SSN - Tom Clancy [31]
On that first day alongside McKee, while some of Cheyenne's people dealt with the patrol report, the engineer officer's people had been busy with the details of taking on shore power. This was vital to Cheyenne's taking steam out of the engineering spaces and shutting down the reactor for the duration of the refit.
They were also responsible for some of the more delicate procedures. The engineering laboratory technicians a]quajuiiy ui nuvicai waaic inaimaii[generated during their periodic sampling of the reactor coolant to ensure its purity. Once this transfer was complete, they would assist in refilling the coolant charging system's pure water tanks with CPW. This "controlled pure water" was generated on board McKee by passing SSN discharged coolant from start-ups through the submarine tender's massive ton beds. The coolant was no longer radioactive, yet it was controlled because of its source. This way the water from the SSNs alongside was constantly recycled rather than discharged to the environment.
While all this was going on, with the executive officer supervising the transfer of the patrol report and the engineering officer overseeing the power plant, the combat systems officer and his people had their hands full. The combat systems officer was responsible for readying the vertical launch tubes for removal of the spent Tomahawk loading canisters so that the tubes could be reloaded. Others of his crew had to ready the three decks between the weapons-loading hatch and the torpedo room.
Mack smiled to himself, remembering how well it had all gone. Those activities had mainly been Cheyenne's responsibility, and they had all occurred on their first day alongside McKee. After that, Cheyenne's officers and crew had been able to rest while the refit crew took over the rest of the normal operations.
After the rigors of their contested ingress and transit of the South China Sea and the relatively simple TLAM-C and TLAM-D attack on the Chinese submarine base at Cuarteron Reef, the officers and men of Cheyenne appreciated this rest a great deal. Even more, they appreciated the assistance of McKee's crew. In peacetime, a tender like McKee would not have been employed for such a short refit. But this was war now, and peacetime rules did not apply. Especially since it appeared that Cheyenne would be the only U.S. submarine in the South China Sea for a good while.
Cheyenne's officers and crew understood this. "No rest for the weary," as the saying went. It was simply an extension of a policy established for returning war patrol crews in Pearl Harbor during World War II. The only difference was that this time there was no relinquishment either of command or of the individual officers' responsibilities. Refits like this one were merely opportunities for rest and recreation, unlike the twenty-four-hour refit/repair periods that so many submarine crews had experienced during peacetime.
All of which meant that the policy was logical and intelligent-but policy was generally not made by the people it most directly affected. Cheyenne's officers and crew agreed with the policy, and they appreciated it-but they appreciated the hard work and extra effort put forth by the sailors and engineers from McKee even more.
McKee was good, with a seasoned crew, and the refit had gone well. Cheyenne was restocked and resupplied. The executive officer, engineer officer, the remaining junior officers, and their leading petty officers would attend to the final details of turnover from the refit crew. As soon as this briefing was over, Mack and his officers would be ready to return to active patrol.
Entering the war room, Mack immediately noticed that the eagles (captain's insignia) on the collar of the Commander Submarine Group Seven (CSG 7), also known as Commander Task Force Seventy-four (CTF 74), had been replaced with single stars. Mack had expected that. With war declared in his theater of operations, it was standard procedure for the commodore, as he was addressed during peacetime, to be frocked to rear admiral, lower