After receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor for action in Iraq, Commander Daniel V. Lenson's new orders read: take over as skipper of USS Thomas W. Horn. His mission: prepare the Tomahawk-equipped strike destroyer and her crew for the Red Sea, where she'll join an international task force searching for weapons of mass destruction.
But this will be no routine deployment. Horn will be the first US Navy warship ever to deploy with an integrated male and female crew-a controversial and politically explosive experiment that will raise questions about morale, behavior, training, sexual attraction, and ultimately, performance under fire. Facing sandstorms, smugglers, and ambushes, Horn's increasingly polarized crew will conduct demanding, diplomatically sensitive search-and-seizure operations against foreign vessels attempting to smuggle arms to Iraq. But the real nightmare's brewing in Bahrain. There, the most dangerous bomb expert in Al-Qaeda has targeted Horn for attack- as the first step in a plan to redraw the map of the whole Middle East.
With gripping action scenes and an explosive climax, The Command continues Dan Lenson's star-crossed career in a series that explores both global and deeply personal implications of honor, duty, power, and war.
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Review"[An] explosive climax...the reader takes a well-informed cruise on a U.S. destroyer. Poyer knows the ship intimately. Vivid descriptions cover everything from knee knockers to combat information center, radar to computers, wardroom to enlisted quarters. Battle scenes in particular come alive with authenticity...and all that, and more, is in this latest chapter of Commander Daniel Lenson's contentious career."-Proceedings
"Poyer packs story with both dense technical info and welcome local color. Unique Aisha merits a spinoff series."-Kirkus Reviews
""Plows fearlessly-though with hair-raising effect on occasion-through today's stormy international and social seas...the salvos of nautical expertise also lend flavor and authenticity...the author provides believable insights into Muslim thinking...Poyer's genius for description impresses on page after page. The vividness of his scene-setting grabs you."
-Virginian-Pilot
"Lovers of procedural military fiction wait for David Poyer's next installment of the career of Dan Lenson."-Roanoke Times
From the Back CoverPraise for David Poyer's novels of the Modern Navy:
Black Storm
"No one writes gritty, realistic military fiction like David Poyer. No one."
- Stephen Coonts, author of America
"A gripping, gritty novel that reads like the real thing. You're with the marines every step of the way. Poyer knows his stuff."
- Vince Flynn, author of Separation of Power
"Exceptional...a straight-ahead adventure yarn, a frontal assault on the bestseller lists."
- Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe
China Sea
"Vivid descriptions...an exciting story."
- John Garst, Virginia Times
Tomahawk
"Imaginative, thought-provoking."
- USA Today