Spy Sub: A Top Secret Mission to the Bottom of the Pacific

by Roger C. Dunham

Recounts the efforts of a U.S. Navy submarine to find a Russian nuclear sub that had been lost in the North Pacific

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, Memoir, Military History, Naval History

222 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1996

Reviews

[Lou Blasetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brought me back to my 5 years on nuclear subs. Very true read. I went thru everything Roger went thru on the sub.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came across this book when looking for submarine stories. With a title of _Spy Sub_, the author had me at two words that make my antenna twitch. Submarines are the primary water platform for sneaking around. The blurb on the back made it out to be something super secret and cool. But this book is far from that.

This is book is barely about the super secret mission. It is more about the author being an enlisted nuclear reactor operator on an aging submarine & his quest for the coveted dolphins. Most of which is dull or annoying. If you have read a couple other stories about life on submarines, this is more of the same. We get to learn more about how he met his wife on a beach in Hawaii than any past secrets. It gets really bad when he is recounting his defence of the Vietnam war to his family, regurgitating the party line of fighting Communism. Which is all wrong, but the author never once wants to demonstrate he has ever had second thoughts about being used (I'm in the middle of HR McMaster's book on the Vietnam war that details just how stupid it all was).

The super secret mission that we are promised? I had heard about the use of a former Regulas-class sub that used "fish" to photograph the seabed, looking for things. They were looking for a lost Soviet sub that went down. At the time, the ability to take photos and bring the film back from 15,000 feet down was a huge deal. They didn't wants the USSR to know the US had the ability to hear through the SOSUS network, which would then allow for knowing where to look.

As an avid reader of submarine stories, this book provides nothing new. I fault the publisher for building up the idea that something previously secret would be revealed, but that isn't true. It is just a memoir of a guy who worked on a sub and met his wife on a beach.

[J.P. Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a while ago but a great book. Dunham was among the first to give a glimpse into the world of Cold War nuclear submarine operations and validated that the fiction authors like Tom Clancy, and Richard P Henrick (Crimson Tide) were not off the mark on the their technical side of their stories. In fact Dunham shows us that the fact is at times more unbelievable than the fiction. Keep to his oath of secrecy Dunham vails some facts, such as naming USS Halibut SSN-587 as “Viperfish” and the Golf class SSB K-129 incident as a the loss of an Echo II SSGN. Either way Dunham started to pull back the layers later detailed in Blind Man’s Bluff.

I will admit what Dunham describes inspired several events in my book SSN SEADRAGON.

[Joshua O · Rating 3 out of 5]

i really like the emphasis dunham put on the psychological pressures of living in the sub itself, a constant mild anxiety which ended up being the main appeal. but it also took a good while to get truly interesting for me (like more than half way through). also i wish it was made more obvious WHY what the viperfish mission was looking for was important... it still ended up being pretty cool but i figured there would be bigger stakes. i was bored for a good amount of it but the last few chapters made it worth the read, not a climatic end but still a satisfying one

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spy Sub is interesting on several levels. It’s the story firstly of a young man who was thrown out of college for having miserable grades. Yet the Navy saw fit to train him as a nuclear reactor operator on a highly classified submarine mission. Their faith and assessment procedures worked for the author went on to become a respected physician after leaving the Navy. Dunham explains many of the techniques used to learn the material. Basically, it was peer pressure — he would have been ostracized by his shipmates if he failed to perform — and self- preservation — he would have destroyed himself if things went wrong.

Because the nature of the mission they trained for, which involved lowering an electronic device thousands of feet below the sub to search for something, even the name of the submarine was required to be changed for the book although numerous photographs are reproduced as illustrations.

Working on a submarine could not be less appealing. The confined quarters with no view of the surface for weeks at a time required that the Navy do extensive psychological testing of each candidate. Constant emergency drills — the flooding drill was particularly scary — tested everyone’s nerves and skills. When a real emergency did occur, caused by a defective 49 cent diode, they had to spend hours on battery power after SCRAMming (emergency shutdown) the reactor to track down the problem.

Life was not without its amusing moments, however. During one exercise a surface ship was supposed to deploy a top secret device — so secret it was lowered into the ocean covered by a box. The device would then be sought out by the pseudonymous Viper Fish's fancy electronic surveillance gear. Unfortunately, whoever designed the strange object didn’t consider its density in relation to salt water and the device floated where it could be seen by all after popping out of its cover, a terrible security lapse that probably caused the end of the world as we know it.

The mission takes place as tensions over the Vietnam War escalate. The protests at home were intensely demoralizing to the crew. After a man is washed overboard during an attempt to fix a hydraulic mechanism during a violent storm, and Dunham’s partner at the reactor control panel begins to act a little weird, tensions increase....

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This reads much like a day in the life of a cold war submariner. The author, Roger C. Dunham, was aboard the USS Viperfish(a fictitious name, was actually USS Halibut). Much of the book tells of his day to day goings on. Also how he and his fellow submariners coped with the stress of their mission and also how they were affected by the Vietnam War that was also going on at the same time(1967-68). Although they never quite come out and say it you knew by the end that they were on a special mission outside the normal parameters.
The actual mission details are left out of the book. Apparently it was still classified at the time the book was written. For more on this mission I'd recommend reading "Blind Man's Bluff" by Sherry Sontag that goes into more detail as to to what the mission involved. This fills in the blank spaces that "Spy Sub" had to leave out.
This is a decent book and paints a good picture what it was like to be submarine in the midst of the cold war during the Vietnam conflict. It's a good read if you're interested in this genre.

[Evan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book was boring. There was some exciting part like the sea bat parts. Most of this book was very boring. I found each chapter seeming to drag on. The end felt forced so that there could be a conclusion to the book.

[Pondering · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this look into life on a submarine, the challenges, the pressures (internal and external) and the measure of secrecy even among crew members. The slight peek at society's values during the mid- to late-60's provided a backdrop of further angst and anxieties.

[Jeff Wombold · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a submariner and I didn't know some of the stuff going on that came out of this book

[Norbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting "view" on the life of a submariner - engine control room