I think this is pretty much how it happened except that Clancy spent the whole weekend laughing because he didn’t even have to write the story! (As mentioned upthread Clancy’s name is the only thing he contributes to those books… other people write them and their names are usually found in very small print somewhere near the bottom of the book.)
Actually, he never gave a shit in the first place. He’s long maintained that he doesn’t care what anyone thinks of his writing as long as they keep buying his books. It has become more evident in the later novels that he’s lost something though… like an editor.
As a long time Clancy fan, I have read over 40 of his books.
I know nothing about military items he described in books.
When I read Executive Orders, some basic biological descriptions he put in the mouths of “the top experts in the world” are deadly wrong:
Ch. 18: “At the most basic level, the human genetic code is composed of four amino acids, labeled A, C, G and T. How those letters – the acids, I mean - are strung together determines everything”.
Ch. 31: “Finished the mapping yesterday. Ebloa Zaire, Mayinga sub-type, identical with the samples from 1976, down to the the last amino acid.”
The people say these are from top hospital or CDC. you will wonder if these “the top experts in the world” know anything about genetic codes.
I ran into him once at the Sub base in Groton in the library surrounded by copies of Janes and some other books with a couple of officers sitting with him so I assume he was doing some sort of research into submarines or something of the sort. [though instead of officers he should have hung out with senior enlisted, the ones who actually do the work.:rolleyes:]
I think you have a point. He seems to have researched the whiz-bang stuff fairly well. For plebeian things like GA airplanes and cars, it was like ‘Oh, yeah. I saw one of those once.’
I’m reminded of one book where Admiral Greer was flying his home-built helicopter, a Rotorway Scorpion. But no one would have built a Scorpion in that period. It had been supplanted by the better, prettier, Exec in 1980. But the purpose in the story was to show that Greer liked to fly to work, and that he was a bit of an iconoclast in that he built his own helicopter instead of buying a certified one. It seems that Clancy wanted to establish that, but was unconcerned about what Greer, as a real person, would have done.
Good show, you win 25 internet points for that one. I watched that movie with my step-brother years ago, he is still pissed about never knowing what is in the case. He has purchased every DVD edition that has come out hoping that “it” is revealed. I can just say “Ronin” and he either explodes or wilts. It is a fun game.
Having accumulated over 400 hours in various fighter aircraft, I know that Clancy tends to get many of the details about fighters wrong. He puts controls in the wrong place, overstates certain capabilities, etc.
I was an aerial photographer, assigned to a weapons testing unit. I flew in Phantoms, Falcons, Eagles, Talons, and UH-1 choppers, also documented cockpit mods for all of those plus Ardvarks, Warthogs, German Tornados, Tomcats, and Hornets. I performed photo chase on all of those, plus the F-117, B-1B, B-52, and some older fighter used as a drone…maybe an F-100?
I’m very jealous: it sounds like you got all of the fun of flying and missed most of the hard work of proving yourself as a pilot. I dare say you got quite a few surreptitious flying lessons too.
Yeah, that was pretty much the best job an enlisted guy could hope for back then. I got my share of stick time, even unofficially landed an F-15 from the backseat. If I’d stayed in, assuming I didn’t die in dramatic fashion, I could have retired several years ago with income and insurance for life. Instead, I got out, went to law school, and now I’ll be working until I die to pay off student loans.
Ronin is a great film, let down by the fact that no-one on set piped up about the terrible pronunciation of Hereford, Sean Bean, in that very scene, must have known.
Okay, question about the Tiger. Apparently you are referring to a piston-engine aircraft, but didn’t Grumman make a carrier-based fighter called the F-11-F Tiger sometime in the late fifties or early sixties?
Yes, it did. It was powered by a single jet engine. Near the close of WWII, they also came out with the F7F Tigercat, a twin-engine piston job that saw action in Korea.
Assuming that Clancy had someone advising him on the Russian language, and things Russian in general, either they weren’t very good or he failed to heed what they told him.
One of the biggest boners I ever read was in Without Remorse, where he talks about vodka flavored with old paper. I’ve spent most of the last 20 years living in Moscow, and not once have I come across such a thing, nor have I ever met a Russian who has heard of it. In all probability, he misunderstood the word pepper, as pronounced by a Russian; there is indeed pepper-flavored vodka, though most of the brands I’ve seen are made in Poland.*
Other things, like catching a specific subway car on a specific platform at a specific time during rush hour to make a handoff (Cardinal of the Kremlin) are next to impossible. Metro trains don’t run on a fixed schedule, and they’re packed full between 7:00 and 10:00 am on weekdays, to the point where you can barely move.
*Pepper in the sense of capsicum, those red botanicals you put in chili con carne.
After the first Moon landing, 1969 or 1970, thereabouts. The Soviet officer in the story loves the stuff, so it’s contemporary with that. He also describes it as a premium brand, so it’s not bootleg.
Again, I’ve never met any Russian who has heard of such a thing, but I wouldn’t put it past them to drink it regardless of how vile it would taste. The MiG-25 was known among Red AF personnel as “The Flying Restaurant,” since they used to drink its alcohol-based brake fluid.
My father-in-law was the crew photographer for the Blue Angels back in the late 50s. And mrAru’s Uncle Corky was one of the transport pilots for the Antarctic resupply function [and he drove those tiny race cars - talk about being an adrenaline junkie!] and has some really interesting pictures of Antarctica. [as well as being both a fixed wing and rotary wing pilot. Some people just really live in the Auntie Mame sense.]
