My New Cover!Many thanks to Bart Palamaro of IndieAuthorSupport.com, first, for letting me know my old cover didn't cut it, and then for designing and creating the new cover shown on the home page of this website.
Where did I get the idea for Needle on the Haystack?
On one of my ships, we got a new man on board for the deck force. He was somewhat stocky and wore tinted glasses, but otherwise seemed quite normal. He worked the deck work, chipping and painting and all that stuff. Then he disappeared. So did another guy on the deck force. We thought nothing of it.
About six months later I was talking with one of the seamen on the deck force. He said: "Remember so-and-so with the tinted glasses?" I did. This seaman was duty driver when the two guys left the ship. The Captain escorted them to the airfield and the duty driver overheard the conversation. The tinted glasses guy was an undercover operative of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). Those are the offices I was told. I don't know if the CID was the real division of ONI, but I do know ONI did these kinds of operations - I saw them another time, more in the open. And the other armed forces do have organizations called CID. I tried to find the history of ONI/CID on the internet but drew a blank. I even emailed the Office of Naval Intelligence and asked about the CID, but they never answered my email. But here is some true information: whatever it was called, this investigative office split off from the ONI and was named the Naval Investigative Service (NIS). It later changed it's name to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). Anyway, the Captain didn't even know he had an ONI agent aboard. The agent was tracking down a drug user to find out who his supplier was. And he commented to the Captain that "We got them." "We?" This told me a whole different story: there had to be agents on other ships and on the naval base. And if it was that big an operation, there had to be a team leader of some sort. This was the seed for my novel Needle on the Haystack. A Note About Navy Ratings in Needle on the Haystack.
The Navy ratings in the novel reflect the 1960s. They have been changed quite a bit since then. One example: During the 1960s, we had a group of gunfire control people who had been in the Navy for a long time. They were originally called "Fire Controlmen" (FC). That had been changed to "Fire Control Technician" (FT). Today, FTs control the weapons on submarines and the surface people are once again FCs. I am planning a number of novels about OCI. I will be using the 1960s ratings and terminology in order to maintain historical accuracy.
So what is OCI? And who are their agents?
OCI is my invention for Needle on the Haystack. It is supposed to be analogous to the ONI/CID that I mentioned above. I have no idea how ONI/CID was organized and couldn't find any information about it. So I invented OCI and gave it an admiral in charge with regional offices all over the country. In later novels, we'll see them all over the world.
I was told just last week (1 June 2013) by another veteran that ONI indeed had a CID; he knew someone working for them. But my book was already published. The OCI personnel presented a philosophical problem for me. The Navy of the 1960s was a male organization. the Waves were there as support to allow more men to go to sea. Waves only served ashore. Also, there were still traces of segregation in the Navy, even though President Truman had legally integrated all U.S. armed forces by presidential order. African Americans (Negroes back then) were sometimes in technical positions, but that was rare. I did work with a Mexican American in the mid '60s. We didn't see a lot of Asians except for the Filipinos and South Pacific Islanders who served as stewards to cook and serve the officers. The problem I had for Needle on the Haystack was this: if the operatives were to really track down all drug users and pushers, how could a bunch of White guys infiltrate the highly segregated bars and clubs off base, not to mention closely watching Waves in their barracks? My answer to this was to integrate OCI, more so than the Navy at large. I have no idea if ONI/CID was so integrated. But it made sense to me to do this for my novel. Another thing that I decided to do was to have a woman in charge pf the team. Rena Skye is a highly trained criminologist so she could be considered qualified for such a position. She is also a Marine Corps officer and the Corps was an integral part of ONI and was considered part of the Navy at the time. But having a woman in charge of such an operation may have been a real rare situation in the 1960s Navy. So, forgive me if I pushed the boundaries too much for historical accuracy. But it may have been this way. Remember, such an organization had to be highly secret in order to maintain its undercover status. So it may have been this integrated. In my mind it made for a better story. No influence from the TV show JAGWhen a distant cousin read about my Needle on the Haystack, he immediately wondered if I had been influenced by the television show "JAG." He thought the similarity with the two womens' Marine Corps officers was too close. Just in case anyone else is wondering the same thing, let me put your mind at rest. I AM kind of an NCIS addict (both NCIS and NCIS LA). However, for some strange (having been in the Navy for so long) reason, I never watched even a single episode of JAG. I knew the show was there, but never saw one and never knew anything about the characters or their backgrounds. Now, I will refuse to catch up with the show because I do not want to be influenced by someone else's work. I have my own ideas what to write and will not endanger my reputation. My work is original and will stay that way.
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