By Ward Carroll

“Punk” Reichert is now an Admiral involved not in flying F-14’s; but in political warfare in appropriations and the future of the Navy. When challenged that aircraft carriers are very vulnerable to hypersonic missiles. “Fighting” the Air Force on one side (for appropriations) and a shadowy technocrat with a vendetta against the US Navy, will Punk and his old cronies show the survivability of a Ford class carrier or will they really be sunk during the excercise?

Punk as Jack Ryan? Punk as an admiral is dealing with the kind of shadowy forces that Clancy’s protagonist normally did – friendly agencies competing for resources, the main enemy in the background (here the Chinese fleet), and shadowy figures trying to manipulate it all. An interesting change of pace.

277 Pages

3.5/5