Lucian Truscott IV

When a first-classman's insignia is found on the riverbank near the drowned body of plebe David Hand, the specter of murder casts a shadow of scandal across the U.S. Grant Military Academy. General Hedges, the headmaster of the school, is determined to keep the beleaguered school out of the headlines and attempts to cover-up the likelihood of murder by wielding his considerable influence to pass it off as a simple drowning. (imdb)

Commander Miles Sheffield is a rising star in the US Navy, patronized by Admiral Eugene Justice, to the silent envy of many, including his XO and Chief on his first command mission aboard a nuclear submarine, the Lansing. This maiden voyage also turns out to be the ultimate challenge: a failed Korean nuclear missile causes a disastrous explosion which knocks his means of communications out of order, so he fears to be incommunicado in a nuclear war against an unknown enemy. Now his rivals believe