Mac McDowell Missions

An aging nuclear submarine-A lockout saturation-diving system-A handful of daredevil heroes! "Over the past few decades, action-adventure stories about submarines and diving have become a popular genre. Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler come to mind as exemplars. But Robert Williscroft really raises the bar with this book. Not only is he an outstanding writer, but he is also a 'doer,' having participated in the events described in Operation Ivy Bells."-Captain Don Walsh USN, PhD, USN Submersible Pilot #1, Officer in Charge Bathyscaph Trieste, 1959-1962 A super-secret, off-the-books spy organization; a security-clearance starting at Top Secret and going up; an attack by giant squid during a thousand-foot dive while breathing an exotic gas; a cat's whisker escape from death during a 3-day decompression-and that's just the first two chapters of Operation Ivy Bells, before the action really gets underway. In a fast-paced, personal narrative, J.R. "Mac" MacDowell details a breathtaking series of events during a top-secret intelligence gathering operation at the height of the Cold War. Riding the nuclear submarine Halibut, Mac and his saturation diving team surreptitiously enter Soviet-controlled Sea of Okhotsk to install a tap on an underwater communications cable at 400 feet, and narrowly escape death when a storm snaps Halibut's anchor cables. They retrieve missile parts from a Soviet missile-test splash-zone, getting caught in a sonar-web set by the crafty skipper of an old Soviet diesel submarine. Later, Halibut is outfitted with skids so she can sit on the bottom. Mac and his team attach a 12-thousand-pound recording pod to the cable. In the missile splash-zone, they lock in deadly underwater combat with Soviet divers. Halibut finally returns home without ever publicly revealing their crucial contribution to winning the Cold War.

A novel about the real thing and real events, not traditional Hollywood drama. "Secrecy and stealth are the watchwords as they must covertly lay acoustic arrays to close off the last remaining routes for Soviet submarines to reach open water away from NATO's prying ears."- George W. Jackson, Captain USN (Ret.) USS Teuthis Saturation Dive Team Officer-in-Charge Mac McDowell is leading his submarine team on a mission to lay acoustic arrays under the ice in the Arctic when they clash with a new Alfa-class highly automated Soviet submarine. Overwhelmed by mechanical problems, the Soviet crew abandons their sub near Pt. Barrow, Alaska. The Teuthis skipper launches DSRV-1 Mystic, so Mac and his crew can board the empty sub and gather intelligence. The arrival of an even more advanced Soviet sub leads to breathtaking underwater clashes with the specter of war looming. Will the Soviets sink Mac and his crew to their watery graves, or will Teuthis safely return to Alaska where Mac's new love, Kate, anxiously awaits his return?

Hand-to-hand combat with Soviet Morskoy Spetsnaz divers under the ice! "By far the most comprehensive and accurate narrative of the operation of a nuclear submarine I have ever read." -Michael D. LaNoue, Nuclear Submarine Sonar Tech As USS Teuthis Saturation Dive Team Officer-in-Charge Mac McDowell leads his submarine team laying acoustic arrays under the Arctic ice, they capture an abandoned fully automated Alfa-class Soviet sub. Piloting their prize through the ice pack to the U.S. East Coast, they must evade or confront other Soviet subs trying to recover the sub-or sink it. Breathtaking deep-sea clashes erupt, including hand-to-hand combat with Soviet Morskoy Spetsnaz divers under the ice. Too far from Teuthis to escape, the Americans are accosted by a 6-ton orca. Will Mac's ship survive long enough to reach friendly waters, or will the men become just another meal for a deadly whale?

Offers the closest literary approximation to real submarine experience during the Cold War. "I was mesmerized by this remarkable tale of derring-do."- Captain George W. Jackson USN (Ret.) Recovering from his Operation Arctic Sting injuries, USS Teuthis Executive Officer Mac McDowell is tasked with laying acoustic arrays in the southern Atlantic and off Thurston Island, Western Antarctica. Teuthis tangles with Argentine subs in the south Atlantic, then confronts a ChiCom sub off Thurston Island. Mac and his team experience serious setbacks at the hands of the ChiComs while installing a relay transmitter on a nearby mountain peak. Teuthis discovers an underwater oil operation off Thurston Island and is tasked with escorting a Taiwanese sub and underwater tanker under the cover of the largest military marine exercise since World War II: PacEx89. Teuthis is attacked by a Chinese Han-class sub and a previously unknown North Korean AIP sub despite the protection provided by three U.S. fast-attack subs. Will Mac and Teuthis complete their mission, or will they finally meet their watery graves on the Pacific Ocean abyssal plain?

Your mission: Stop the South African nuclear test! "The scuttlebutt is when you go to sea with Mac, you're in for a frigging great adventure!"- Professor John B. Rosenman (Ret.), Norfolk State University In early 1989, ten years following an actual 1979 joint Israeli/South African nuclear test near Prince Edward Islands, known as the Vela Incident, South Africa was negotiating the end of apartheid. The regime had built six nuclear bombs, but had announced to the World it was dismantling five. The regime was also working on a small suitcase nuke. Israeli Intelligence got word of a pending nuclear test on Prince Edward Island and informed the U.S. State department. Working through the Commanders of the U.S. Pacific Submarine Fleet and the U.S. Atlantic Submarine Fleet, the U.S. State Department assigned Mac McDowell, as the new skipper of USS Teuthis, to onload an Israeli Shayetet 13 commando unit in the Falkland Islands and head into the waters near the Prince Edward Islands to get the facts and, if possible, stop any nuclear weapons test.