Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

174 JEFF EDWARDS
training in the Undersea Warfare Evaluator’s course had been based
entirely on the tactics written into the manuals. Outside of scheduled
exercises, which were—again—based upon the doctrine contained in the
manuals, he had no experience chasing submarines. He had no personal
knowledge to fall back on, no pet tactical theories based on hard-won
expertise. And now, the captain was asking him to forget everything he
had studied and start from scratch.
Apparently catching the USW Officer’s expression of near terror, the
captain said, “You look like you just stepped off a cliff, Pat, and you’re
waiting to hit bottom.”
The USWO didn’t say anything.
“Don’t worry,” the captain said. “We’re going to be making this up on
the fly, so anything we do is right. It may not work, and it might get us
killed, but—since we have to shit-can the play book—nobody will be able
to say that we were wrong.”