Flagship Captain: The Cold War Navy at Sea, Ashore, and Underground

At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Captain George Sotos became the first and only American military commander in history to set his facility at DEFCON 1 in readiness for nuclear war. And what a facility it was — a top secret command center, buried under a Hawaiian pineapple field. Breaking a nearly 60-year silence, Sotos recounts those agonizing days, along with his desperate plan to shelter as many civilians as possible from the nuclear-armed Soviet missiles that would obliterate human life on the island of Oahu. He tells, too, of the command center's inner workings, its pioneering use of computers for military command and control, and the key item on his resumé that tipped one of the U.S. Navy's most powerful admirals to hire him for the job: previous command of a Destroyer. Emerging from World War II as a combat-proven leader, Captain Sotos continues in Flagship Captain the story of his remarkable naval career, begun in the companion book, Living With the Torpedo — now used as a teaching text at the US Naval Academy. His lessons of leadership and ship-handling, in war and in peace, are as timeless as the sea. Read more