Operation Barracuda (2005)

There aren't any more questions, so we go to it. Carlson reluctantly takes me through the CHARC's controls and it seems pretty straightforward. Anyone who has operated a wet bike should be able to handle it. I'm also issued standard SEAL diving equipment. Along with a military wet suit, I have an upgraded LAR-V (Mod 2) rebreather with a large oxygen gas cylinder, a military diver broad that integrates with a compact depth gauge, a G-shock watch, an underwater compass, and a built-in adjustable chem-light holder. I try on a new Aqua Sphere SEAL diving mask that is supposedly leak-free and surprisingly comfortable; AMPHIB boots, which are all-terrain multifunctional boots that work well in and out of water; Rocket II fins that are designed to be worn over the boots; and HellStorm NaviGu

The CHARCs are lowered into the water with each of us sitting in our respective vehicle. Like the MRUUVs, a CHARC uses SWATH technology to propel it. SWATH gives a craft the ability to deliver big-ship platform steadiness and ride quality in a smaller vessel and the capability to sustain a high proportion of its normal cruising speed in rough head seas. The waterplane is the horizontal-plane cross-section of a ship's hull at the water surface. Thus, the CHARC has two submarinelike lower hulls completely submerged below the surface; above the surface the CHARC resembles a catamaran with a wet bike on top of it. Ship motions are caused by the waves on the ocean surface, which produce forces on the hull that decrease rapidly as the hull is moved farther below the surface, as with a submarine. Wave-exciting forces can also be made smaller if the amount of waterplane area at the design waterline is decreased. However, the objective of SWATH is not to minimize ship motions at the expense of speed/ power or payload capabilities. Instead, the relative proportions for the strut waterplane area and submerged hulls are selected to reduce motions and accelerations well below accepted criteria for seasickness or onset of degraded performance of perso

We never had cool toys like these when I was a SEAL!

The weather is typical southern California--breezy, su

The CHARC handles so smoothly that it's hard to believe I'm on the surface of the Pacific. The water is choppy but the CHARC seems to glide right over it. Before long I'm within a mile of the Santa Monica Pier and I can see the Ferris wheel and other amusements glistening in the early dawn. I reduce speed and concentrate on what the instruments are telling me. There are schools of fish moving underneath me. A large stationary metal object lies at the bottom, most likely a sunken speedboat.

"I'm in position," I say into the intercom. The two SEALS and I are hooked up to a ComLink originating at the Fisher. Lambert and the Third Echelon team in Washington are also monitoring the mission through my implants. I guess I'd better watch my language.

"Roger that," Carlson says. "I'll be in my position in about twenty seconds."

"Same here," echoes Stanley.

And so it begins. The search is tedious and painstaking. After thirty minutes all three of us comment on how the job is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Each of our sections encompasses thirty or forty square miles of ocean.

"Colonel, is there any chance of getting more men and CHARCs to help with the search?" I ask.

"We've already tried, Sam," he says. "More are on the way but by the time they get here it will be noon."

"I'm afraid it's going to take us longer than that just to locate something worth diving for."

"Just keep looking."

A

She gives the three of us separate coordinates to check out. It takes me three minutes to guide the CHARC to my first one only to find that the object is stationary. Another sunken wreck. Grimsdottir calls out the next location, which turns out to be a mile closer to shore. I reach it in forty seconds and once again am disappointed by the discovery.

This process continues for the next hour until finally Stanley calls out, "Hey! I think I have one." Grimsdottir quizzes him on some of the instrument readings and he answers promisingly. The object is moving with the speed of a barracuda and is the correct size and shape. "I'm going for a dive," he says. Carlson and I continue our search as we wait with anticipation for good news. Six minutes pass and finally Stanley's voice rings in our ears.

"Affirmative," he says. "It's an MRUUV." Grimsdottir asks him about Geiger readings, but this time his answers are negative. There's no indication that this is the one with the bomb.

"Blow it out of the water," Lieutenant Van Fleet commands. Stanley confirms the order and tells us that he's activating the drop-mines. They're powerful explosives but nothing so serious that he'd be in danger by being on top of them.

"Mines released," he says, and we wait for the sound of fireworks.

But the tremendous noise we hear in our headsets is shocking, overamplified, and distorted. After a few seconds we hear nothing but static. Then everyone talks at once.

"Stanley? Ensign Stanley?"

"Oh, my God!"

"What happened?"

"Did you see that?"

"That geyser was sixty feet high!"

Lieutenant Van Fleet quiets everyone down and says, "I'm afraid the MRUUV was booby-trapped with a powerful explosive. When Stanley's mines hit it, the MRUUV blew the CHARC to pieces."

Well. I guess that's going to change our strategy.

38

" Ijust received word from the White House," Colonel Lambert a

"Won't China protect their general?" I ask.

"That we don't know. The vice president is in seclusion with China's president in Beijing. We're not privy to what communications are going back and forth between Beijing and Washington. The bottom line is we have thirty minutes."

"Then get A

"I'm working on it, Sam," Grimsdottir cuts in. "I'm tracking two possibilities in your sector and one in Lieutenant Carlson's sector. Give me five minutes to narrow them down to the best choice." She sounds calm and collected in a stressful situation that would have anyone else at the breaking point.