EricSMueller.com

7th Fleet Is A Disaster

I’m a US Navy veteran. The latest news about the Navy is hard to stomach. Yes, the military has always been a clusterfuck at the best of times. But this goes beyond belief.

They’ve had two ships taken out of commission by collisions at sea. I had trouble understanding why. A merchant ship probably has one person on the bridge during normal cruising. That person may even be reading a book. I know people who have crewed merchant ships.

A Navy destroyer, at least while I was in, had something like the following, as I remember:

3 lookouts: port, starboard, and aft
Bridge: Officer of the Deck (OOD), Conning Officer (JOOD), Helmsman, Throttleman (may be combined), Boatswains Mate Of the Watch (BMOW), Quartermaster, and probably somebody sitting at a RADAR console, but ours wasn’t manned all the time.
CIC: Tactical Action Officer (TAO), Ship’s Weapons Coordinator (SWC), and numerous Operations Specialists and Fire Controlmen manning consoles and the plot. Also, Sonar Technicians and Electronic Warfare Technicians.
And numerous supporting personnel on watch in other stations, engineering, electronics, communications, etc.

Then there are the people who can’t sleep and are out smoking.

And most ship’s captains have standing orders to be awakened if other ships are in proximity.

When I heard about both collisions, it blew my mind.

But the USS Shiloh might give us some insight.

Now, morale is kind of a tricky thing. There’s an ancient Naval proverb that goes “A bitching sailor is a happy sailor.” The military life is interesting. Most young men join up looking for adventure and war and glory and all that. I know when I was 18, I was excited about the prospect. Then after training for war, I prayed that it never happened. Rather than excitement, the military life is years of boredom, hopefully not ever punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

You get a lot of busywork and “Mickey Mouse Bullshit”. You actually have important operational issues that need to be attended to, but you have to do a working party or clean berthing. Or training. I read an interview with a former Navy Captain that insulated the McCain’s crew was well trained in gender and gay issues, but not so much in operational issues.

It can be frustrating. Usually, your Commanding Officer (CO) has his own career to look out for, and only 18 months to 2 years to prove himself, and the ship and crew are how he gets to do it. I’ve had COs push the crew way too hard. I’ve seen people almost burn out. It does kill morale. But eventually, that CO leaves and is replaced. You hang your hopes on the next guy being better.

But there’s another ancient Naval proverb in play here: “Better to keep the asshole you have because the next guy can be worse.” And usually, he is.

So, back to the Shiloh.

Morale aboard a US Navy ship reached such lows that one sailor compared the vessel to a ‘floating prison’ after they were fed just bread and water.

Our food was usually bad. This is a little extreme. But we did consider ourselves to be on a floating prison. In boot camp, we were taught to address each other as “Shipmate.” It didn’t take us very long to start using “inmate”. We also had another greeting we learned in boot camp: “And have a fine Navy day!” My usual response to that was “Yeah, go fuck yourself too!”

The Daily Mail article references a “Command Climate Survey”. These are standard in the military and government. I normally consider them useless. The survey itself is more concerned with “have you been harassed as a POC or woman or Muslim or some other shit?” There are blocks in which to provide comments, but those are rarely considered. The Shiloh’s command climate survey must have been beyond FUBAR to even make the news.

Responding to a survey, one sailor on USS Shiloh said anonymously: ‘It’s only a matter of time before something horrible happens.’

Another respondent wrote: ‘Our sailors do not trust the CO.’

This is standard. By this point in the article, I figured it was fluff. Marines may have better experiences, but in the Navy, lower enlisted rarely trust their CO. I’ve had some decent ones, but I also served under a pretty bad one. Apparently not as bad as the Shiloh’s.

Junior sailors were particularly concerned about receiving harsh punishments from Capt. Adam Aycock, including being placed in the brig and fed only ‘bread and water,’ a traditional form of punishment still available to commanding officers.

Some crew members even warned that the dip in morale could inhibit their ability to deal with North Korea.

This got my attention. Another article I read (which is on CNN, and I’m not linking the Cocksucker News Network) said brig and bread and water were for minor infractions. It did not say what those minor infractions are. Being 5 minutes late for watch? Shirt being untucked?

Heh, heh, Captain Aycock. I bet his poor morale having sailors used his name for a LOT of dick jokes.

Favoritism is heavily in play on ships. A friend of mine, who was hardly a motivated sailor, literally was 5 minutes late for watch. He was sent to Captain’s Mast (non-judicial punishment or Article 15 of the UCMJ for those not blessed to be in the Navy…) alongside another sailor who was caught embezzling $500 from the ship’s laundry. My friend got the maximum punishment for being 5 minutes late for watch. Our aspiring Federal Reserve head got a suspended bust. Total favoritism. Of course, my friend had already been busted for almost missing ship’s movement in Thailand, so maybe that was a consideration. But still…

Believe it or not, I was ALMOST involved in a North Korea action. Yeah, I know, almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades… In 1994-1995, I was on a supply ship. We were out providing UNREP (underway replenishment) to other ships when the Norks started acting up. The Kitty Hawk battle group was dispatched. Our CO saw his chance for glory, realizing that a battlegroup would need UNREP. As we were homeported in Guam, we were in a good spot. We pulled into Guam, and within 10 hours, took on a 120 day onload for a battle group. My ship was designed to hold 90 days of supplies for a battle group, so we had every inch of the ship packed. We had palates of soda and other supplies stacked all over the decks with the cargo holds full. Then we set sail that night.

And we sailed right into a typhoon. Very rough seas. The palates of soda flexed and started to explode. I don’t think we ever got the smell out of the ship. It was a mess. Combine that with flour and other things, and it was a huge mess.

The story I heard is that around 2300 one night on our way toward North Korea, a red phone in CIC rang. It’s the kind of phone that only rings when there’s a war, or somebody royally fucked up. It was COMLOGWESTPAC (Commander, Logistics, Western Pacific). The trip was not authorized, and the CO’s glory would have to wait. Return to base at Guam. And if you REALLY want to be underway, I’ve got just the deal for you…

The class of ship I was on at the time was a Mars Class Fast Combat Stores Ship. (Fast in name only…) The designation was AFS, or as we called it, Always Fucking Steaming. And until we pulled into port for decommissioning in 1995, we truly were AFS. Typically, we’d get a day or two in port to refuel and reload, then back out.

But like everything else in the military, it was misery, but also mixed with some fun. I went to Japan several times on that ship. We also got a visit to Hong Kong, Hawaii, and our decommissioning cruise was to Bali. I “crossed the line”(equator), went through the ceremony, and earned the title “Honorable Shellback”.

Back to the Shiloh. I’ve seen sailors fuck up, but I’ve never seen brig time or bread and water. Although it’s still in the regulations, it’s very extreme. I have no idea why the Shiloh’s former CO would ever use that as a form of punishment.

McCain The Insane (and senile) had some tweet about this being related to defense cuts:

US senator John McCain waded into the controversy today by tweeting: ‘This is a direct result of cuts to defense spending.’

WTF? I have no idea how this is related unless the Navy is buying their Captains from China because they’re cheaper… But then again, when was the last time McInsane said ANYTHING that made sense? Definitely not his “President Comey” remark.

I served during the Clinton years. They decommissioned a LOT of ships well before their time, which is causing the Ticonderago cruisers and Burke destroyers and other ships to pull hard duty. The force has been cut drastically. Sailors are doubling and tripling up on duties. This probably has a lot to do with 7th Fleet’s problems. You can only push your people so far. You can only push your equipment so far. It has a maintenance cycle for a reason.

For instance: my experience with time travel. Yes, I have time traveled. My second ship was a Spruance Class destroyer. Our SONAR dome was supposed to be replaced every 5 years. We left on deployment with the dome at the 7 year mark. We crossed the International Date Line at about 0000 Sunday night, which made it Tuesday. Soon after, a leak was discovered on the SONAR dome. The ship came to a stop while they investigated. I was on the mid watch in CIC at the time. They tried cutting chem lights and pouring the dye into the dome. Then, the ship turned around and headed back to Hawaii to get the dome fixed. We couldn’t exceed 11 knots with a punctured dome. So I have time traveled. We went from Sunday to Tuesday to Monday, non-sequentially, in a period of about 4 hours.

I hope 7th Fleet can get straightened out. They’ll probably have to relieve a lot more people of duty. But this problem may be systemic. I hope the Navy fixes it before they get anybody else killed outside of actual war.

I Won’t Be Buying One Of These “Assistants”

Earlier this year, a friend of mine was telling me about his Alexa. I gave some thought to getting one, or a Google Home, but that didn’t last long. If I were interested, I’d have to get an Alexa because that’s the only one that works with my smart thermostat.

Currently, consumer AIs are fairly useless. Most of the features they advertise are only useful if you live in San Francisco or New York City or are a sports fan. Or you can afford to eat at pretentious restaurants that take reservations from Siri.

I’ve known about how every device you have records everything you say, and every noise you make for years. My phone, smart watch, computers, and probably TV record everything and it ends up at the National Spying Agency data center in Utah. I know.

A guy who runs some site called “Android Police” discovered his Google puck was recording everything. He should arrest them. I’m starting to think Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” motto didn’t last long enough for them to get out of the room after coming up with it.

Here is a virtual assistant I would totally buy if it existed:

I Will Not Be Watching Star Trek:Diversity

I grew up on the franchise, and have fond memories of it. But now that leftist politics have truly taken over, I’m not watching. Everything I have heard about the show makes it sound awful.

The CO and XO are both barely-feminine women, one of which is named “Michael”. I guess this is an honor to the “other Mr. Obama”?

They freely admit the Klingons are an allegory for “Trump Supporters”. The Klingons have their own MAGA, “Remain Klingon”. This violates the Federation’s sensibilities, so the Klingons must be forced into the Federation. Resistance is futile; you will be assimilated. I guess they also have to take Syrian war refugees from countries far from Syria? I haven’t watched it.

Star Trek peaked with Deep Space 9.

Dave Cullen took one for the team and watched this left-wing wet dream.

A Few Books To Help You Develop A Framework To Understand The Times

With America’s worst mass shooting in our recent past, a media that is entirely run by subversives who hate Americans (especially “conservatives”), many people wonder just what the hell is going on?

I don’t know if we’re entering “The Apocolypse”. I think we’re definitely in the 4th Turning crisis foretold by prophets Straus and Howe.

There are a few books I can recommend to help you understand the psychology of the people you’re likely to encounter in our times. Many of them I haven’t formally reviewed, although I should. You can start with The Fourth Turning, linked above.

The first book I recommend you read (after 4th Turning) is The Evolutionary Psychology Behind Politics by Anonymous Conservative. He wrote his second book under the name “Michael Trust.” He truly is anonymous beyond the point of paranoia. When Red Ice wanted to interview him, he sent Matt Forney instead. You can find AC’s blog here. I read his book in 2013, and have been reading his blog ever since. His work is truly valuable and should be archived for future generations.

The Evolutionary Psychology Behind Politics takes an old evolutionary theory commonly called r/K Theory and applies it to politics. He explains it better than I can, but the concept is simple. Different environments select for different factors. If your ancestors came from a warm climate where food was everywhere, you likely wouldn’t need a high IQ or a long time preference. If your ancestors came from a colder climate, you’d have to have a higher IQ and you’d have to adapt to be able to plan ahead; to grow and store up food for winter. A/C divides people into r (rabbits) and K (Wolves). This isn’t like the Biblical sheep and wolves; the wolves (if you are one) are the good guys in this theory.

Rabbits have no or little in-group loyalty, are conflict-averse, breed prolifically, and have little investment in child rearing. Wolves, on the other hand, have strong in-group loyalty, are bred for a world of conflict, and have high investment in breeding and offspring.

Contrast that with the difference between the average liberal and conservative in the world and you’ll see where this fits in.

As a bonus, read his second book: How To Deal With Narcissists. In it, he explains what a narcissist is, why they are that way, and how to avoid them or deal with them if you must. This also explains a lot about how our world works and how the people who run it operate. Chances are, you know a few narcissists. This may help you a lot. It definitely helped me understand a few people I’ve been around.

Next up is SJWs Always Lie by Vox Day. He explains what an SJW is, what “The Narrative” is, how they operate, how they attack, and how to fight back. He also explains the difference between rhetoric and dialectic, and how you need to be able to operate in both. He also shows (much from personal experience) how if you are attacked by SJWs, you’re pretty much screwed as few if any will come to your aid. But never apologize, and never back down. That is blood in the water to them. His next book in the series, SJWs Always Double Down, should be out Oct 9. I pre-ordered it. SJW’s Always Lie, if read in the order I present, builds on Evolutionary Psychology and Narcissists.

Another book to aid in your understanding of our current times is Cuckservative: How “Conservatives” Betrayed America by Vox Day and John Red Eagle. If you’re a conservative and/or a Republican, and you wonder why Republican and conservative politicians always puss out and surrender, this book will explain it to you.

A few more I’ll add as sort of honorable mentions are Mike Cernovich’s Gorilla Mindset and Ivan Throne’s 9 Laws. You can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond to it. Mindset is a powerful tool. Say what you will about some other aspects of Cernovich, but his book is very powerful and practical. I haven’t finished 9 Laws yet. I’m about halfway through. In the first part of the book, Throne lays out what his nine laws are, and what the dark triad is. These are mindset tools you can use to operate in and understand the world around you.

I could go back through my list of books and find some more academic, longer, harder to read ones. All of these books are easy to read, yet highly comprehensive. If you want to know more about why the people in the world are the way they are, and how to respond to or avoid them, read the books on this list.

Free Speech and Boobs

I saw this video a couple weeks back and laughed at it. Heartiste posted about it and brought it back to my attention:

I don’t watch CNN, except for funny clips like this other people share. I also pay no attention to sportsball, so I have no idea who these people are. The guy on the right comes off as a ZFG shitlord. He clearly and flippantly states that the First Amendment and boobs are two things that have never let him down. The anchor (I guess it’s “sexist” to say anchorwoman) immediately loses her shit and ability to focus. The guy on the left comes in as a white knight, attempting to protect the “honor” of the anchor, whom Heartiste says is 38 and never married and obviously childless.

When I first saw the video, I shared it on Minds. Others commented that the anchor obviously began wanting the guy who gives zero fucks, and says “boobs” on air. If you watch her, she cannot focus at all. She goes speechless for a while and then babbles indignation. She can’t form a coherent thought or get back to the point, which is what an anchor should be able to do. Roll with it, if you like.

This whole “sexism” thing comes off as childish. She acts indignant that he said such a thing. She’s supposedly an adult. I’m going to let you all in on a little secret: women have boobs. BFD.

This whole thing reminds me of an old joke: How is sex like air? Because it’s just not that big a deal…unless you aren’t getting any.

(I’m pretty sure I got this picture from another Heartiste post; maybe on Gab.)

A Magazine Trip Through The Past

Over the years, I’ve acquired several magazine subscriptions. Some are from organizations I’m a member of (NRA, VFW, etc.), some are because my wife signs me up for free subscriptions (Men’s Journal, Outdoor something or other), and some I have deliberately subscribed to (Forbes, Wired, and I just added HBR.) My wife signed me up for Rolling Stone, but I got halfway through one and wrote it off as “aging leftist boomer druggie rock memorabilia” and quit reading. When Sports Illustrated showed up, I checked to see if it had her name, which it did. I would have drawn the line there.

Since the routine I’ve maintained for many years has me only reading my magazines during an activity I do in the morning (less than 15 minutes), I don’t get through them very quickly. I realized I have two big stacks of magazines, and I need to get more proactive in reading them to catch up.

I’m just barely caught up to August of 2016, and had a thought. I just finished the Aug 2016 issue of the NRA’s “America’s First Freedom”, which was entirely about how terrible a Hillary Clinton Presidency is going to be for gun rights. Then I opened the Aug 2016 of VFW magazine, and the opening commentary by the VFW Commander In Chief is about how critical the 2016 election will be for reforming the VA, which is a nightmare to many veterans.

So I started wondering since I honestly don’t know how it came out in the end: will either magazine go all in on supporting the God Emperor? Or will they cuck out? I know the NRA is full of Neocucks, so I’m kind of expecting them to. I can’t wait to read their November and December issues. I don’t know if the VFW has a political stance other than protecting veterans’ issues. I’m sure they HAD to know which of the two was best for protecting those interests…

I guess we’ll see.

I already know where Wired was. I made the mistake of subscribing to them right before they went all-in on the leftist political position. I tried to unsubscribe from their email newsletters and finally had to mark them as spam. I subscribed to Wired because it’s supposed to be a great magazine about technology, right before they came all out as fully SJW converged.

Forbes has a nominally conservative stance. Many of their writers are liberals, but their editorial process tempers that to a tolerable level.

Personal Security in the Current World

I don’t know if I really am heartless, or if I’m just desensitized. Tragedies in the world seem to accelerate and get worse, and it doesn’t affect me all that much anymore.

Last night at a country music festival in Las Vegas, somebody with an automatic rifle managed to kill approximately 60 people and wound 500 (last estimates I saw.) I’m not going to provide a link because I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about.

I’m not going to bother going into the politics of the situation. I’m sure the media is PRAYING it was a white, Christian, conservative man. I’m assuming it was either a representative of the “Religion of Peace” or a deranged leftist. One report I saw indicated it was both.

But that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. If you put yourself in a situation where bullets start flying, does it really matter in the moment if it’s a Southern Baptist, a Sunni Muslim, or a Bernie Bro? Save that for the talking heads and keyboard pounders after it’s over.

What really matters is, when the bullets start flying, don’t be there.

We’re at the point where, until some serious changes happen in the world, you are not safe in large gatherings. Hell, you’re barely safe in church anymore (although my church will put up a wall of lead to anybody entering with the intent to do harm.) A church shouldn’t have to have a security plan, (in a perfect world), but smart ones do. This can range from doing background checks on people who work with children to actually having a security force. A friend of mine is on his church’s security force. They’re armed. I know of other churches that have similar programs.

I suppose that’s one thing, in general, that I won’t give up. For me, the rest is easy. I can’t stand crowds and traffic, so I avoid them as much as possible. I don’t go to movie theaters. They cost too damned much anyway, and most of the previews don’t interest me. Plus, they play commercials. I live a commercial-free lifestyle. I avoid them as much as possible. I’m not going to PAY to watch them at a movie theater. I rarely watch movies anyway, but when I do, I like to stream them at home where I can hit the pause button to take a leak or get another beer.

Hating crowds and traffic keeps me out of city centers where “vans of peace” can plow through a crowd. I’ve told my wife not to bother going to the mall anymore. Nothing has happened at ours, but it’s only a matter of time.

I don’t like loud noise and I want my ears to work when I’m old, so I’ve never had a problem avoiding music festivals because I don’t go to them. Same for sporting events because sports bore the hell out of me. Plus, both have crowds and traffic so I wouldn’t be there anyway.

The rest of you might have a problem with my natural immunity to the current threat environment.

You can’t eliminate all risk from life, but you can take some reasonable steps.

Avoid large crowds and gatherings. Don’t be shot like a proverbial fish in a barrel.
If at all possible where you live, carry a weapon. When you’re not even safe in church, make sure you’re packing.
Learn how to be aware of your situation and what is going on around you. (Situational Awareness.) You can find tons of material about this online. Who is walking in front of you? Who is walking behind you? Who is on an intercept course? What cars are around you? What are they doing? Are they looking down playing with their phone while tailgating you?

I don’t think things are likely to get better anytime soon. Maybe we’re entering “The Apocalypse.” We’re most likely in “The Fourth Turning” crisis.

What I worry about are people looking for bigger game. If some guy can knock a couple windows out of a hotel and hose down a crowd of country music fans, how long until somebody else knocks out a window of a hotel along a highway with malicious intent?

I don’t live very far from a bridge where if somebody knocked it out of commission, it could shut down traffic along the east coast.

There is some scary shit still to come in this world. Take some reasonable steps to keep yourself out of some of it.

There Will Be War, Vol 1

There Will Be War Vol I was published in 1983 and edited by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven. It was republished in 2015 by Castalia House. I wish I had known about this series growing up. I probably would have been all over it. Jerry Pournelle recently passed away, and I’m sorry to say I haven’t read any of his work during his actual lifetime.

I wish I had known about this series growing up. I probably would have been all over it. I grew up as an Air Force brat during the Cold War. From 1980 to 1985, my dad was stationed at Ramstein Air Base in what used to be West Germany. We lived with the fact that Soviet bombers could be overhead before they could get the air raid sirens lit off.

Hell, I was walking to school in 1983 when some terrorists somehow got a truckload of explosives onto Ramstein and detonated them at Headquarters. I felt the shockwave from the blast. My mom was freaking out all day, since my dad didn’t have a chance to call.

I’m somewhat sympathetic to Cold War literature. I also greatly enjoy military science fiction, having spent most of my life in or around the military in some capacity, from dependent to active duty to reservist to defense contractor and direct civilian employee.

The There Will Be War series involves military science fiction short stories, essays, and articles collected and edited by Jerry Pournelle. He writes of science fiction conventions attended by serious military and science fiction writers, not a bunch of SJW degenerates like those of today.

Growing up, I knew of the doctrine of “Mutually Assured Destruction” or MAD. In this book, I learned of another doctrine called “Assured Survival”. MAD didn’t like the concept of civil defense, while Assured Survival depended on it. I’d also never heard of the THOR system either.

I think my favorite story was the satirical “The Battle”, by Robert Sheckly. This story could easily have been part of a South Park episode.

The original novella for “Ender’s Game” is included. That story has evolved quite a bit. I reviewed it on my Blogspot blog, and I’ve been meaning to repost it here. Orson Scott Card is an amazing writer.

While I’ve seen several movies based on Philip K. Dick’s books, the first story of his I’ve actually read is in There Will Be War Vol 1, “The Defenders”. Very interesting concept.

I’m going to have to make my way through the rest of the series.

One problem I’m finding with short stories though, and I’ve only read a handful of anthologies, is that you’re dropped into the middle of a story with no context. Then you’re trying to figure out the answers to questions such as “Who the hell are these people?” “Why are they using horses if this is science fiction?” And by the time you finally figure out what the hell is going on, identify with the characters and want them to succeed, it’s over.

Book Review: Hitler In Hell by Martin Van Creveld

Nazis are becoming all the rage lately. From the left calling anybody to the right of Karl Marx “Nazi” or “fascist” to a group of people commonly referred to as the “alt-reich” or alt-retards, you see and hear it all over the place. President Trump, since the early days of his campaign, has been called “literally Hitler”.

In light of that, I’ve been doing my own research into the subject. I’ve read Mein Kampf (Ford translation) and several other books trying to get a handle on what actually happened so I don’t become one of these historically illiterate idiots running around.

Back in June, Castalia House released Martin Van Creveld’s latest book, Hitler In Hell. I got a free copy as a member of their book club (joining is as easy as submitting your email address.) It took me a while to read it since I had an ePub on my phone. I finally finished.

As I read the book, I kept wondering “why would an Israeli Jew write a book that seems to come out favorable to the Fuhrer?” The answer is at the back. Van Creveld has studied the subject his entire life. He had family that both survived and perished during the events of WWII and the concentration camps (commonly called “The Holocaust.”) He has read many of the biographies and done plenty of archival research, and as a military historian, has done plenty of his own reading and writing on German military tactics in both wars.

Van Creveld has always thought about writing a biography on the man but didn’t know what to add that others hadn’t already covered. Then it hit him, to write the book autobiographical. So although this book is fiction, it is written as if in Hitler’s own words and voice.

The premise of the book is: Hitler is in Hell. He’s totally conscious of the events since he ate a bullet in his bunker (he has an Internet connection), and is writing both his side of the story and responding to his critics.

I enjoyed the book and learned a lot in the process. In some ways, it agrees with “alternative historians” such is Mike King. In a few other ways, it differs. Some claim Hitler let the British escape at Dunkirk. Van Creveld’s Hitler says it was flawed intelligence and ground that prevented his army from moving quickly enough.

All in all, Hitler in Hell is a great read and a valuable addition to this historical discussion. The story of Hitler is not one as simple as “evil man!” or “demon possessed”. He was a real man with real motivations at a real point in history with real influences, both positive and negative. He was a combat soldier, serving at the front for almost four years, wounded in action twice, then watched helplessly as his nation was humiliated and raped with the Treaty of Versailles. He was also an intelligent man and a scholar, who read a lot, often a book a day. What would you do?

Book Review: Derelict: Marines Saga by Paul Cooley

I think I came across and bought Derelict: Marines from a BookBub newsletter. The story sounded interesting, so I bought it. And it was so good, I bought the second book, Derelict: Tomb. Now I’m stuck and left hanging until the 3rd book comes out later this year.

This series is military science fiction. The premise of the series is that a ship sent on a mission about 50 years go that lost contact suddenly shows up near Pluto mysteriously. This has sort of an “Event Horizon” vibe. A group of search and rescue Marines stationed near Neptune is dispatched to check it out. Their orders are to board the ship, recover any logs they can, and tow it back.

But the AIs they’re dealing with start giving them conflicting information. Their ship’s AI starts acting strange. While they were ordered to tow the ship back, the AIs suggest destroying it.

Then they find some strange objects on the ship that look like pinecones, as well as some liquid that kills a Marine who steps in it. While mounting thrusters to stabilize the ship’s spin, a fireteam’s skiff is disabled, forcing them to take refuge inside the ship. Low on air and with an injured Marine in serious need of medical care, they are forced to find a way to survive and defend against the strange objects, which turn out to be some form of extra-solar life, which certainly isn’t looking to share their wisdom and technology with residents of the Sol system.

These are fast paced, action packed books that will keep you on the edge of your seat. And damn it, I have to wait until at least October before the 3rd book comes out.

While it’s really hard to capture life in space without taking some artistic license (the author uses “grav plating” for artificial gravity), the military aspects are fairly realistic. I assumed when I started reading the books that the author had been a Marine, but nothing in his bio indicates military service. Still, he did a decent job.

One hint as to how well an author renders Marines is how their rank is described. While it’s perfectly acceptable to call ANY NCO in the Army or Chair Force a “sergeant”, that doesn’t fly in the Marines. Their mentality is that you earned it, and you deserve to be addressed by it. There is only one sergeant in the Marines, which is E-5. Once you make E-6, you are a Staff Sergeant, and can expect to be addressed by it. Gunnery Sergeants (E-7s) are often addressed as “Gunny”, which is acceptable. But NOBODY calls a Gunny a sergeant. That doesn’t fly.

I’m not even sure if it’s acceptable to call a Private First Class a Private.