SSN - Tom Clancy [21]
Behind him, in the backseat, his RIO (radar intercept officer), who had done all the targeting work, said, "Phoenix is locked on. That submarine captain sure owes us one."
Aboard Cheyenne, the sonar supervisor couldn't explain his latest detections to Mack. "Conn, sonar," he said, "the helicopter, the one above our position I think she just crashed! Something fell in the water and the TB-23 is not picking up any helo turbine noise anymore."
"I guess we just broke Murphy's law," Mack replied, his voice as calm and efficient as ever.
Mack had decided not to designate the helo with a Master number. He would leave that to the aviators. However, the helo would find itself in the history of submarine warfare, in Mack's patrol report, by virtue of Cheyenne's "Sierra" designation assigned to the helo as one of Cheyenne's many sonar contacts.
The remainder of their transit into the southern end of the South China Sea proved, to the delight of both the captain and the crew, to be entirely uneventful. Mack had not realized how enjoyable an uneventful stretch of time could be when the alternative was someone shooting at his submarine.
When they met up with Independence northwest of Natuna Island, Mack and his crew learned that both Mk 48s had found their marks and the Chinese were now down another two submarines. Mack had also discovered the true story behind the "crash" of their Chinese helo.
Mack sent a message to the SEC (submarine element coordinator) on board Independence, requesting a special "thank-you" for the F-14 pilot-a thank-you that, whenever they got a chance to get ashore to buy one, would include a very nice bottle of wine.
* * *
3. Four if by Sea, Six if by Land
Come to periscope depth," Mack said. "I want to have a quick look around before proceeding." Cheyenne moved slowly from her current depth of three hundred feet beneath the surface of the South China Sea, pausing at one hundred thirty feet to clear baffles. When the sonar supervisor reported no contacts to the OOD, Cheyenne completed her excursion to fifty-nine feet. Before arriving, the OOD, Mack, and the crew members who were trying to eat could feel the effects of the sea state.
Mack had raised the Type 18 periscope while the OOD rode the leaner, less detectable, Type 2 attack periscope. Two sets of eyes were better than one, especially since the sea state could easily mask quiet surface contacts. Once they were near ordered depth, the tops of both periscopes were intermittently awash an the four-foot swells, which were frequently topped with significantly higher waves.
In order not to broach, Cheyenne had to take the swells, caused by a distant storm, no more than forty-five degrees forward of the beam. Otherwise, she would have a tendency to pitch with a ten-second period due to the ninety-foot wavelength of sea state four. Pitching up or down with Cheyenne^s forward momentum could result in an uncontrollable angle, causing either the sail to be exposed during an up angle or the stem to be exposed during a down angle. Exposing the stem was more dangerous because the seven blades of Cheyenne's screw would pass through the air-water interface, causing unwanted high-torque jolting of the shaft as each exposed blade once again encountered the water. The weather on the surface was terrible, with violent thunderstorms breaking over the entire region. The power and majesty of the storms were breathtaking, but Mack found himself thinking more about how much they might be affecting flight operations on board independence. He knew how much bad weather could degrade surface ship operations. That was just one of the many reasons he loved working far beneath the turbulent surface. Unlike their surface counterparts-and especially pilots and land-based soldiers-submariners were rarely