EMERGENCY DEEP

In this final installment of an autobiographical trilogy, a Navy veteran recounts his tenure as the commander of a nuclear submarine during the Cold War.

McLaren was an instructor at the Naval War College in 1969 when he received the momentous news: He was to assume the command of the USS Queenfishat Pearl Harbor, one of 37 Sturgeon-class nuclear attack submarines. With impressive lucidity and exactitude, the author chronicles his tenure as commander until 1973, an extraordinary time that was “still fairly early in a Cold War that was increasing in intensity.” In fact, one mission in which the Queenfishencountered Soviet anti-submarine forces was haunted by a discomfiting ambiguity: “Whatever the case, it was our understanding that before we departed on this mission, the United States would not necessarily come to our assistance, diplomatically or otherwise.” McLaren focuses his remembrance on two historic operations—the first was a high-priority Cold War mission to the Russian Far East that included the surveillance of Soviet nautical maneuvers. In the other, the Queenfishperformed a hydrographic and oceanographic survey of the Siberian continental shelf, something that had never been accomplished by a sub before.

The author limns a remarkably vivid tableau of life on a sub—the extraordinary peril and the relentless discipline it demanded. One might quibble that his inclination toward granular comprehensiveness can become exhausting: Readers are furnished accounts of garbage disposal and periscope techniques, topics unlikely to grab or sustain the attention of a general audience. Nevertheless, this is a unique tour of a little-known world led with great expertise—McLaren ultimately earned the Distinguished Service Medal for his accomplishments. In addition, he provides a thoughtful look at the enormous pressures of submarine life—one of his shipmates who was a cryptologic technician began to hear the voice of his girlfriend emanating from a ventilation outlet. The author concluded: “It had all proved too much for him. I would like to think this mishap could have been prevented, but the truth was that, as far as I knew, there was no effective system at the time for the psychological screening of individual members of special teams before they boarded a Cold War mission submarine.” McLaren’s prose is unfailingly precise and clear; he writes with a self-assured sense of authority but without a hint of condescending hubris. Furthermore, this is not a self-congratulatory work; while the author avoids flights of poetic fancy, he does not dodge opportunities for candid introspection. Moreover, this remembrance should be of special interest to those in search of a deeper understanding of the nature of the Cold War and the abiding hostilities between the United States and its principal rival at the time, the Soviet Union. As the author makes disturbingly clear, this Cold War was often on the cusp of turning hot, and it was a combination of strategic rectitude and good fortune that such an outcome was finally avoided. McLaren’s recollection is as dramatically captivating as it is historically edifying.

An eye-opening submarine account, impressively intelligent and full of insights.