Dedication
Dedicated to the memory of Dennis, who opened my eyes to life: and to the officers and crew who gave their lives aboard the USNS Stark.
I wish to thank my mother, Billie for her constant good humor and devotion, my dear Elvira for her encouragement, Argie, all the folks at the Village Pub in Breckenridge, Colorado, Tim at McKee Bridge, Oregon, for their support, and our Dear Lord for my inspiration.
Acknowledgements: Ron Banford, author of The Puzzle Palace and the Department of the United States Navy.
Preface
On Sunday the 9th of October, 1994, with the no-fly zone in effect and NATO forces continuing their negotiations with Iraq, an incident occurred on board the Aircraft Carrier USNS George Washington that until now has been kept a closely guarded secret. The fact that the circumstances surrounding this incident have not been made known earlier is surprising, considering the numbers of military and civilian personnel involved. What is even more remarkable is that the repercussions to the direction of military design for future hardware have been so severe, that major rethinking of defense spending has been continuing without any leaks to the press. Fortunately, however, during a routine inspection of a diplomatic bag on a flight to London, a custom's official managed to intercept a copy of Pentagon file, 37NGW1850004F35, a confidential document detailing the entire sequence of events that occurred on that Sunday in October.
What follows is a reconstruction of that report, with adjustments to put the text into a more readable form, describing all the events that took place on that day throughout the military community, with special focus on Group Six, a battle group circling in the Arabian Ocean just off the entrance to the Persian Gulf at a place known as Station Gonzo.
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