Tom Clancy is dead at 66. My buddy Wahoo introduced me to him back in the 80’s and I’ve been reading his stuff ever since. Wahoo told me that the FBI had investigated him for some of the stuff that he wrote in his books. He pointed out to them that everything he wrote about he had found publicly and showed him his sources. I remember when my sister was reading Patriot Games she mumbled sumpin’ like, “How did he find out about that?”
I asked, “Found out about what?”
She responded, “I can’t tell you. It’s Top Secret.”
I pointed out that everything he wrote about he had found in public records. She still wouldn’t tell me. This was when she worked for Lockheed Missiles and Space and had a Top Secret clearance so I couldn’t blame her. I held Top Secret Crypto in the Navy which allowed me to use the little crypto machine we had locked up in a safe in the crypto area of radio central on the Iredell County so I knew about keeping my mouth shut. I imagine the crytpo gear I used back then has been much surpassed by even more secure stuff. She did say, when we were watching the part in the movie Patriot Games about observing the raid on the terrorist camp in Libya via satellite, that she had seen some really neat stuff at work.
Everyone asked him, after the end of the Cold War what he was gonna be able to write about with the demise of the Soviet Union. He said that he would have plenty to write about and after 9/11, he went right to work writing about Islamic terrorism with Jack Ryan’s son as a main character. His last book was about China cyber attacks.
So now we have lost Vince Flynn and Tom Clancy. Bummer. Rest in peace Tom. I’ll certainly miss you.
Yes, I and other Submariners read his first novels avidly. He wrote well and earned a lot of money. Good for him.
Bad on him? Treating us like underlings when he toured our Submarine. We gave him 4 star treatment and he acted like a privileged ass.
(still like his first few books, never read any of the later ones after I met him)
Hunt for Red October still my fav The movie would get 10 Stars if it wasnt for Baldwin staring in it.
I really enjoyed TC novels. Great plots, great characterisation and realistic detail. Would that Hollywood film makers could do the same.
As far as getting the information is concerned, I am reminded of an incident involving a British Model Aircraft magazine and a secret plane. The mag published a lot of technical detail about a new airplane on the secret list and naturally the security services were onto them like a ton of bricks.
It turned out that the mag guys has used a publicity shot put our by the government which showed the new plane with pilots in shot. Armed with this and their knowledge of airplanes these guys had calculated the size and performance of the fighter! They were pretty near spot on!
So how do you think the enemies of Britain and USA get hold of info? Sometimes we just make it too easy.
RIP Tom
Add an incident with an NSA affiliated person who, upon reading a particular section of Patriot Games:
“I told those guys not to talk with him…!”
At least there is still Brad Thor…..
And Steve Berry.
amen. Two great authors lost too quickly. I also lost favs Tony Hillerman a while ago, and Robert B. Parker