First Prize Is Nothing: The Marion Incident

At the height of Cold War tension in 1970, the heyday of dA(c)tente through mutually assured destruction, a U.S. fleet ballistic submarine undertakes a strategic deterrent patrol in the Mediterranean. As the mission progresses, the executive officer slowly comes to realize that his commanding officer is mentally deteriorating into a dangerous state of paranoid delusion. Given the temper of the times, and realizing that the nuclear trip wire could be so easily breached, the exec, Mike Craig, must somehow get the ship safely back to port without allowing his irrational captain to light the fires of World War III. Narrowly successful in shepherding the ship back to port, the exec then finds himself battling for his professional survival against the Navyas chain of command, whose overriding concern is to protect the image of the iconic Hyman G. Rickover, rather than determining the reasons for the harrowing brush with Armageddon.Kirker, Jim is the author of 'First Prize Is Nothing: The Marion Incident', published 2007 under ISBN 9781424179336 and ISBN 1424179335.