European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 24, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes june 1985 columns comments George will Trident silent marvels of deterrent Force aboard the Henry Jack son sometimes when Ralph Tindal is crouched atop the Bridge of this Trident heading out of the port canaveral porpoises play with his surfing on the Bow and it is a tossup who is having More the Captain or his a Trident on station spends 70 Days submerged and 155 men packed in a tube 42 feel in carrying 24 Mir cd missiles and More destructive Power than was used against Germany and this is fun this is an acquired someone once asked a base Ball Umpire if there is such a thing As a natural he but no one starts out that submariners tire like the wonder is that there arc enough men with an aptitude for this a lot Are needed As Many warheads Are deployed on submarines As the combined total on bombers and land based captains know Joseph con rads words about a ship at sea being a Distant world in a description True of Trident submarines to a degree Conrad could never have in any Conrad there is one the who in an emergency can turn to no other a Trident on peaceful patrol is constantly receiving communications although it it does not Send during a con any communication with the com Mand authority ashore could be prob firing missiles requires the boat to be stationary and noisy it becomes a sitting target for any soviet attack sub Marine that has successfully shadowed a submariner is More limited regarding communications than a Man in submariners cannot Call Houston control and what do i do next deterrence on the Central front in Europe is two armies a Trident submariners life is silence and avoidance of 24 hours a As his Reward for service away from family and with responsibility for 155 lives and a billion boat not counting the Cost of the a Captain is paid less than a Middle level executive of a pretzel but he gets the Public recognition involved in congressional complaint about his which is not As generous As con Gressional Carl Rowan few americans can visit a Trident to actually see the sophistication of the sys tems and the Crews unfailing Grace under unrelieved but Many thousands of americans Are Reading Tom Clancy novel the Hunt for red it is a thriller about the hid and seek game that is no played around the around the i asked an is the Book a Good portrayal his terse reply too it has a lot of russian forty percent of Trident Cost is in a special the expense buys quiet Ness so the boat can be a Black Hole in the for to minimize water there can be no More than a Quarter Inch deviation in the plates along the 560footlong a High technology Trident is like a handmade pair of shoes much of the Cost is in the every pipe fitting must be wrapped in silencing a to economize space and minimize a tool Box must be custom fitted to a particular and made this Little detail helps keep the deterrent and enables exhibitionists in con Gress to throw Rug chewing conniption fits about tool boxes that Cost More ones sold at the local hardware traitors who sell to soviet agents secrets that help defeat submarines sophisticated systems for avoiding detection should receive punishment As serious As the damage they do capital but Here is a fact indicative of the lethal unserious Ness of a government in which policy is driven by publicity values in order to comply with policies set by con the Navy has More investigators worrying about overpriced ashtrays that about that is not a cos effective allocation of considering the Cost and importance of the Quality built into and the ability of espionage to devalue it takes 44 months to move a Trident from the laying of its keel to at which Point the itself a Well tuned in learns what it would be like living inside a Fine Swiss Tindal the fifth Trident to enter has a motto the fifth and bearing the name of the late it should As he the c Washington Post writers group african regime seems unaware of opinion i often find myself wondering what kind of reports the South african ambassador in Washington is sending Back to then i find myself doubting that his reports really matter to a beleaguered re Gime that seems suicidal in its Devotion to 1 ask myself did ambassador Bernardus fou Rie Tell prime minister Pieter Botha and other leaders that recently police arrested 90 people at Princeton University who were demanding that the school sell million Worth of Stock it holds in Compa Nies doing business in South and that 79 labor leaders protesting apartheid were arrested in san Francisco has Fourie made it Clear that the arrests outside his embassy Are not just but symbols of deepening american outrage on in labor Union in the Congress and state Legislatures outrage Over the most per oppressive racism practice on this planet has Fourie alerted the Power Wield ers of Cape town and Durban that conservative apologists for South Africa will not be Able to halt the move in Congress to place a moratorium on future investments in that country until it dismantles the apartheid system a lot of ambassadors engage in Wishful or Tell their governments what they think will be or at last Fourie May think that sanctions will never be voted by Congress be cause our lawmakers have swallowed the propaganda that sanctions would Hurt Black South africans Many con Gressmen and others say that this is moral they Are More than 22 million Black South africans Are being brutalized by the minority apartheid Gime Only Blacks Are employed by american corporations in South so this country can take a stand of decency on behalf of millions of people while inconveniencing Only Many of whom say they will gladly sacrifice to get out from under the Yoke of a vicious police let me make it Clear that i hold no illusions that the imposition of economic or other sanctions will make the Botha or its face up to the critical Issue of the White minority willingness to concede citizenship and share political Power the Black a i Learned while visiting South Afri Ca a decade or so ago that the Whites who hold Power fear that give the Black majority any Power is to open the door to their wielding too much these Whites hold overwhelming fears that a dominant Black majority will suddenly be treating White As meanly As White have treated Blacks for some White South africans hold no such fears Whites like Colin head of the progressive who was in Washington recently saying that he is certain that Whites and All others will be More secure and Lead happier lives once Blacks share political and economic but Eglin and his party do not and will not make policy in South one truth that Fourie need not Tell the leaders in Pretoria that if attitudes in the United states Are changing the change among Blacks in South Africa is even Blacks in Soweto and the other ghettos of South Africa have lost their fear of even of dying As so Many of them have in recent the Black revolution will it is encouraging that so Many Ameri cans Are saying that they want to be on the right Side of that c news America Syndicate