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Book Review

Sheppard of the Argonne: Alternative History Naval Battles of WWII

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Weatherly, William G. Sheppard of the Argonne. Herndon: Mascot Books, 2015, 324pp. $24.95

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By Sally DeBoer

How would the world be different if the Five-Power Treaty (also known as the Washington Naval Treaty) had never been signed, allowing unfettered naval rearmament by the world’s major military powers in the wake of World War One? Sheppard of the Argonne, the impressive debut effort by author G. William Weatherly (interviewed by CIMSEC here), the pen name for Captain George Jackson, USN (ret.), takes place in just such an alternative history. Opening at the beginning of the American effort in World War Two, Weatherly’s story intertwines his detailed, illustrative take on “what could have been” with faithfully rendered historical details and factual events. History buffs and naval enthusiasts alike will find something to enjoy in Sheppard, a novel with a diverse, carefully-drawn cast of characters and an eye for meticulous technical details. Indeed, it is the harmony between the men themselves and the machines they command and operate that makes Sheppard such a delight to read.

We meet our protagonist, Captain Sheppard McCloud of the United States Navy, shortly after the events of December 7th, 1941. In the immediate wake of Weatherly’s version of Pearl Harbor, Captain McCloud, then in command of Shenandoah,  makes a bold and fateful decision to pursue and attack the Japanese aggressors off the coast of Hawaii. The consequences of this decision weigh heavily on Sheppard; as a result of the engagement, a significant portion of Shenandoah’s crew lost their lives, while many more were severely injured, including Sheppard himself. Though he is hailed as a hero for his actions, the physical and mental scars of contact with the enemy are forever in the forefront of Captain McCloud’s mind. Reflective of the attitudes of the day, Sheppard feels he must carry this burden alone.

At the outset of Weatherly’s tale, an injured but resolute Sheppard is assigned command of Argonne, one of two Norfolk-based capital ships about to accompany two carriers into the increasingly dangerous Atlantic theater of World War Two. Under the larger command of Admiral Hamilton, Argonne and her sister ships have a simple but crucial mission: stop German naval forces from completely starving the British population and ending their war effort. Aboard Argonne, Sheppard is joined by a dedicated and diverse crew of officers and men, including, much to his delight and relief, some familiar faces from the Shenandoah. Upon leaving Norfolk harbor, Sheppard and his men must immediately rise to the challenge of their tasking.

G. William Weatherly’s background as a U.S. Navy captain shines in careful, detailed way Sheppard presents not only the naval engagements but also the technology itself in meticulous relief. Readers who are familiar with naval technology will be delighted by Weatherly’s explanations and renderings of the ship’s armament and technology complement. While much of the equipment and techniques are faithfully rendered in accordance with the time period, Weatherly has accelerated some developments as they might have been if the Washington Naval Treaty were never signed. Readers experience the full spectrum of naval warfare, from the cockpits of Argonne’s Kingfisher complement to German U-boats below the water’s surface. As Sheppard is a fast-paced and action packed tale, Weatherly does readers a great service by clearly illustrating naval tactics and procedures.  Even those who are unfamiliar with the intricacies of battle on the high seas will be able to follow along with the events of the novel as they transpire.

As any member of the naval profession will attest, the men who make up a ship’s crew determine its success or failure just as surely as its technology and design. So too is the case in Sheppard of the Argonne. Captain McCloud himself is a complicated but aspirational protagonist; every decision and action is influenced by his harrowing experience in the Pacific. In addition to her commanding officer, readers are introduced to Argonne’s department heads, junior officers, chiefs, and enlisted men. Sheppard’s presence and leadership style is among the novel’s most memorable aspects; naval professional’s will appreciate the care the author uses in developing relationships between the Commanding Officer and his crew. Further, Weatherly’s wide-reaching scope includes the perspectives of high leadership, Germans, and British officers. The result is a complete and engaging look at the many personalities and passions that make up the naval service.

Sheppard of the Argonne is a gripping alternative history that will surely appeal to a wide audience; historians, naval enthusiasts, and casual readers alike will enjoy following Captain McCloud and his crew into battle. G. William Weatherly’s realistic and faithfully rendered portrait of service at sea will be especially enjoyable to veterans of the sea services. As the saga continues, Sheppard McCloud and his men will surely continue to develop as a crew. Readers can look forward to hearing more about Sheppard and the men of the Argonne in the future; Weatherly will soon finalize the second novel in the series and work is well underway on the third.

Sally DeBoer is the Book Review Coordinator for CIMSEC. She can be reached at books@cimsec.org.

Book Review

All the Ways We Kill and Die

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Castner, Brian. All The Ways We Kill And Die: An Elegy for a Fallen Comrade, and the Hunt for His Killer. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2016, 356pp. $25.99

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By Commander Jeremy Wheat, USN

In the heart of Florida’s Emerald Coast, on Eglin Air Force Base’s aptly named Range Road, stands a simple memorial that is modest in both form and function. Nicknamed “The Wall” by Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technicians of all services, the  memorial permanently enshrines the names of EOD warriors who gave their life in the performance of their duty. Today there are 314 names on The Wall. This May we will add six more names, bringing the total added since 9/11 to 131.

All The Ways We Kill And Die is the story of one of those names – Technical Sergeant Matthew S. Schwartz, United States Air Force – but in many ways, this is all of their stories.

All The Ways We Kill And Die reads like a good work of fiction with a rich cast of characters and well developed whodunit plot line, all set in a postmodern military genre of special operations forces, robots, and drones. However, it is Brian Castner’s literary style that makes this a welcome addition to any bookshelf. Similar to his first work, The Long Walk, the language is raw, it is real, and it is that of a warrior. The meta-narrative, the structure of the book itself, the pace and tempo of the prose, everything about this book is reflective of an EOD response to an IED strike: tend to the wounded, collect the evidence, and target the bomber. More so, it provides a unique perspective of warfare in the 21st century and for that reason alone, All The Ways We Kill And Die should be cataloged in the annals of modern American military history.

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Maj. Mark Fogle and Chief Master Sgt. Neil Jones salute the Memorial Wall after the names of fallen Air Force explosive ordnance disposal technicians were read during the 45th Annual EOD Memorial Ceremony May 3, 2014 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Sam King.

Technical Sergeant Matt Schwartz and the other two members of his EOD team died on January 5, 2012 when an IED detonated under their vehicle on a dirt road in Afghanistan while conducting a route clearance patrol deep into Helmand Province. Aside from its deafening roar, most people don’t think about the chaos an explosion creates, but EOD technicians know it well. We are trained to calculate the change in air pressure a detonation creates and how much of that pressure the human body can withstand. We know the raw force that is produced in an explosion and what happens when a body is thrown around inside an armored vehicle as a result. We also understand what happens if that same armored vehicle catches fire and you’re trapped inside.

Matt Schwartz’s official autopsy would later reveal he died four times in that single IED blast. Four distinct ways to die that all occurred near-instantaneously, and he probably didn’t even know it happened. In response to the news of Schwartz’s death, Brian Castner defaults to his training as an EOD officer and immerses himself in the EOD response process to answer one question, “Who killed his friend that January day?” Not how. Not why. Who? What his experience in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan has taught him is there is one person at the center of an IED’s being. Best known in Arabic by his kunya, al-Muhandis, we would come to know him by his nom de guerre, the Engineer, the master designer. “The only thing I knew for sure about the Engineer was how he killed, all of the ways we died at his hand. The war was a chess match, and al-Muhandis always went first.”

To understand the Engineer, one has to understand his life’s work, the IED. How it is built. How it is emplaced. How it functions. How it kills. The evidence of an IED is left with those who come in closest contact with it, namely the EOD technicians who disarm it before it detonates, and those who taste the fumes of its blast and survive when it does. What Castner finds at the intersection of these two groups is an untold story of the Surges in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and of those who bore the brunt of the deadly interaction between the U.S. and the  jihadists. In 2011, at the height of the Afghanistan Surge, the EOD community suffered a casualty rate ten times greater than the average for all American soldiers. During the Iraq Surge, casualty rates for EOD technicians doubled. Equally horrific, “at the height of the fighting seasons in the [Afghanistan] Surge an amputee was created, on average, every twenty-four hours,” proving there are other ways to die even if you make it off the battlefield.

“Ask what makes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan unique, and an incorrect superficial analysis might conclude the IED, the greatest casualty-maker of the last fifteen years. But the IED is just an insurgent’s weapon, not a tactic or strategy in and of itself. No, the innovation of this conflict was the method by which the IED was developed, how it was manufactured and emplaced, how quickly it evolved in reaction to our defenses, and, most significantly, the anonymity of the intellect behind the design. The average soldier could not say who they were really fighting.” (pg. 54)

At the juncture of counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan gave birth to a niche field of forensic biometrics, allowing us to transform warfare to an individual experience. To see through the IED’s anonymity, Castner turns to a team of professionals: the biometric engineers and intelligence analysts who transform the IED’s evidence into an identity and, by extension, a specific person to be hunted. Analyzing the details of an IED’s construction, for example the gauge of wire used or the type of shrapnel added to enhance an IED’s maiming effects, allows a skilled analyst to discern patterns and identify distinct IED makers. Forensic analysis of the strand of hair from a piece of tape or a fingerprint on an IED component gives them a name. Providing an objective link between bomb and bomb maker, biometrics allow forces  to do more than simply react to al-Muhandis’ pawns. It enables them to get inside of his kill chain and disrupt his chess match. “In modern war, rather than kill any person, we kill that person. That particular person, but not another. War has always been personal, but now it is individual, specific to the associated alias and photo and fingerprint and DNA sample and dossier. The point is this: some people are worth killing more than others.” But who does the killing and at what cost?

Master EOD Badge
The Master EOD Badge

 

All The Ways We Kill And Die gives an insider’s perspective on what could be the most romanticized aspect of America’s post -9/11 wars: the integration of drones, special operations warfare, and battlefield

contractors to hunt and kill the individuals in their dossier. What Castner finds is not a fanaticized Hollywood interpretation. It is a gritty and complex world that challenges the common perceptions of 21st century warfare. “Why demonize the thing [drones] keeping soldiers out of harm’s way? The answer, which nobody wants to admit, is that they think without dead Americans, or at least Americans at risk, there would be far more dead Iraqis and Afghans. They can’t say it, but that’s what they think.” Do Brian Castner’s forensic analysts and special operators find al-Muhandis? Can they bring closure to his investigation and personal loss? In his own words, Castner believes “the Engineer is both a battlefield phenomenon and a very few flesh-and-blood individuals, probably less than a dozen, though I doubt anyone knows for sure. He is the aspirational target for a generation of special ops intel analysts and a specific man responsible for the device that killed Matt.”

Above all else, All The Ways We Kill And Die is a deeply personal memoir, a lamentation for a lost brother. Castner closes the book with a unique insight into the covenant of the EOD community as he takes the reader to the ceremony by which we add names to The Wall. As a brotherhood “we live well and we mourn well. We remember.” I wept four times in the 308 pages of text as I thought about the families I have stood beside when they buried their husbands and fathers. I dare you not to do the same. I spent many hours reflecting about my own time spent downrange; every name on The Wall that I know, each post-blast analysis of a fellow EOD technician that I conducted, every ramp ceremony, and of course my own “Alive Day.” In short, I remembered. For that opportunity alone, I am grateful to Brian Castner for authoring the elegy of Technical Sergeant Matthew Schwartz. A man I never met, but now know, and will never forget.

Commander Jeremy Wheat is a Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Officer and veteran of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Naval War College, and the Navy’s Maritime Advanced Warfighting School. He is currently serving on the staff of Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet in the Plans and Policy Directorate. His opinions do not represent those of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, or Department of the Navy.

Book Review

Practise to Deceive: Learning Curves of Military Deception Planners

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Whaley, Barton. Practice to Deceive: Learning Curves of Military Deception Planners. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2016, 256pp. $39.95.41ZXSXxYabL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_

By LT Robert “Jake” Bebber USN

Lawrence Freedman opens his magisterial tome “Strategy: A History” identifying the elemental features of strategy across time as “deception, coalition formation and the instrumental use of violence.”[i] It is no surprise that “deception” is the first essential element of strategy. “War is uncertain business,” as Whaley notes in his opening introduction, and “deception is the only weapon that a warrior can wield that, to the extent it succeeds, will impose uncertainty and the element of surprise on the opponent.” Deception is ultimately about surprising one’s enemy.

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Much has been written about deception and its importance in war, and Dr. Barton Whaley (1928-2013) is almost certainly one of the preeminent authorities on the matter. However, it is one thing to appreciate the importance of deception and entirely another to craft deception operations in support of military plans. Thankfully, Dr. Whaley has left us with a guide. Practise to Deceive [ii] is designed with the planners themselves in mind, providing insight into the type of thinking and procedures that make successful and unsuccessful deception planners. Early on, Whaley identifies the central role of commanders in deception planning and addresses important command and control issues, such as whether deception planning is best handled by the intelligence or operations cells in a military organization.

Those who work as physicians are said to “practice medicine” which conveys an important point. You may go to medical school, be awarded a medical degree and receive a license to work as a physician, but what truly makes you a good doctor is the constant repetition and experience of clinical practice. Deception is no different. A military course on deception planning is only the beginning. One must constantly practice and refine techniques, learn and study the art and science behind it. Since deception is ultimately about manipulating your opponent’s mind, the best practitioners are those who are well read in a broad variety of fields such as the natural sciences, biology, history, and psychology. Skills and knowledge atrophy over time. Indeed, from a broadly cultural perspective, Whaley notes entire tribes, countries and civilizations experience patterns of discontinuities, and in effect, have to relearn and rebuild from scratch. Our natural stereotypes about civilizations such as ancient Byzantium or modern China are “flat out wrong.”

Whaley’s analysis seeks to identify common traits of deception planners over time and provides useful observations. Excellence in deception is independent of rank, branch of service, or even military service. Deception planners tend to operate in small teams drawn from diverse backgrounds and experiences. They tend to have acute insight into both the enemy and their own side. Since the opportunities to actually use deception in war are rare over time, the study of past experience is critical. Finally – and probably most important – commanders must play an active part in deception planning. Ultimately, deception planning supports the commander’s goals and objectives, so his participation is key.

Practise to Deceive helps by providing the reader with 88 case studies of deception plans and operations. The book examines these cases from the perspective of the planners themselves. These case studies are broken up into four sections: cases of those who were in the early part of their career or new to deception, more experienced planners in specific operations, cases of how planners “sold” their commanders on deception plans, and finally deception planning at the institutional level. Most of these case studies are short, just three to ten pages in length.

In the later chapters, Whaley outlines the ten planning steps required for deception. These steps will lead the planner to determine what he wants the enemy to perceive and how he wants the enemy to react, considering the tools at his disposal. It lays out not only what the planner does but also how the planner thinks. In many ways, these steps mimic steps in writing creative fiction, storytelling, or screen play writing. Writing a deception plan is about leading an audience to reach a conclusion of the author’s choice. It just so happens that the author wants the audience to reach the wrong conclusion and ultimately be surprised.

It should come as no surprise to learn that Dr. Whaley’s life was more than just practicing and writing about military deception. He was an expert magician and lifetime member of the Magic Castle in Los Angeles and the International Brotherhood of Magicians, and a prize winning author on the subject. He brought his interest to the military in 2004, hosting workshops at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, on magic and the military.

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The author, Dr. Barton Whaley, passed away in 2013.

Whaley’s life and work should leave our senior military and national security leaders wondering whether our country is continuing to develop the talent and tools to practice good deception. This is critical to ensure not only that we can deceive our adversaries, but also help prevent us from being deceived (counter-deception). Deception, as both a practice and an art, is not something that one can master in a short time. It requires unique individuals who have to be recruited, trained, cultivated, and provided the opportunity to practice their craft. To practice deception, we must better incorporate deception planning and operations into exercises, training and war-games at all levels from tactical to strategic. Whaley concludes Practise to Deceive with this same advice, recommending that the U.S. consider the Israeli model to train both deception and counter-deception. History suggests that constantly having to relearn deception whole cloth comes at great cost. Ideally, we will take steps to keep the butcher’s bill small. Dr. Barton Whaley’s book is an excellent place to start.

LT Robert “Jake” Bebber USN is an information warfare officer assigned to the staff of U.S. Cyber Command. The views expressed here do not represent those of the Department of Defense, the Department of the Navy or U.S. Cyber Command. He welcomes your comments at jbebber@gmail.com.

[i] Lawrence Freedman. Strategy: A History (Oxford University Press: New York, 2013).

[ii] The book uses the British spelling of “Practise” instead of the American spelling.

[iii] From Dr. Barton Whaley’s obituary, available at: http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary-print.aspx?n=Barton-Whaley&lc=6922&pid=166273115&mid=5624174

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Asia-Pacific, Book Review

Red Phoenix Burning

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Bond, Larry and Chris Carlson. Red Phoenix Burning. Larry Bond and Chris Carlson, 2016. Kindle. 510pp. $11.99

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By Bret Perry

When it comes to the techno-thriller, most defense wonks reminisce about older titles from authors such as Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, and Stephen Coonts as the genre has moved away from its roots. So when I discovered that techno-thriller extraordinaire Larry Bond (read CIMSEC interview the authors here) planned to publish a sequel to his classic novel Red Phoenix on a large-scale Korea war co-authored with Chris Carlson, I immediately became excited.

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For readers new to Bond, Red Phoenix was his second book, following his collaborative effort with Clancy on Red Storm Rising. It revolved around a massive conventional war in Korea featuring a North Korea invasion of the South and a desperate counteroffensive by the Republic of Korea (ROK) and her American ally. When I picked up Red Phoenix Burning, I didn’t know what to expect. Would it just be a third massive conventional Korean conflict with even more explosions than its predecessor? It turns out that I was only right about the explosions.

Red Phoenix Burning takes place in the modern day featuring the notorious Kim Jong-Un regime in power. Even though the Kim regime was removed in Red Phoenix after the ceasefire brokered by Beijing, Bond and Carlson explain how Chinese displeasure with Seoul’s growth and American alignment triggered them to put Kim Jong-Un in power in order to maintain a balanced Korean Peninsula. This, combined with a US administration focused on more pressing conflicts in the Middle East, effectively creates a 2016 geo-political feel.

Keeping with what’s believable, Red Phoenix Burning does not open with another massive invasion of South Korea by Pyongyang. Rather, Bond and Carlson focus on the stability (or to others, instability) of the North Korean regime. After an assassination attempt eliminates much of Kim’s inside circle (who is shortly finished off afterwards in a brutal manner), civil war emerges in North Korea featuring three sides: loyalists to the Kim regime, the Korean People’s Army (KPA), and Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK). The obvious loser: the people of North Korea.

The way Bond and Carlson set up and present this three-sided civil war is one of the most interesting aspects of the novel. To many, including this reviewer, the Hermit Kingdom’s secrecy and propaganda make it hard for normal observers to identify the different power structures driving the Kim regime. The authors of Red Phoenix Burning fill this gap and provide a tremendous amount of insight as they describe the strengths and weaknesses of the three factions. One would expect for the KPA to easily sweep control with its military resources, but the WPK’s numbers and extensive involvement throughout North Korean society make them a formidable opponent. Loyalists to the Kim regime are nearly just as threatening due to their access to the state’s chemical and nuclear weapons of mass destruction (WMD). As a result, clashes endure, only creating more causalities and a worsening humanitarian catastrophe.

Meanwhile, less than a couple hundred miles to the south, South Korea is trying to determine not only what is going on, but what they should do. At first, Seoul launches a couple of thrilling special operations forces reconnaissance missions into North Korea, but eventually decides to initiate a full scale invasion to achieve something very close to the hearts of the Korean people: reunification. As North Korean forces are bogged down in a civil war, the South Korean military is able to push north quickly and easily outmaneuver what remnants of the KPA try to defend their territory. Seoul’s American ally provides limited intelligence and humanitarian support as movement north of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) would trigger Chinese military intervention.

Nevertheless, the prospect of bordering a unified Korea led by Seoul and the uncertainty surrounding the former Kim regime’s WMDs force the Chinese to intervene. Like the South Koreans, the PRC’s military invasion faces minimal resistance and turns into a race to seize as much territory as possible. The US is forced to react and begins pressuring Chinese interests in both the Yellow Sea and South China Sea, but is hesitant to escalate the conflict and potentially start a third world war. Without revealing the ending—what’s left of the KPA command recognizes that a Chinese occupation would ultimately prevent reunification and attempts to reach a ceasefire with the WPK in order to ally with the ROK. More importantly, the firing of SCUD missiles by Kim loyalists reminds all factions of the risks of North Korea’s scattered and destructive WMD arsenal.

As the aforementioned plot illustrates, Bond and Carlson do an excellent job with creating a believable geopolitical environment. Their defense expertise, wargaming experience, and extensive research allows them to color in well-written military engagements—most notably the urban assault on Pyongyang. But unlike some of Bond’s previous titles that revolved around epic conventional conflicts (such as Vortex—this reviewer’s personal favorite), Red Phoenix Burning is not a novel purely focused on the military dimension of another flashpoint crisis-turned-war. Rather, Bond and Carlson place a greater emphasis on political factors such as US-PRC relations, the ramifications of a North Korean humanitarian crisis, America’s reluctance to dive into a Korean crisis due to more pressing Middle East engagements, and how the world’s superpowers treat North Korea’s WMDs.  Although this entails fewer scenes featuring first person accounts of tank battles and naval engagements, it creates a more plausible environment that readers can buy into and envision as a potential future scenario for the Korean peninsula.  Even though Red Phoenix Burning features less battlefield action than some of Bond’s previous novels, it demonstrates how fiction can better help us understand the most significant geopolitical ramifications of the collapse of the Hermit Kingdom.

Although readers might have appreciated some maps accompanying the military engagements, Red Phoenix Burning is a solid book for defense professionals eager for some fiction, and a must for those interested in the Korean Peninsula. For readers, Red Phoenix Burning will keep you entertained while feeding your intellectual curiosity.

Bret Perry is a graduate of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. The comments and questions above are those of the author alone and are presented in his personal capacity. They do not necessarily reflect those of any organization.

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