Worm," "a lieutenant commander who acted like an admiral."

Yet he gives grudging credit to another naval officer, "Cruiser," as well as to then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen. Both were instrumental in getting parts and weapons for UAs that made it possible for the Air Force to carry out its mission.

An MQ-9 Reaper flies a training mission Oct. 18, 2017, at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. MQ-9 and MQ-1 Predator aircrews helped liberate Raqqah, Syria, from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s control in early October. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Christian Clausen)

This book is worth a read for anyone interested in an Air Force first-hand perspective on the development and history of remotely piloted aircraft such as the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper – unmanned air systems and aircraft (thou-shalt-not-call-them-"drones," but that's what they're called). Discipline, professionalism and following established rules of engagement are critical to the ethical use of remote warfare, especially as artificial intelligence is developed and implemented.

This book does not have an index, notes or glossary. It does have a good dedication: "to honor the small cadre of aviators, the operators, who fought and continue to fight a war deep in the shadows."

An MQ-9 Reaper sits on the flight line at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., Oct. 13, 2015.  (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Emily A. Kenney)

McCurley points out – both at the beginning and end of his book – how Gen. Hap Arnold predicted the rise of drones.

On V-J Day, 1945, Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, U.S. Army Air Forces commander, said, “We have just won a war with a lot of heroes flying around in planes. The next war may be fought by airplanes with no men in them at all ... It will be different from anything the world has ever seen.”

Of course Winston Churchill made the same prediction in 1925 after WWI, and Leonardo da Vinci actually designed a drone in 1485. The history of UA, while benefitting from the Air Force's perspective including in "Hunter Killer," deserves a wider and deeper presentation.

Navy SEALs, Pixar, Spurs and Storied Cultures

Review by Bill Doughty

Former Marine Al Haynes had the controls of United Airlines 232 out of Denver heading for Chicago when he and first engineer and flight engineer heard an explosion – the tail engine had blown. "Shrapnel had sliced the main and backup hydraulic control lines through which the pilots operated the rudder, ailerons, and wing flaps." The pilots could not fly the plane and seemingly could not land.

Tail section of the DC-10 after UA-232 crashed July 10,, 1989.

The plane danced and porpoised thousands of feet each minute, wobbling above Iowa. Attendants moved through the cabin and tried to restore calm. In the cockpit Haynes and his first officer wrestled with controls, fighting a complete hydraulic failure.

Fortunately for the crew and passengers (185 people in all), United pilot trainer Denny Fitch happened to be aboard. He offered his help: "Tell me what you want, and I'll help you." Captain Haynes welcomed his and others' input: "Anybody have any ideas?" The team communicated in short bursts, called notifications.

The open, honest communication and willingness to express vulnerability built a team able to tackle the unbelievable challenge they faced. "They chose routes, calculated descent rates, prepared for evacuation, and even cracked jokes." Through it all, Captain Haynes remained calm and cool.

As they attempted to land Flight 232, "A wingtip dipped and dug into the runway, sending the plane into a fiery cartwheel. The crash was terrible, but 185 people survived, including the entire crew. Some walked out of the wreckage into a cornfield. The survival of so many passengers was termed a miracle."

This chicken-skin true story of an event that occurred nearly 30 years ago is one of several great stories and numerous examples presented in "The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups" by Daniel Coyle (Bantam Books, 2018). The stories reinforce Coyle's points.

"What matters is telling the story. We tend to use the word 'story' casually, as if stories and narratives were ephemeral decorations for some unchanging underlying reality. The deeper neurological truth is that stories do not cloak reality but create it, triggering cascades of perception and motivation. The proof is in brain scans: When we hear a fact, a few isolated areas of our brain light up, translating words and meanings. When we hear a story, however, our brain lights up like Las Vegas, tracing the chains of cause, effect, and meaning. Stories are not just stories, they are the best invention ever created for delivering mental models that drive behavior."

Coyle's great examples and the quality of his storytelling show not only how one person can make a difference, but also how a group can come together to excel. He discovers and shares how to foster trust, keep people close, make connections and build belonging in a group. He reveals why it's important for leaders to be humble, honest, gracious and good listeners.

Examples include NBA coach Greg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs and NCAA coaches John Wooden (UCLA) and Mike Krzyzewski (Duke). Coyle references former USS Benfold CO Michael Abrashoff, author of "It's Your Ship," who made a concerted effort to listen to every crew member and get their perspectives and suggestions. We are reminded of the Johnson & Johnson Tylenol crisis and how a corporation responded correctly to a crisis by sticking to its credo to always do the right thing: Core values.

Coach Greg Popovich (second row, second from left) and San Antonio Spurs visit with staff and Wounded Warriors at Brooke Army Hospital, Oct. 21, 2015.

Coyle compares the cultures of two seemingly related groups, Air Force Minuteman missileers and Navy submariners aboard nuclear-powered submarines.

The missileers "are part of a system designed in the late 1940s by General Curtis LeMay, a larger-than-life figure..." Coyle rolls out a litany of failures over the past decade-plus. "Everyone agrees that missileer culture is broken," he writes.

"It's useful to contrast the missileers' dysfunctional culture with that of their navy counterparts who work in nuclear submarines. At first glance, the two groups seem roughly similar: Both spend vast amounts of time isolated from the rest of society, both are tasked with memorizing and executing tedious protocols, and both are oriented toward Cold War nuclear deterrence missions whose time has passed. Where they differ, however, is in the density of the belonging cues in their respective environments. Sailors in submarines have close physical proximity, take cpart in purposeful activity (global patrols that include missions beyond deterrence), and are part of a career pathway that can lead to the highest positions in the navy. Perhaps as a result, the nuclear submarine fleet has thus far mostly avoided the kinds of problems that plague the missileers, and in many cases have developed high-performing cultures."

Leaders must understand the importance of trust and proximity to achieve group cohesion, creativity and toughness. Good organizations value their history, heritage and artifacts.

SEAL training in TRIDENT 18-4 July 7.  (Photo bySSgt Corban Lundborg)

Coyle talks to Navy SEALs and Pixar executives and shows how their common approaches to building teams and creating the right environment contribute to mission success. "Showing fallibility is crucial." "Support, save, trust, listen." "Rank switched off, humility switched on."

This book is filled with military and civilian stories of how to build and maintain a team in order to meet a mission.

WWII veterans of USS Indiana (BB 58) salute at commissioning of Navy's 16th Virginia-Class fast-attack submarine USS Indiana (SSN 789), Sept. 29. 

Retired Navy SEAL CO Rich Diviney, director of outreach for the Barry-Wehmiller Leadership Institute, endorses "The Culture Code," saying, "Daniel Coyle has a gift for demystifying elite performance and breaking it down into empirical facts. This book is indispensable for anyone looking to lead, built, or find and elite culture."