Captain Dunning nodded. But he said, “This is not a civilian court of law, where lawyers are trained to find loopholes to free guilty people. This is a United States Navy court-martial, and we have no other objective except to find the truth. We are assessing the guilt or innocence of men who are trained to take charge of ships worth four hundred million dollars. Everything is relevant in this regard.”
“But my client is not on trial, sir,” protested Lt. Commander Jones.
“I know he’s not,” replied Boomer. “Objection overruled.”
Al Surprenant continued. “Commander, do you think it might be unnerving for a crew to discover that their leader believed he was a navy disaster area in a previous life?”
“I cannot say what they might feel.”
“But do you think they might quite properly be concerned?”
“OBJECTION. The question’s been asked and answered.”
“Sustained.”
“Commander,” asked the counselor, “are you a spiritualist?”
“In some ways.”
“Does that mean you have merely inherited the spirit of Pierre de Villeneuve, or do you believe you have been in contact with people from…er…the other side, I believe is the phrase?”
“Like many millions of others, I may have.”
“Commander, have you spoken lately with Captain Grigory Lyachin?”
Donald Reid remained silent.
“Someone enlighten me,” interjected Boomer Dunning. “Who’s Grigory Lyachin?”
“He’s that Russian commanding officer who died with his crew in the Kursk submarine, Barents Sea, seven years ago,” said Al Surprenant.
“Commander Reid, would it surprise you to know that certain senior members of your crew heard you talking to him by candlelight in your cabin?”
“DAMN THIS. DAMN YOU ALL! I’M NOT ON TRIAL HERE.” The ex-CO of Shark was standing now, shouting back at the defense lawyer, all semblance of self-control slipping away.
Lieutenant Commander Jones was also on his feet. “Sir, I really must object most strenuously to this line of questioning. Defense is attempting to paint this veteran commander of many years standing as an oddball, which is patently unfair.”
“Your word, not mine,” interrupted Al Surprenant. “Thoughtful of you.”
“SILENCE!” snapped Captain Dunning. “Please be seated, and listen carefully. “If I consider the questioning of a witness to be irrelevant or unfair, I shall make my views known. If you object to anything, please say so, and I will make a judgment. But I will not tolerate banter.
“And, for the record, I do think it is extremely important to know that Commander Reid has some unusual views. I was once in a ship where the Captain was known to pray extensively on a nightly basis, and it damned near caused a mutiny. Ships are like that. Little things can mean a great deal, especially concerning a CO.
“This evidence about Commander Reid matters. And I am afraid he is going to have to put up with it. He was, after all, instrumental in bringing this court-martial, and my sympathies are not with him in these instances. Please proceed, Lieutenant Commander.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Al Surprenant, humbly. “Commander Reid, have you ever tried to contact Grigory Lyachin in a spiritual way? Perhaps to seek counsel or guidance from a man who has paid the ultimate price for carelessness?”
“It was never his fault. Any more than it was de Villeneuve’s. They were both let down by others.”
“Then you have been in contact?”
“In a sense.”
“Thank you. And now I would like to return to more immediate concerns. As you know, Lieutenant Commander Headley, by the morning of June seventh, had much on his mind. His CO, a spiritualist who associated himself closely with two massive Naval disasters, had twice made decisions apparently detrimental to a SEAL operation — we have established that. He was dealing with a man who played rigidly by the book, presumably to avoid making the same foul-ups he had committed at Trafalgar.”
This was too much for Captain Dunning. “Counselor,” he snapped, “kindly desist from this soliloquy. You are not asking questions. You are merely ridiculing the witness. Ask, or sit down.”
“Of course, sir,” said Lieutenant Commander Surprenant courteously. “Commander, would you be surprised to learn that Lieutenant Commander Headley knew you would refuse flatly to help the SEALs. Because of your beliefs and your record?”
“Yes, it would.”
“You will later hear that he did indeed know. It was the predictability that caused the mutiny — that they all knew you would leave the SEALs to die. I have no more questions.”
“Commander Reid, you are excused. But please do not leave the building.” Captain Dunning wrote carefully in his book.
And then Lt. Commander Jones called his second witness, Shark’s Combat Systems Officer, Lt. Commander Jack Cressend, who testified very briefly that he had indeed been asked by Lt. Commander Headley to take part in an act of defiance toward the Commanding Officer, in order to save the SEALs.
At the conclusion of his evidence, a short account of how they did not turn the ship around but proceeded inshore to meet Commander Hunter and his men, Al Surprenant had just one question.
“Lieutenant Commander,” he said, “if you could live June the seventh over, would you still support the XO in his determination to save the SEALs?”
“Absolutely, sir. I would. No doubt in my mind.”
At this point, Lt. Commander Jones announced that he had no more witnesses — but would confine his cross-examination to those appearing on behalf of the accused.
Immediately, Al Surprenant called Commander Rick Hunter, who walked into the courtroom and swore to tell the truth before being seated.
After identification, the SEAL Commander admitted under oath that he had the gravest worries about the possible conduct of Commander Reid under pressure. He and Lt. Commander Headley knew each other well, and had discussed the “unreliable” nature of the CO, even before the mission began.
“When you first transmitted your distress call to Shark, while your men were fighting and dying in the open boats, did you think help would come?”
“Not if Commander Reid had his way. I knew it would not come.”
“Did you think you had a chance to survive?”
“Only if Dan Headley took over the ship, in a big hurry.”
“But for Lieutenant Commander Headley’s actions, would you and your men have been killed.”
“Yessir.”
“Do you think he deserves to be court-martialed?”
“Nossir.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’s just about the best officer I ever met. And he saved all of our lives.”
“Do you intend to make any protest whatsoever if Lieutenant Commander Headley is found guilty of mutiny?”
“Nossir. But I shall resign my commission immediately.”
“After a working lifetime in the Navy? And the very real prospect of becoming C-in-C of SPECWARCOM?”
“Yessir. I could never feel the same about the service if they convicted Dan Headley.”
“Thank you, Commander.”
Locker Jones arose. “You stated that you and Lieutenant Commander Headley knew each other well. That was not quite the whole truth, was it?”
“Sir?”
“You and Dan Headley are boyhood friends, correct? Best friends, correct? You went to school together, correct? Your father employs his father, correct?”
“All correct, sir. I am privileged to have him and his father as my friends.”
“Is it not probable that you would never hear a word against Dan Headley, from anyone?”
“Very probable. Because he does not do things to cause people to utter words against him.”
“He has now, Commander.”
“But not by people who really know him, sir.”
“And you think you know him well enough to say he could not be guilty of the crime with
which he is charged?”
“I know him a lot better than you do.”
Locker Jones had had enough sparring with the towering wounded hero of the Burma operation. “No more questions,” he said.
Al Surprenant next called the SEAL Commander Rusty Bennett, who confirmed the counselor’s earlier contention that he had tried to remonstrate with Commander Reid about his decision not to move the ship forward in the Gulf of Iran mission to assist the wounded SEAL.
“And do you recall his precise words, Commander Bennett?”
“Some of them. I told him the rescue was at my request to go in and save the life of one of my most valued men. He then reminded me that I had no rights whatsoever on his ship. Told me he would not have this interference. Then he said, ‘What exactly is this? Some kind of damned conspiracy? Well you’ve picked the wrong man to make a fool of….’ Then he said we had waited until he was asleep and then flagrantly disobeyed his orders.”
“And what did you think of this outburst?”
“Seemed very strange. You know, like paranoia….”
“OBJECTION! The witness has no idea about the meaning of such a medical term…”
“Sustained.”
“How about nuts?” offered the SEAL from the coast of Maine.
“Better,” said Captain Dunning.
“OBJECTION! The Commander has no right to be making wild statements about insanity.”
“I’ll take the word of an experienced Navy SEAL commanding officer that in his opinion someone seemed nuts,” replied Captain Dunning. “Overruled.”
“And now, Commander,” said Al Surprenant, “let me ask you the same question I asked Commander Hunter. Do you hold a strong view about the possible conviction of Lieutenant Commander Headley?”
“Yessir. I shall resign my commission if they find him guilty of mutiny.”
“Reason?”
“Same as Commander Hunter’s. Dan Headley saved the SEALs’ lives.”
“No more questions.”
Locker Jones had none either, and the SEAL team leader left the room, clearing the way for Al Surprenant to bring in a succession of minor witnesses, Lt. Commander Josh Gandy, Master Chief Drew Fisher, Lt. Matt Singer, all offering unerring support for the XO. He brought in two more SEALs, the wounded Rattlesnake Davies and Lt. Dallas MacPherson, who both offered the opinion that they would have been killed but for the appearance on the scene of USS Shark.
He then called, in fairly quick succession, the three psychiatrists who had independently examined Commander Reid. One of them was definite: There was nothing wrong with Commander Reid, and on that he could not be shaken.
The other two were not so sure. Neither would say he was crazy, but they both agreed he held some very strange views, for a U.S. Navy commander.
Al Surprenant questioned and badgered, overstepped the bounds of polite interrogation and then dived back behind them against a barrage of “OBJECTIONS” from the prosecutor. Once he nearly had an admission that Commander Reid was just too strange, too bound up in his perceived French antecedents, to be trusted with a modern nuclear submarine.
But a belief in reincarnation, and indeed spiritualism, simply did not constitute “crazy.” Surprenant proved eccentricity, and he proved a profound instability. He almost proved a long-held emotional cowardice on the part of the CO. But he did not obtain an admission that Commander Reid was so unbalanced as to have been relieved of command on that particular morning.
It was immediately after the lunch break when the defense finally called the accused Executive Officer to the witness chair to testify under oath in his own defense. And before he did so, counsel requested permission to “read just two or three lines from Section Three of Navy Regulation one-zero-eight-eight, which the prosecution apparently deemed irrelevant.”
And he then stated, very simply, “Intelligent, fearless initiative is an important trait of military character. It is not the purpose of these regulations to discourage its employment in cases of this nature.”
Lieutenant Commander Headley sat motionless in the witness chair as the short but powerful words were read out to the court. He saw Captain Dunning nod, and he continued to sit bolt upright, immaculate in his uniform, as he began to answer his counsel’s questions, firmly and without hesitation.
“And when it came right down to it, why do you think Commander Reid refused to help the SEALs?”
“Two reasons, sir. One, he did not want to be associated with another disaster, like he had in another life. Two, he kept yelling that the planet Mercury was in retrograde.”
“He what?”
“He told me that the mighty planet that controls us was stilled in the heavens and that by dawn it would be in retrograde — going backwards, that is.”
“Did you have any comment?”
“I believe I just said, ‘No shit?’ I found it a bit bewildering, given the urgency of our situation.”
“Did this conversation take place in front of anyone?”
“Nossir. This started in his cabin. But then it continued back in the control room in front of everyone after the SEALs had transmitted their call for help.”
“Did you go back to the control room, leaving the CO in his cabin?”
“Yessir. I was in charge of the rescue operation, and I immediately ordered the submarine inshore to get the guys out.”
“You knew they were under attack, from Chinese helicopters?”
“Yessir.”
“And how did you assess the danger?”
“I planned to down the helos with our Stinger missiles from range eight hundred yards, handheld right off the bridge. They’re very accurate.”
“And what about the danger to your own ship?”
“Negligible, in my view. I thought the Chinese might have a couple of missiles. But there was a morning mist, and I thought they’d be preoccupied with the guys who were battering them with the M-60 machine guns. If they carried ASW mortars or depth bombs I knew they’d be largely useless if we were on the surface with Stingers. I thought we were in there with a good shot at success.”
“You were not afraid the Shark might be sunk?”
“Sir, Shark is a U.S. Navy fighting ship. We had eight valued colleagues being wiped out by Chinese gunships. Of course we went in to save them. That’s what we’re for. This is the Navy, not the Cub Scouts. And yes, I was afraid. But not too afraid to try.”
“And what happened when the CO arrived in the control room?”
“I told him precisely what we were doing. And he objected, as I knew he would.”
“How did you know?”
“Because Commander Reid is nothing short of a goddamned coward. And he’s plainly crazy.”
Finally uttered, the words hung like the sword of Damocles over the courtroom. “OBJECTION!” shouted Locker Jones, springing to his feet.
“Overruled,” snapped back Captain Dunning. “That is the heart of this case. The accused XO has been asked his opinion. And he has given it.”
“Was he afraid the ship might be hit and everyone killed?” asked Al Surprenant.
“Of course. And he thought because Mercury was in retrograde, that might happen.”
“Did he say so?”
“He shouted out, sir—‘RETROGRADE! RETROGRADE! The great planet Mercury is in retreat.’ He called me an ignorant man for not knowing what was happening in the zodiac, in front of everyone. He said my life was insignificant, that I knew nothing. That all of our lives, particularly in the areas of transportation and communication, were ruled by Mercury. And now the darn thing was kinda spinning backwards.”
“And then?”
“He told me there was no way he was going to allow his submarine to continue on the surface, in the path of an ASW helicopter, not while the planet was in retrograde.”
“Lieutenant Commander, is the direction in which the distant planet Mercury spins a normal consideration in the United States Navy when making combat decisions?”
�
��Nossir.”
“Ever?”
“Not in my experience, sir. It was a new one on me.”
“And then what happened?”
“He ordered me to turn the ship around, and to proceed in a direction away from the SEALs.”
“And did you do so?”
“Nossir. I told him I could not do that. Would not do that. And he told me I was making a one-man mutiny.”
“And did you change your mind and retreat, like Mercury?”
“Nossir. I did not.”
“You proceeded with the rescue?”
“I did. I told the CO I had the support of the entire command of the ship. That I would not leave the guys to be killed. I offered him the sick-list option as laid down in the regulations. But he declined.”
“And then?”
“I ordered the conn to hold our course on the surface. And I ordered the missiles to be brought up from below.”
“And then, you and the crew carried out the rescue. And were you on the bridge, in the line of fire, as it were?”
“Yessir. I was.”
“And did you direct the firing of the missiles.”
“Yessir. I fired one myself, hit and blew up the second Chinese helicopter.”
Lieutenant Commander Al Surprenant just shook his head and blurted out, “My God! And now they want to court-martial you?”
“Yessir.”
“No further questions.”
The silence in the courtroom was devastating as defense counsel finally sat down. And there was a slight air of resignation in the body language of Locker Jones as he stood up to cross-examine.
“Lieutenant Commander, the court has heard of your lifelong friendship with Commander Hunter. Would it be true to say you would have done anything to save him, including the making of a mutiny aboard your ship?”
“Yessir, it would. I would also have done anything to save any of the others…and, if I may, sir?”
“Please continue.”
“Sir, you may question me for a thousand years. But I’m going to save you a lot of trouble. I did not hesitate to remove the CO and to proceed with the rescue myself. And if I could live it over again, a thousand times, I’d still do it. I hope I make myself clear, counselor.”
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