Fightin' Navy #98

Harold Simmons, a young seaman aboard the unassuming research ship Hogarth Sound, finds himself caught in a high-stakes Cold War confrontation when the vessel detects a massive intercontinental missile launched from a communist base. As the crew scrambles to defend against the threat using experimental weapons and a desperate call to a Canadian Nike-Hercules site, Simmons confronts the terrifying reality that this is no drill—this is a battle fought in the stratosphere, with the fate of the ship and the world hanging in the balance.

In the midst of a tense Cold War summit in a European port, a U.S. Navy diver, Sea-Man 1/C Mel Kendall, discovers a deadly device planted beneath an American aircraft carrier. As he struggles to survive the physical and psychological toll of holding onto the trigger mechanism, he sends a desperate SOS by hammering code on the hull—just as reinforcements rush to his aid. Meanwhile, diplomatic tensions escalate above water, unaware of the sabotage unfolding beneath the surface.

In a tense moment aboard a destroyer, a young reserve ensign must confront Lieutenant Baintree, a commanding officer whose arrogance and lack of real experience put the crew in danger during training drills. When a series of near-disasters—sparking fires and dangerously misfired depth charges—threaten the ship, the ensign uncovers the truth: Baintree’s orders were based on lies, but the crisis is resolved when the ensign reveals the depth charges were dummy rounds all along.

In the South Atlantic, a U.S. Navy destroyer is drawn into a mysterious fog and ambushed by a hidden enemy submarine, leading Captain Jim Albens and his crew into a perilous confrontation on a secret underwater island fortress. Trapped and outnumbered, the crew must use their wits and hidden skills to sabotage the enemy's defenses while the ship itself is towed away.