The Gulf (Dan Lenson Novels)

As the title suggests, the novel is set in the Persian Gulf. Published in 1990 - prior to the Gulf War - in the novel the Cold War is still the paradigm in US defense thinking, the Iran-Iraq War still rages, and the "tanker war" continues as well, the US (and British) escort of American, Kuwaiti, and other countries tankers and other merchant vessels through a deadly gamut of island bases, deadly small boats called "boghammers," aircraft, and mines. A narrow, shallow desert sea that winds its way through hostile, often warring countries, not allowing Americans basing rights for ships or aircraft, the seas too shallow for the great aircraft carriers or our mighty submarines, the task to protect one of the busiest and most important shipping lanes in the world falls clearly on the shoulder of destroyers, frigates, and minesweepers. As in real history, with the "accidental" firing of a missle on the USS Stark, the tragic downing of a commercial airline by the USS Vincennes, and most recenlty by the terrorist attack on the USS Cole, these ships are vulnerable, in the front line of what Poyer calls in the dedication "...a strange war, a half-war, shadowy and constrained...in what we call peace - though it isn't."

More accurately, the focus of the book is primarily upon Lieutenant-Commander Dan Lenson, a star of previous Poyer novels, who serves as XO on the USS Turner Van Zandt. Hoping to have command of the ship when the captain is relieved due to illness, he instead finds himself serving a new captain, Benjamin Shaker, a man who lost his last command, the USS Louis Strong, to a missile fired from an unseen enemy. Sunk with the loss of many hands, many of the crew having died from fire damage from the missile strike, Shaker is determined that history will not repeat itself. Ordering changes in how the ship is run and even ordering torn out everything flammable, down to the crew's polyester uniforms, even against Navy regulations, Lenson obeys, but is unsure what is captain's ultimate intentions are, how far he should follow him, and how his past will affect how he operates. As the USS Turner Van Zandt continues to escort new convoys to and from Kuwait, protecting them from accidental and intential attack by Iraqi and much more often Iranian ships and aircraft, will this captain stay within established procedure for dealing with these threats, in a "war" that is waged under tight political constraints, or will he go beyond? What does Lenson really know about this captain, can he trust him? What unknown dangers lie in wait for the vulnerable convoy threadings its way down the deadly Gulf?

Poyer does a great job of illustrating several other charcters in the work, from aging reservist minesweeper divers to the hard-living helicopter aircrew of the ship to the drug-addicted but (mostly, sorta) trying to do well semi-stowaway corpsman, they add depth to the novel, their fates all intertwined in the end. His vivid descriptions of life abord the ship and sailing through the tropical desert sea are excellent.

Good book, I recommend it.


Heart of the Warrior   September 2, 2001
Douglas De Bono - Author of No Safe Harbor (Minnetonka, mn United States)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

This is a fascinating look inside the essense of command. What makes a commander - someone focused on the next promotion or a warrior intent on being supreme in battle?

Captain Ben Shaker presents that paradox in The Gulf. Some of his actions are reprehensible and others are the kind this country needed the USN sailed into harm's way at Midway.

If you like a story about the gritty toughness at sea, then this is the book for you.


Down to a sunless sea....   August 7, 2000
Rottenberg's rotten book review (nyc)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

In "The Gulf", Poyer brings back his nominal hero, Dan Lenson, the unluckiest surviving officer in the USN. Lenson went from the horrors of an Arctic cruise, the loss of his ship and full-blown inquiry in just a single book! (the superlative "The Circle"). In "The Gulf", Poyer tries to make Lenson share the focus of the novel with other intriguiging charachters - a grizzled, but tireless helicopter crew; aging UDT skin-divers; and a beautiful, but brilliant and tough female diplomat who calls Washington's shots in the Persian gulf. The notion of sending a woman - no matter how experienced - to relate American policy in the male-dominated Gulf region seems implausible, and once Poyer brings her and Lenson together, with an unconvincing spontaneity that only tears away her diplomat's shell, she's entirely spineless. The other charachters don't connect with Lenson, and Poyer doesn't bring together the story until the novel is almost over. The story revolves around American efforts to enforce stability in the region without using more than enough gunboat diplomacy to get the job done. (too much will at least bankrupt Washington, or perhaps trigger a confrontation with the Soviets). For Lenson, it means, again, facing a morally ambiguous figure in command - Ben Shaker, the commanding officer of a Destroyer sent to the bottom by an Iranian cruise missile. Unfortunately, unlike other books, the confrontation between Lenson and his obscure boss does not proceed as the result of a sustained buildup, but pops up, almost like a cruise missile itself. To compensate, Poyer doesn't bring closure to the confrontation immediately, but waits until the end of the story for a resolution. Unfortunately, closure is too pat and unsatisfying. The charachters go there separate ways when the novel comes to an end, less like one of Poyer's previous epics then some TV series based upon them. A good read, but unworthy of Poyer.