# What Tom Clancy got right, and what he got wrong **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 17, 2007, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650 "2007-02-17T21:33:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650/41 "2016-11-17T16:34:00Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I saw that on Star Trek! > 🙂 It was the _sound_ of the beating heart amplified by the power of 1. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650/42 "2016-11-17T16:35:21Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Except in RSR one of the key points is that the Red Army used army rockets (non-water proof) instead on navy rockets (waterproof) so their rocket were inoperative after fighting a fire on a ship. > > FTR it’s been so long since I’ve read it I may have gotten some of the details wrong. that’s pretty much it. The ship was attacked and while they had great fire-fighting drills and process down, they didn’t realize before-hand that sea-water was used to fight fires at sea. I think it was the salt that messed up the rockets. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650/43 "2016-11-17T16:36:27Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Not only do they go into combat together, Jack orders Charles around by calling him “Prince.” :smack: And when he reports via radio that they have the Prince with them, he pauses a moment after listing the rest of the party and then says, “…and, uh… Captain Wales of the Royal Navy.” And upon hearing this fact, he is not ordered to proceed immediately to safety, but rather his plan to pursue armed terrorists is given the green light with only a “Be careful.” Yeah, hard to keep suspension of disbelief alive there. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650/44 "2016-11-17T17:19:12Z")
> [@Rysto](#): > > In Red Storm Rising, Clancy nailed his prediction that helicopters wouldn’t be very useful in a war, because they’re too vulnerable. Not sure if this is a joke. Apaches proved themselves in combat and are still effective. Special Forces and SEALS use helicopters for insertion and extraction. They are vulnerable, as the Battle of Mogadishu showed, but they are definitely useful. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650/45 "2016-11-17T21:47:57Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Not sure if this is a joke. Apaches proved themselves in combat and are still effective. I originally read this as “Archers proved themselves in combat and are still effective.” and wondered if your join date was Oct 1415. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650/46 "2016-11-17T22:47:34Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > It was the _sound_ of the beating heart amplified by the power of 1. 1 to the fourth power! ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650/47 "2016-11-18T06:08:56Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Not sure if this is a joke. Apaches proved themselves in combat and are still effective. Special Forces and SEALS use helicopters for insertion and extraction. They are vulnerable, as the Battle of Mogadishu showed, but they are definitely useful. But the environment that Apaches have operated in is quite different than against Warsaw Pact forces. For the most part, Apaches in real life have been doing counter-insurgency, or counter-Taliban, or in Kosovo, etc., but facing only moderate anti-air threats, not Russian/Soviet anti-air systems, and no enemy fighter jets. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650/48 "2016-11-18T06:15:07Z")
\*Executive Orders \*- saying that Taiwan had an arsenal of about 20 nuclear weapons - granted, in the Clancyverse, fiction is fiction, but this is by no means something that could be done secretly, or kept totally secret, without some diplomatic brouhaha or the Taiwanese or Chinese press finding out. In another novel, some people panned the depiction of an A-10 buzzing a Russian warship at sea. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650/49 "2016-11-18T06:19:55Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > in SOAF, the terrorist who discovers the plutonium covers it with a metal toolbox. In DoH, he explains that if plutonium touches metal, it catches fire. Interesting. Assuming that the latter explanation is correct, what is plutonium usually stored in to avoid fire. A special plastic? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650/50 "2016-11-18T06:23:20Z")
> [@Mops](#): > > Some examples that I recollect from several books concerns the occasional use of German phrases, uttered by German characters but using cruel and unusual grammar. Also some details like using a military-style rank for a German police officer. These instances usually look like he’d taken English-language phrases and American concepts and naïvely translated them word by word. Some other factual errors too, e.g. life without possibility of parole for terrorists in Germany, in SOAF if I recollect correctly. (That’s regarding facts. Also there’s the occasional _original_ take on aspects of German politics that’t be considered ridiculous even by people on his ideological wavelength in Germany). In _The Bear and the Dragon_, Tom Clancy features an adult Chinese man (I think a Chinese army officer) using profanity/derogatory talk in Mandarin that is really rather childish, what you’d expect a kindergartener or elementary-school bully to be using, not a grown man. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650/51 "2016-11-18T07:00:04Z")
Isn’t the plutonium in nuclear weapons coated with something nonreactive, to keep it from coming into contact with outside elements? ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2016, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650/52 "2016-11-18T13:29:01Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I originally read this as “Archers proved themselves in combat and are still effective.” and wondered if your join date was Oct 1415. Apache archers firing from Apaches. Now you’re onto something. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2016, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650/53 "2016-11-21T04:45:37Z")
Here’s an interesting question: What would happen to a Special Ops colonel who checked out a helicopter gunship and a C-130 tanker (crews and all) on his own authority to support a hazardous clandestine operation in South America (as in _ **Clear and Present Danger** _)? :dubious: In one interview with a serviceman, I believe it was said “He’d be crucified!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tom-clancy-got-right-and-what-he-got-wrong/392650.md?page=2)