My Washington Times Review Of 'Admiral Gorshkov: The Man Who Challenged The U.S. Navy'

The Washington Times published my review of Admiral Gorshkov: The Man Who Challenged the U.S. Navy.

While serving as a teen-age seaman on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War, the ship’s crew and air wing were aware of the dogged presence of our Cold War adversary, the Soviet navy.

The carrier was under constant surveillance by Soviet trawlers that shadowed us at sea and spied on the carrier’s combat operations against their ally, the North Vietnamese. Soviet surface warships, submarines and aircraft also conducted surveillance of the carrier.

I recall vividly when we sailed away from “Yankee Station” in the South China Sea in 1971, a Soviet TU-16 bomber aircraft performed a fly-over the carrier to let us know that via Soviet naval surveillance they knew we had been relieved by another carrier and we were departing the war zone.

Of course, we knew they knew, so the TU-16 was received and escorted in the air by several of Kitty Hawk’s fighter aircraft. It was a surreal moment. As the bomber flew over and took surveillance photos of the carrier, on the deck of the carrier were a couple of thousand sailors and airmen taking photos of the bomber as it flew over the ship. (See the below photo).

The man in charge of the Soviet navy shadowing the Kitty Hawk and other U.S. ships during the Vietnam War was one of America’s greatest adversaries during the Cold War. He is largely unknown by the general public, so authors Norman Polmar, Thomas A. Brooks and George E. Fedoroff provide a valuable service by writing a book that chronicles the life and work of the prominent Soviet admiral.

In “Admiral Gorshkov: The Man Who Challenged the U.S. Navy,” readers discover how the Soviet navy rose to become a serious challenge to the U.S Navy and NATO forces during the Cold War, and how one man, Adm. Sergey G. Gorshkov was primarily responsible.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jul/25/book-review-admiral-gorshkov-man-who-challenged-us/