The Shark Mutiny

patently unfair.”

“Your word, not mine,” interrupted Al Surprenant. “Thoughtful of you.”

“SILENCE!” snapped Captain Dunning. “Please be seated, and listen carefully. “If I consider the questioning of a witness to be irrelevant or unfair, I shall make my views known. If you object to anything, please say so, and I will make a judgment. But I will not tolerate banter.

“And, for the record, I do think it is extremely important to know that Commander Reid has some unusual views. I was once in a ship where the Captain was known to pray extensively on a nightly basis, and it damned near caused a mutiny. Ships are like that. Little things can mean a great deal, especially concerning a CO.

“This evidence about Commander Reid matters. And I am afraid he is going to have to put up with it. He was, after all, instrumental in bringing this court-martial, and my sympathies are not with him in these instances. Please proceed, Lieutenant Commander.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Al Surprenant, humbly. “Commander Reid, have you ever tried to contact Grigory Lyachin in a spiritual way? Perhaps to seek counsel or guidance from a man who has paid the ultimate price for carelessness?”

“It was never his fault. Any more than it was de Villeneuve’s. They were both let down by others.”

“Then you have been in contact?”

“In a sense.”

“Thank you. And now I would like to return to more immediate concerns. As you know, Lieutenant Commander Headley, by the morning of June seventh, had much on his mind. His CO, a spiritualist who associated himself closely with two massive Naval disasters, had twice made decisions apparently detrimental to a SEAL operation — we have established that. He was dealing with a man who played rigidly by the book, presumably to avoid making the same foul-ups he had committed at Trafalgar.”

This was too much for Captain Dunning. “Counselor,” he snapped, “kindly desist from this soliloquy. You are not asking questions. You are merely ridiculing the witness. Ask, or sit down.”

“Of course, sir,” said Lieutenant Commander Surprenant courteously. “Commander, would you be surprised to learn that Lieutenant Commander Headley knew you would refuse flatly to help the SEALs. Because of your beliefs and your record?”

“Yes, it would.”

“You will later hear that he did indeed know. It was the predictability that caused the mutiny — that they all knew you would leave the SEALs to die. I have no more questions.”

“Commander Reid, you are excused. But please do not leave the building.” Captain Dunning wrote carefully in his book.

And then Lt. Commander Jones called his second witness, Shark’s Combat Systems Officer, Lt. Commander Jack Cressend, who testified very briefly that he had indeed been asked by Lt. Commander Headley to take part in an act of defiance toward the Commanding Officer, in order to save the SEALs.

At the conclusion of his evidence, a short account of how they did not turn the ship around but proceeded inshore to meet Commander Hunter and his men, Al Surprenant had just one question.

“Lieutenant Commander,” he said, “if you could live June the seventh over, would you still support the XO in his determination to save the SEALs?”

“Absolutely, sir. I would. No doubt in my mind.”

At this point, Lt. Commander Jones announced that he had no more witnesses — but would confine his cross-examination to those appearing on behalf of the accused.

Immediately, Al Surprenant called Commander Rick Hunter, who walked into the courtroom and swore to tell the truth before being seated.

After identification, the SEAL Commander admitted under oath that he had the gravest worries about the possible conduct of Commander Reid under pressure. He and Lt. Commander Headley knew each other well, and had discussed the “unreliable” nature of the CO, even before the mission began.

“When you first transmitted your distress call to Shark, while your men were fighting and dying in the open boats, did you think help would come?”

“Not if Commander Reid had his way. I knew it would not come.”

“Did you think you had a chance to survive?”

“Only if Dan Headley took over the ship, in a big hurry.”

“But for Lieutenant Commander Headley’s actions, would you and your men have been killed.”

“Yessir.”

“Do you think he deserves to be court-martialed?”

“Nossir.”

“Why not?”

“Because he’s just about the best officer I ever met. And he saved all of our lives.”

“Do you intend to make any protest whatsoever if Lieutenant Commander Headley is found guilty of mutiny?”

“Nossir. But I shall resign my commission immediately.”

“After a working lifetime in the Navy? And the very real prospect of becoming C-in-C of SPECWARCOM?”

“Yessir. I could never feel the same about the service if they convicted Dan Headley.”

“Thank you, Commander.”

Locker Jones arose. “You stated that you and Lieutenant Commander Headley knew each other well. That was not quite the whole truth, was it?”

“Sir?”

“You and Dan Headley are boyhood friends, correct? Best friends, correct? You went to school together, correct? Your father employs his father, correct?”

“All correct, sir. I am privileged to have him and his father as my friends.”

“Is it not probable that you would never hear a word against Dan Headley, from anyone?”

“Very probable. Because he does not do things to cause people to utter words against him.”

“He has now, Commander.”

“But not by people who really know him, sir.”

“And you think you know him well enough to say he could not be guilty of the crime with which he is charged?”

“I know him a lot better than you do.”

Locker Jones had had enough sparring with the towering wounded hero of the Burma operation. “No more questions,” he said.

Al Surprenant next called the SEAL Commander Rusty Bennett, who confirmed the counselor’s earlier contention that he had tried to remonstrate with Commander Reid about his decision not to move the ship forward in the Gulf of Iran mission to assist the wounded SEAL.

“And do you recall his precise words, Commander Bennett?”

“Some of them. I told him the rescue was at my request to go in and save the life of one of my most valued men. He then reminded me that I had no rights whatsoever on his ship. Told me he would not have this interference. Then he said, ‘What exactly is this? Some kind of damned conspiracy? Well you’ve picked the wrong man to make a fool of….’ Then he said we had waited until he was asleep and then flagrantly disobeyed his orders.”

“And what did you think of this outburst?”

“Seemed very strange. You know, like paranoia….”

“OBJECTION! The witness has no idea about the meaning of such a medical term…”

“Sustained.”

“How about nuts?” offered the SEAL from the coast of Maine.

“Better,” said Captain Dunning.

“OBJECTION! The Commander has no right to be making wild statements about insanity.”

“I’ll take the word of an experienced Navy SEAL commanding officer that in his opinion someone seemed nuts,” replied Captain Dunning. “Overruled.”