Status Updates From The Voyage of the Stingray

The Stingray gets a special reception when arrive home, although it's supposed to be a secret weapon. Crew members also get a medal and Ethan, the civilian contractor's son, who wasn't supposed to be on the ship and was sworn in the Navy to make his being there legal, also got a special medal for his contributions. Commander Woodbridge also asks the Admiral if he can keep his female doctor, something she might like.

The agent has been offloaded onto an Israeli sub; he was bugging Iranian nuclear installations.

The wounded passenger on board the Stingray is Jewish, so he's not the Iranian professor. He's the look-a-like agent. The contractor's son who was accidentally still on board when the sub left the US, has been listening to his mumblings. They had Arab and Afghan speakers and nobody recognized what he was saying until the kid sat with him. He's Jewish.

There's a confusing part where Professor Ala'Aldeen travels all over Iran with an old friend of his from his youth, trying to get to a tiny town on the Palestinian border where the first nuclear reactor was built. I'm not sure if this is a test by Ala'Aldeen's look-a-alike to see if Ala-Aldeen's friend would recognize him or if this is the real Ala'Aldeen, whom I thought took the agent's papers and left the country.

The agent switches identities with a physics professor in Iran; the physics professor leaves Iran. The agent goes on a circuitous route to a place where they make weaponized uranium. The Stingray is now in the Mediterranean and we probably know why they're there. They need to pick up the agent whenever he does what he's going to do. BTW, Richard Steinitz is an Israeli author. Smart move pulling out of the agreement.

On the way to the Mediterranean they discover that the civilian wiz kid is still aboard. Civilians are not allowed on board during a submarine op. When the captain surfaces to call the Admiral, he's blown off the deck and cracks his forearm. The only solution they can think of is to swear the kid in, apparently temporarily. If I'd know it could be temporary, I wouldn't have spent almost 4 years in the Canoe Club.

The NCIS has tracked down Captain Moreno's killer; he took the dock worker's place; the investigator has traced his fingerprints he found in the dock worker's apartment to an Iranian who was one of the kidnappers involved in a London incident. The former captain of the Stingray has been murder and Jeff Woodbridge acts like it's a crew member who was AWOL.

Captain Moreno, Woodbridge's predecessor, was murdered by a man who stole the identity of a civilian worker. NCIS talks to Woodbridge about how the investigation is going. Somebody else suspicious is that the initial investigator was replaced for incompetence.

The Admiral also comes to see Woodbridge, explaining "piggybacking". The sub hides under a larger vessel and sneaks into a harbor. Stingray will learn this.

The Stingray does a number of test runs, thanks to a speed up in security clearances. The civilian contractor's son worked on a kibbutz when he was young. Someone didn't know what a kibbutz was; the dictionary said it was a commune; the kid was blocked for being communist. Once he gets aboard things speed up; the boat is commissioned early. The lady doctor and the civilian contractor get to go along on a sea cruise.

Jeff Woodbridge is assigned to the USS Stingray, an experimental submarine. It's invisible on radar and hard to hear on sonar. He's promoted to Commander and will be the captain of the ship. When he arrives only ten or so of the crew is aboard, including the XO; the others are training in Norfolk. It will be used to land special forces and CIA operations and pick them up when their mission is complete.

Richard Steinitz has written an intriguing first novel of adventure in the underwater world against the Iranians. His inventive Stingray submarine has unique shallow water capabilities that contribute to both the action and character development.