Word: alfa
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...U.S.S. Sea Leopard, participating in an eight-hour hunter-killer exercise ordered by a man with one of the most critically important jobs in the U.S. Navy: lean, brown-eyed Rear Admiral John Smith ("Jimmy") Thach, 53, boss of the Navy's new ASW (antisubmarine warfare) Task Group Alfa...
...primary mission of every combat ship in the Atlantic Fleet is antisubmarine," says Admiral Jerauld Wright, commander of the Atlantic Fleet. "Everything else is secondary." And Chief of Naval Operations Arleigh Burke has placed a no-limit ceiling on the operations of Goblin Hunter Thach and his Task Group Alfa. "If Alfa wants beefsteak for breakfast," Burke ordered, "give 'em beefsteak...
...Alfa's beefsteak includes Thach's flagship, the aircraft carrier Valley Forge, eight destroyers, two submarines, a squadron of Valley Forge-based Grumman 52F sub-hunting aircraft, a helicopter squadron, a land-based patrol squadron of P2Vs, blimps, 5,000 men, a vast electronic network of electronic eyes and ears. Its armament is a marvel of the Atomic Age: included are nuclear depth charges, nicknamed Betty and Lulu, each with sufficient explosive force to lift the entire U.S. Navy (901 ships) clear out of the water...
...Hell Divers. In the predictable course of events, Thach followed brother Jim to Annapolis, where he quickly became known as "Little Jimmy" (the name has stuck, and among Navymen there are two Admirals Thach-Jim, now a retired vice admiral, and Jimmy of Task Group Alfa). As a crack plebe quarterback, Jimmy Thach showed a remarkable fighting instinct, but he never made the "A" team: a collision with a husky fullback dislocated his shoulder, ended his football days. "What shall I do?" he asked the doctor plaintively. The tongue-in-cheek reply: "Try wrestling." Jimmy Thach did just that, made...
...task force, chartered to experiment with and develop new antisubmarine defense systems. When Thach finished talking, Arleigh Burke grinned. "Jimmy Thach," he said, "has just made an unfortunate speech. He doesn't know this, but he has talked himself into a job." The job: commander of Task Group Alfa ("A" in the communications phonetic alphabet), created as a Navy floating laboratory for antisubmarine warfare...