General-account

Dr. Ken Kamler is a veteran of several Everest expeditions. His book, Doctor on Everest, chronicles his foray into climbing, leading to the highest mountain on Earth and culminating in his participation in the famous 1996 rescue. Kamler allows us to see his adventures through his eyes, sharing events and inner thoughts that we normally hide behind our persona. We learn enough of his life outside climbing to identify with Kamler, and that makes his fears and emotions loom large in his writing.

Wrapped in a demanding profession, he sees some of his boyhood aspirations slipping away. Kamler finds an unexpected lull in his life. Seizing the chance, he enrolls in a rock climbing course, and enters the world of climbers. Moving to mountaineering, he rearranges professional requirements to slip away to South America. On his return, rather than the disdain he thinks he'll find for his shirking his profession, he sees that others give him wistful respect; their own lives a tangle of obligations that seem to keep them pinned to the lowlands, away from the peaks of their own dreams.

He finds mountaineering a social crossroads, where climbers from disparate backgrounds meet and share intense experiences. Eventually he's invited to go to Everest. While a good climber, he knows that his experience is below that of most expedition members. But he benefits from a sort of "affirmative action program for doctors." He shares with us not only his experiences, but also his inner self. Will he be able to meet medical challenges at altitudes where the body degenerates and all medical supplies came in by yak? And will he be able to climb well enough not to let down his comrades.

Even before he takes us to base camp he entertains with the exotic. In Katmandu a dog seizes a piece of meat. A customer grabs it and finally wins a tug-of-war. She then returns the meat to the bucket and buys the contents, going home to cook dinner. At his hotel, truck diesel exhaust penetrating the window's gaps serves as Kamler's alarm clock. He tries to escape the fumes in the bathroom, where he finds his roommate doing sit-ups. He is immediately struck by two discordant thoughts. The first is that doing sit-ups just before trekking to base camp isn't likely to help fitness. Equally strongly, he has to stifle the fear "I should be doing sit-ups too!"

Base camp is a collection of modern fabrics, alloys, and communications gear. But it is also an ironic blend of yak dung, juniper smoke from the altar, and prayer flags. The Sherpa's cultural attitudes are an interesting counterpoint to the immigrant climber's. On a later trip, longing for word from home before starting to climb, Kamler's group tells a Sherpa that they will give him a prized pair of sunglasses if he gets to the post office and back in three days - a significant challenge. He returns in time. When asked for the mail, he says the post office was closed and he couldn't wait or he'd be late. He couldn't understand why the Americans were disappointed; he did as asked. They gave him the glasses.

He sets up the highest medical practice in the world. As the climb gets closer, complaints loom larger from his patients. He treats not only the body, but also salves the apprehensions of his patients. The Sherpas present differently. One casually came by asking for help with back pain. "How long?" "Six years." Treating six years of chronic back pain on the Khumbu Glacier is a bit much, but sending him away sends the wrong message. Kamler starts a complete physical exam, stopping only when he thinks enough time has passed. Nodding sagely, he dispenses an anti-inflammatory. Heck, it might even help. A day later Kamler learns that "Dr. Sab" has cured the back pain.

Kamler records several trips to Everest. As a physician, he always sees firsthand the frailty of the human body when nature's immutable forces, so savage here, catch men unaware or weakened. High altitude problems force Kamler to send climbers lower, away from their goal. And massive trauma is often the result of errors or of twists of fate. As chance would have it, in 1996 Kamler's group is a day behind several parties who are caught by a severe storm while descending late from the summit. These events have been well recorded by John Krakauer, Anatoli Boukreev, and David Breashears. Fate has placed Kamler at camp III, the highest physician in the world at that moment. He treats Beck Weathers and Makalu Gao. Their survival was a combination of incredible luck, or amazing fate, or perhaps karma, the skills of the mountaineers, the highest helicopter rescue in the world, and Kamler and a second climbing physician.

Why face these challenges? Kamler offers "Danger in the mountains is a reason not to climb, but it's also a reason to climb. It's not thrill seeking. Accepting risk means you gain immediate direct control of your life. It forces open your senses and puts your mind into sharp focus. You become a keen observer of nature's grand design and quiet nuances." The grinding drone of daily existence in western society comes from the amorphous challenges that overwhelm us. "Stress comes from expending one's strength in poorly defined problems and over which you have limited control. ... Meeting tough challenges that are sharply in focus is energizing."

Kamler has never made it to the summit of Everest. Weather has kept him off it, directly and indirectly. More importantly, he measured himself both as a climber and a person, and proven he was more than up to his challenges. Once a climber was descending with pulmonary edema, dropping to a lower elevation in hopes of reversing the fluid build up in his lungs so as not to drown thousands of feet above sea level. He saw another climber coming up to meet him. "Please God, let that be Ken." It was.

I am not a mountain climber, but after hearing a review of this book on NPR I felt it was a book I wanted to read. I found this well written non-fiction book read like a novel, and was a real page turner. Written from the perspective of a medical doctor as well as a climber, Kamler discusses high altitude medicine as well as climbing. This is an intimate account of a variety of attempts by Kamler to climb Mt. Everest, as well as the medical treatments that he administered as the team doctor. This book also deals with the tragedy of the 1996 disaster in which he was valuable in helping some of the survivors. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in mountain climbing or medcine.

Despite of the misleading title, I found this book to be quite engrossing and I read it compulsively from cover to cover in a single sitting. The book is different from other climbing books because it deals with medical part of the climb which is not often about making it to the summit but in saving lives. Dr. Kamler writes extremely well and this will be one book that you will read to finish. Like one reviewer before me stated, I was bit disappointed when the book ended.

The misleading title refered to the fact that I thought the book was more or less about that 1996 Everest climbing season that took so many lives. That section only took up a small portion of the book. Much of the book involves his other expeditions up to Everest. While not boring reading material, like most I probably expected more on that 1996 climbing season.

I grew up with my Grandmother, Harriet Backus, telling stories about her life in the mining camps. She always wanted to see her stories in print, and finally wrote them down and published the book. History professors have used this personal narrative as a source for their work,and one told me everything he checked in the book proved to be historically accurate; we knew Grandma had a perfect memory! My mother, Harriet, is in the book, and there is a picture of her as a little girl. She is here with me at Thanksgiving, 1998, and I was able to show her this advertisement for her mother's book on the internet. She was thrilled! She's 89 and remembers some of the stories. The book still sells well, especially in Telluride and Leadville. I'd welcome questions or comments via the internet.

I am writing this review with my mother, Harriet Walton, who is the daughter of Harriet Fish Backus, author of Tomboy Bride. Harriet was born in 1909 in Telluride, after her mother came down to the "town" from the Tomboy Gold mine, 2000 feet above Telluride, to give birth to her first child. There are several photos of Harriet as a young girl in the book. She typed several early editions of the book for her mother before it was published, on an old manual typewriter. Harriet Fish Backus, was a remarkable woman and the afterword that appears in the new version of this book tells about her life after the book. It is still an inspiring story and our family enjoys hearing from interested readers from all over the world. You can e-mail us at soccerrgw@aol.com

Mrs. Backus embodies an amazing frontier spirit, good cheer in the face of nearly every disaster, and in the course of her gentle discussions of daily live at a time of awesome change in Colorado, shows us the most fascinating details of how people lived when our state was growing up. Her personality and individuality come through clearly fifty years after the book was written, and she seems a woman I would have loved to have known. Well written and edited, clear, easy to read yet containing hidden depths, and a joy throughout, it was very hard to put down even between chapters! A great look at frontier mining life. *It was also very nice to see the note here from her granddaughter - it seems the pleasant disposition and good cheer has carried well through the generations.*

This is the all time classic adventure book.

I originally bought and read this book through my love of horses and interest in Pakistan. There are so many stories in this book, so decriptive and well written that I could not stop reading it. On the train, lunch break at work, all through the night - you won't want to stop. His knowledge of horses, the land and people is remarkable and an escape from any mundane aspects that you may have in your life.

My boyfriend who is from Peshawar and Swat was simply addicted to this book (despite the fact he has no interest in horses). He has travelled through many of the places mentioned in this book and even knows some of the buildings like the courthouse which they slept in. He was in absolute amazement that a westerner could so thoroughly understand his pukhtun culture and language. He felt that it was written by a fellow pathan rather than an Irish American. The thoughts and sentiments were exactly what he has been brought up to understand. From his opinion, I feel confident in asserting this book's value as a true depiction of the NWFP and surrounding areas.

CuChullaine O'Reilly (Asadullah Khan) has written the best book I have ever read on Pakistan or horses. This book will find a treasured place on any bookcase.

The day I picked up this magnificent book I was transported to a world talked about my Parents and Grandparents, the NWFP. Many a tales were told over the years, some believable and some not. Asadullah Khan's epic journey through Pakistan and his experiences are recorded for posterity. Like Homer's Odyssey and The Iliad, the Khyber Knights is truly a superb achievement. Asadullah Khan a "man of twists and turns" meets all the challenges thrown at him in the land that is seldom understood by the West is indeed a mammoth achievement. A convert to Islam, and above all a keen horseman, Asadullah Khan has written the book in such a way that all senses become alive and one is actually "living the experience". I would recommend this book to anyone, whether he or she be an equestrian or otherwise, a book that has to be read not just once but many times over! "Saddle up now, here's to your luck, great days from this day on!"

Anyone who has ever wondered about what adventure travel story would be of interest to real adventurers need wonder no more. Khyber Knights is that epic tale that will be read by climbers in their tents on Mt. Everest, by wanderers camped out under the stars in the Sahara, and by modern day explorers wintering over in Antartica as well as just about anyone with a passion for horses. Read the Author's Disclaimer and then try to put the book down before you have finished the entire 600 pages... I dare you!!!

If you are at all interested in the U-Boat war in the North Atlantic during World War II, then this book is for you. Werner tells the story of his wartime career in gripping detail. What I found most interesting about the book, however, was not so much the descriptions of combat (although those are certainly interesting enough), but rather the fascinating glimpse into ordinary life in Germany and occupied France during the war, as described by Werner when he recounts his leaves and furloughs and visits home. Likewise, Werner's story of the brutality of French treatment of German POWs at war's end is also very eye opening. Aside from that, there are plenty of Asdic pings, depth charge runs, torpedo fan shots, and silent runnings to keep even the most demanding submarine fan enthralled for hours. Immerse yourself in the excitement and the horror of World War II under the waves with the words of a true master. Highly recommended.

I am an ex-submariner in the U.S Navy with eight strategic deterrent submarine patrols in the North Atlantic and I can only imagine the absolute courage and patriotism shown by the men described in this book! Captain Werner describes what is truly a life of adventure bordering on madness as he and his crew dodge British and US aircraft and destroyers in the most dramatic cat and mouse game of all time.

The book follows Werner's career as a U-Boat officer that starts at the beginning of WWII. He talks about the initial glory and successes of the German U-Boat campaign against the British and he follows the war as the tide changes against Germany. Werner describes reports of boat after boat being sunk and most of his fellow commanders being killed at sea and he shares his thoughts as he continues to bring his boat to sea in spite of almost a guarantee of being killed.

I can't recommend this book strongly enough. It is the BEST submarine saga that I have read to date and it is also a tribute to men who have gone to sea in defense of their country.

This book is amazing. You won't be able to put it down!!

At a time when many Americans want to understand Arab and Islamic influences and their effect on current events, Rick Francona's book is an excellent and enduring source.
As an Air Force intelligence officer, a Middle East veteran, and a fluent Arabic speaker, Rick had seen the Iraqis, first as an ally, and later as an adversary, as the title suggests. Early in the book he tells us about visiting Iraq during its long war with Iran. He visited areas of grinding combat around Al-Basrah and observed, as an ally, the army we would later face in the Persian Gulf War. His unique, first-hand observations would be invaluable later. He also entertains us with stories of life in Baghdad, once even escaping his Iraqi escort and conversing in Arabic with surprised ordinary Iraqis in the marketplace.
Later in the book, he gives us an insider's view as General Schwarzkopf's interpreter at the meeting at Safwan where Iraq was to receive surrender terms. Asked to translate instructions to the senior Iraqi representative, Rick tells us, "I translated the words into Arabic; the Iraqi interpreter, a brigadier who had spent several years living in Michigan, nodded to Sultan Hashim that my translation was correct." He ties many of his experiences together at a meeting later in the book when he finds himself facing an Iraqi major with whom he had worked during the Iran-Iraq war. "I was stunned to be now face-to-face with Majid Al-Hilawi, whom I had not seen since my last night in Baghdad at the end of the US-Iraq military relationship in 1988. I simply walked over to where Majid was sitting and offered my hand which he took warmly."
Rick Francona makes us feel like a personal witness to all these events. This is a great story from an observant eyewitness. It is all the more compelling because we saw the highlights on CNN and many of the observations will probably be relevant far into the future.

Rick Francona, a retired USAF LtCol., has written an account of the Gulf War as no one else can. He is probably unique in that he served in Baghdad during the Iran/Iraq war (to include excursions into Iraqi frontline trenches during the fighting) and then on Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf's staff as an interpreter and intelligence officer. Francona's experiences and perspective make for an interesting memoir of the war. He was there for most of the key decisions and events of the war, and he is very frank in his description of working with the Coalition partners, particularly the Saudis. Likewise, he provides an honest account of the efficacy of the air war, summed up in the placard over the desk of one of the airpower planners in Riyadh: "We are not preparing the battlefield, we are destroying it."

Also, readers will learn how the politics of realism comes into play in the Middle East -- from US involvement in the Iran/Iraq war to the decision to end the Gulf War without moving into Baghdad.
Francona has written an extremely readable history. This book belongs on the shelves of historians, collectors, and military history buffs.

I truly enjoyed this book. It is somewhat parochial regarding the air force, but not awful about it. Some of the personal anecdotes were quite interesting, especially the description of the Saudi officers. I laughed out loud at the anecdote of "you are now leaving Saudi Arabia, please set your watches ahead 600 years".

This book assumes the reader has something of a military background, which isn't an issue to me but I can imagine some people struggling w/the story. If your interested in military history in the mideast, you can easily afford the day or two it will take to read this.

Most references to World War Two in the Pacific cite the decisive American victory at the Battle of Midway as the turning point in that conflict - the high tide of Japanese aggression. This book carefully refutes that position. The Japanese were still on the offensive after Midway (in part because the Japanese Navy neglected to inform the Japanese Army of the loss of four front line fleet carriers in that battle). The Japanese were still fully capable of seizing and severing American lines of communication with Australia - depriving the U.S. of a required base for future offensive operations. The dual campaigns in New Guinea and Guadalcanal from August 1942 to January 1943 (both resulting in successful Allied counter-offensives) represented the critical shift from the strategic defensive to the offensive for the Allies for the balance of the war. As Frank so ably demonstrates, there was nothing inevitable about the six-month struggle in the southern Solomons that started when the First Marine Division went ashore August 7, 1942. Both sides suffered significant setbacks and suffered from leadership lapses at critical junctures. In the end, it was the U.S. superiority in high command decisions and material that seemed to tilt the balance. The Japanese were surprised and very slow to believe that the U.S. was committing itself to an offensive campaign so early in the war. An objective analysis reveals that the Japanese had every reason to be surprised and U.S. leaders had every reason to be pessimistic as to the final outcome, especially after the early disaster at the Battle of Savo Island revealed relative U.S. weakness in surface ship actions. Guadalcanal came to be known as Starvation Island for the Japanese and the U.S. also came to recognize the conflict as a battle for logistics supremacy - which equated to air and sea supremacy, while soldiers and marines suffered tropical deprivations and hard fighting against a fanatical foe on the ground. Frank's work attempts to tell the complete story - air, sea and land - and he is successful. No mean feat. His research casts new light on an aging but important subject. As the World War Two generation fades into the past, it is all the more important to to reassess the history and importance of these events. Guadalcanal the history by Frank is a landmark study on perhaps the critical campaign of the entire cataclysm that was the War in the Pacific.

The book is the definitive source on the Guadalcanal campaign. It covers all three aspects (air, land, sea) of the 6 month campaign in detail. It is obvious the Mr. Frank has done his homework and it was very refershing to see that Japanese sources were also used extensively. This is something that is sorely lacking in other books that discuss campaigns in the Pacific.

He provides interesting breakdown tables of casualties after each major battle. I especially liked the way the author analyzes mistakes that were made by both sides. His critiques of Adms. Ghormley and Fletcher was especially interesting. The final concluding chapter was als very excellent as it gives a good tactical and strategic summary of the whole campaign.

The only minor quibble I had was with the comparatively short (comapred to the land and sea) coverage on the air aspects. More personal details on the airmen who particpated would be better since the author himself stated that control of Henderson Field was instrumental to the Japanese inability to resupply their land forces, and the eventual win. The daily listing of air casualties over-claimed/suffered by both sides gets a bit numbing after a while.

A superb work. One lives with and through the unutterable pathos and grief and the ultimate taking of this island over a 6 month period of apocalyptic proportions. I read about men like Sgt John Basilone and Sgt Major Vouza (a native of Guadalcanal) and know that their stories have been replicated many times over through the current day. Mr. Vouza raised the American flag in front of his living spaces long after the war ended, and if I remember correctly, until he died of old age, a true hero to the Allied cause and his homeland. Sgt John Basilone created an aura of an unbeatable American front on Bloody Ridge by manning more than one machine gun and placing himself in extreme harm's way, contributing to the illusion that the defensive lines were solidly manned by many marines- a fiction which seems to this reader to have won the day (night) in that particular pivotal battle on land. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Sadly, he did not survive the war, dying as a result of enemy action on Iwo Jima. One reads of the Battle of Savo Island, a critical phase of the Guadalcanal landing which occurred on the night following the Marine landing.This was a very one sided IJN victory which sank or disabled 6 of the Allied Forces cruisers and which resulted in an unanticipated early departure of the US carier escort and unloading of only a portion of the supplies. One reads about Pistol Pete, dugout Sunday, the Tokyo Express, washing machine Charlie, malaria, swamps, and Elephant grass.

This is written with grateful thanks to those brave men, and to all the brave women and men who have followed. They are truly the linchpin of our freedom.

This was definitely a good read, no doubt about it. I'm sort of surprised that other people say it gives insight into the daily lives of the indians though, because I didn't get that at all. More what I got was insights into the way indians generally treated their captives (the ones who ran away and told their stories) and the way things were seen and the life of the settlers maybe (only by how they told the story). The book is all firsthand accounts from escaped captives and is sometimes gruesome but always very interesting. People back then knew how to tell stories.

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An amazing amount of material on the wildlife of North America and, the "wild" lives of American Indians and captured settlers.

The book includes firsthand accounts of Indian life, gruesome conflicts, brutal torture, spectacular escapes, and spirited pursuits. The Indians killed, tortured, and sometimes adopted white settlers. Some were made into slaves, some fully adopted as family members, and other slated for, and escaped sure death.

I was particularly facinated by descriptions of the wildlife. The size and age of trees. The abundance of wild animals--particularly the bears.

I've read this book twice and found every story interesting.

Not often do we get glimses of the past through ordinary people, placed in extra-ordinary situations. Many of these people could not read or write but told their stories which were dutifully recorded. The feeling of authenticity of the stories is strong.

Everyone should read this book to fully understand the capabilites of humans, both in brutality and in kindness and understanding.

An unforgettable book.

This is a short collection of some of the most famous Indian captivity narratives written during the late 18th and 19th centuries when warfare raged between white settlers and the native Indian inhabitants of North America. These narratives are not only interesting and entertaining as drama, but are invaluable to historians and ethnographers as they provide some of the best first-hand accounts of life among the native tribes of the United States at a time when they were being wiped out by white expansion.

These narratives show what life was like as an Indian, including all the blood and horror as well as the genuine kindness and devotion inherent in any human society. You will note that many captivity accounts were in many ways positive experiences for the captives who were adopted into a tribe and treated with the love and respect they would accord any of their own people. Such is the case with men like James Smith who spent five years living with the Ohio Indians along Lake Erie. These tales were popular in their own time for providing an entertaining escape for people who were both fearful yet fascinated by the Indians and their "savage" ways. From these accounts we learn much about Indian lifeways, food, culture, and religion. We also learn of the cruel barbarities that the Indians could inflict on their enemies, as we see in the tale of Dr. John Knight who witnessed the horrific torture and death of Col. William Crawford in 1782, or the daring escape of John Slover, who had spent many years among the Shawnee and Wyandot as a captive and who later escaped and returned to wage war against his former captors, only to be retaken after the Battle of Sandusky. A slow and terrible death awaited any escaped captive who fell back into Indian hands. But what is really interesting is the number of captives who spent many years living, happily in many cases, with the Indians, showing that they were not the totally savage heathens protrayed in many boosk and movies, but a society of human beings who could love and hate as equally as any other.

This is a valuble introduction to a fascinating genere of litereature and is an important part of history that should not be overlooked. To anyone interested in delving deeper into this subject I would also recommend checking out Archibald Loudon's "Indian Narratives" as well as "A History of Jonathan Alder".

i love the approach that bridgforth takes here. this is the best book about money that i've ever read. i've been attempting to "straighten" my money for a long time by buying books to educate myself. this is, however, the only book that does not lose me in the middle. it addresses issues that other 'money' books dont address like bad credit, not being able to get a bank account, and the like. all of these issues dont apply to all african american women, but i appreciated that she did take the time to take it into consideration. it shapes the reader's mind in such a way that she truly believes that getting her financial situation together is not impossible. i have recommended this book to all of my girlfriends. even if you have a hard time reading books that arent novels, i can assure that you will enjoy this book.

I'm only half way through Girl, Get Your Money Straight! by Glinda Bridgforth and can without reservation already declare it as a must read for every black women whether you feel you are on top of your finances or buried underneath them. I've read quite a few financial books written by a variety of authors but this is the first one that specifically addresses finances from the historical, spiritual, and emotional perspective of African American women. It is amusing and amazing to see both myself and many of my friends reflected in her clients. Even though, based on other reading, I have already implemented the basic principles outlined in her prescriptions for financial health and healing, Girl, Get Your Money Straight! is providing me with an understanding of the whys behind my previous habits and also illuminating some problem areas and attitudes that I didn't realize existed.

Check the book out at the library and I know you will be back here to buy it!! The book talks directly to black women and what we go through on a daily basis! I wish I had it a fews years ago!!

In 1909, just after the end of his term as President, Theodore Roosevelt traveled to Africa for a year long safari.The trip was a major undertaking ; hundreds of porters were needed to carry his baggage. Roosevelt's son, Kermit came along, taking photographs which are reproduced in the book. Roosevelt and company bag hundred of animals. It appears that all hunting rules were suspended for the ex-president. Roosevelt and son are soon blasting away at anything and everything that comes into view. British East Africa is described in terms that make today's politically correct readers wince. Attitudes have changed dramatically in less than one hundred years. It is odd to hear Roosevelt describe parts of Africa as a "white man's country," suitable for large scale settlement by Europeans. The book bogs down and I was unable to read it without skimming through some parts. The descriptions of marching through wilderness and chasing after game on foot and on horseback seem to go on forever. There is a lot of great infomation here even if it is necessary to become your own editor by skipping though tedious parts.

This book gives you the genuine flavor of safari 80 years ago.

Not being very good with a gun, having little outdoorsman skills, and not being in the best shape of my life, reading this book was better than being there. If I was there, I would miss the animals, I would be too tired to enjoy it, and besides all of that, Africa is not as it was 100 years ago.
I have just begun to reread this book, and I don't know how many times this is. I enjoy it each and every time I pick it up.

"An Insider's Account of the NR-1, the Cold-War's Undercover Nuclear Sub"
By Lee Vyborny and Don Davis
Published 2003 by New Amerian Library-243 pages/35 Photos

Lee Vyborny was an enlisted IC Nuke trained plank owner on this boat and tells an excellent story of the history of the boat, it's early financial appropriation problems and the construction of this very secret boat that was to become Rickover's "toy." It also tells of the training that he received prior to the very long design and construction of this boat that is a legend in the Submarine Service.

From the very first chapter right out of Blind Man's Bluff,
Lee tells the reader stories of the danger posed by the North Atlantic on this small wave swept boat and the harrowing recovery of a bomb from an F-14 and even mentions the nuclear warhead recovery and the search for Israel's lost boat Dakar in the Mediterranean. The terror of being trapped and stuck in the mud at great depths makes me wonder why they had any crew who stayed with the boat for any length of time/
From the first commanding officer, LCDR Dwaine Griffith to LCDR Toby Warson, who I served with in the 60's on the Patrick Henry, to the CO who bravely broached Rickover's reactor start-up procedures. He did this to save their lives. Right through to the design considerations for the NR-2, I found the book very well written. Someone mentioned the book was candy to veteran submariners and I concur.
Maybe it was because the book was written by an enlisted person is the reason I found the book really was aimed at my level and so exciting. I was thoroughly disappointed when I neared the end, in that I wanted more and more of this fabulous story.
I rate it a ***** of 5. The first "submarine" book I have ever rated this high. The book is chronologically right, militarily correct and contains stories of Admiral Rickover that are new to me.
BZ Lee and Don.

As the Cold War has receded into history, we are learning more about the incredible feats of technology and human achievement that went on in that period. Joining the ranks of books (e.g., Sontag & Drew's "Blind Man's Bluff", Craven's "Silent War" and Tyler's "Running Critical") that deal with the role of the US Naval submarine force is "Dark Waters" by Vyborny & Davis. This book combines the story of the development and exploits of the NR-1 with the story of Vyborny's service aboard this submarine. As one of the "plank owners", Vyborny takes us through the long gestation period and the immense technical challenges of building a small, nuclear powered submarine capable of diving far deeper than its' larger sister SSNs. The unique abilities of this submarine to literally drive (on Goodyear truck tires!) along the ocean floor, and the varied uses it is put to during the time period described are fascinating. Vyborny's description of a "routine" short voyage by NR-1 out of Groton that turns into a seafarer's nightmare is vivid and chilling. Along the way we also get further insight into the driving force behind NR-1's development, one of the most fascinating and controversial characters in modern US Naval history, Adm. Rickover. The NR-1 is truly a national resource, and it is a delight to finally have an authoritative insight into the role it has played over the past thirty plus years. Although the book states on its' final page that the NR-1 has become the oldest operational boat in the Navy, I believe the correct statement is that it is the oldest operational submarine in the US Navy (carriers such as CVN 65, Enterprise, predate the NR-1)

I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in either submarine history and operations or the Cold War in general. My only reservation is that I wish the book were longer and had even more fascinating stories about this unique submarine and its' crew!

No one is quite sure when Admiral Rickover decided the Navy needed a small nuclear-powered submarine that could drive along the deepest depths of the ocean and be used for a variety of missions. The civilian world had been using deep-sea submersibles for some time, but it was not until the Thresher accident that everyone realized the need for a vessel that could remain underwater at the deepest depths for very long periods of time. It was developed and built under conditions of extreme secrecy and was never even designated a warship. It had a variety of bizarre features, including tires on the bottom of the hull that would literally permit it to drive along the bottom, and sideways thrusters fore and aft that allowed it to hover in one exact position.

Lee Vyborny was one of the original crew members on the tiny NR-1, a sub that contained a midget nuclear reactor, which developed a mere 130 horsepower, of which only 60 could be used for propulsion. The crew quarters were tiny, and there was no stateroom for the commander, who would usually sleep on the floor next to the control panel. The reactor was designed so it could be operated by one man because the crew never exceeded eight people, usually only four on duty at any given time.

In an uncharacteristic mistake, Rickover tried to keep the cost of development and building down and required that as many of the ship's components as possible be purchased off-the-shelf. He was under the mistaken impression that the commercial deep sea industry was well developed and the parts standardized. At the same time, he insisted on testing these parts under the most extreme conditions. They had never been designed for the role he intended, and the result was costly failures and time spent to develop alternatives. The early computer they used was a midget and capable of only fourteen simultaneous operations, in contrast to the original PC, which could do many thousands at once.

Rickover's presence was ubiquitous. Everyone was suitably cowed, but he knew the bureaucracy well and how to manipulate them. The story of the two dead mice is illustrative. A habitability team was due for an inspection. Their job was to verify that a new ship was liveable. The NR-1 had so many discomforts for the crew, Rickover knew he might be in trouble, so he sent out an aide to find two dead mice and to hide them in the boat. The habitability team was delighted to find a dead mouse, thinking they would be able to reprimand the famous admiral. Instead, they were the ones on the receiving end. He told them they had done a terrible job and didn't belong in the Navy. "I know there were two dead mice on that boat," he shouted, "I bought them! You only found one! Get out of here!"

When lambasted by the General Accounting Office for the NR-1's cost overruns and asked to explain the excess, Rickover replied with a sarcastic letter, reprinted in full in the book, suggesting their analysis was similar to a review of Lady Chatterly's Lover by Field and Stream magazine. The letter concluded, "A cursory review of the subject report leads me to conclude that its authors, likewise, lack comprehension in the manner of accomplishing research and development. Therefore, I believe no useful purpose would be served by detailed comments on my part."

In order to withstand the enormous pressures at depths to which the little sub was expected to go, the hull had to be perfectly round. The twelve-and-a-half-foot diameter hull could be out of round by no more than 1/16th of an inch. That required special manufacturing processes. The crew had to undergo special psychological tests to see whether they could stand being cooped up in tiny spaces for long periods. Submariners who had been successful at resisting the stresses of a regular submarine wound up in fistfights after just a few days when tested under the conditions expected on the NR-1.

The boat was expected to remain under water indefinitely, but practical considerations limited the length of the voyages: food and waste. The ship had no galley, so the crew subsisted on TV dinners purchased in large quantities and kept frozen until they were needed, and when the waste tank was full, they had to surface.

Ironically, the NR-1 has outlasted larger and more famous mega-submarines. According to the author, it continues to conduct classified missions in addition to being a valuable resource for many universities and research institutes for tamer exploratory searches of the ocean's depths.