Customer Reviews

Bathtub Admirals

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Being retired Navy, I'm always a bit suspect when given military novels. I've been disappointed on more than one occasion. However, my wife took a leap of faith and bought me "Bathtub Admirals" recently. I must say that this is the first book in a very long time that I actually could not bring myself to put down once I started it. Anyone who was in the military in the 1980's and 1990's will immediately recognize the "Through the Looking Glass" twisted logic world we lived in during those years. Hilarious, insightful, riveting. I hope there is another novel in the works by CDR Huber. Thank you for an incredible reading adventure!

Bill "BC" Combs
CDR USN (Ret)

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I first started in on this book. As a former carrier aviator during the period in which the book is set, I often find myself disappointed by many of the authors in the military genre who seem to keep cranking out "naval thrillers" that all to often seem to involve poorly developed characters trying to stave off World War III. I found Bathtub Admirals to be refreshingly unique in that it was the most accurate depiction of shipboard life on a carrier that I have ever read in a work of fiction. That said, one should not mistake this for anything close to a dry or antiseptic read. This book is first and foremost a comedic satire. While the accounts of shipboard routine were spot on, the witty and profane dialogue realistically captures the camaraderie shared between shipmates on a long cruise. This left me thinking wistfully back to old friends and good times spent at sea, while at the same time reminding me exactly why I decided to get out!

The clear, dialogue-driven writing style makes Bathtub Admirals a real page-turner. If I were back at sea, I probably would have powered through this book in a few days on the transit back home from an overseas deployment. As it is, I ended up devouring this book over the course of a few late nights over a long weekend, and found myself disappointed to arrive at the end.

Cdr Huber has hit a home run with his debut novel and I am already anticipating his next effort.

Anyone who has read Heller's Catch-22 (or Stephenson's Cryptonomicon) will recognize the style, and the author clearly acknowledges Heller's ancestry. Still, this book is shorter, less shark-jumpingly outrageous, both funnier and sadder than Heller's novel. Follow the US Navy career of Jack Hogan as he makes it from youthful Cold-War "Hawkeye Man" Lieutenant (junior grade) to disillusioned Commander, forced to take the fall for the latest retarded exercise blunder -- in a Navy that has no other enemy left except politicking, incompetence, inter-service rivalry and the looming swamp of the War on Evil. Contains deliciously explicit language, adult scenes and references to people like "Admiral Fix Felon" (pulling Fix Felonies of course), "Senator Ex-Prisoner-of-War", "Senator Tailhook", and "General F. Lee Kent" (SACEUR during Allied Force) and tall Sea Stories.

Disclosure: Haven't been near a Carrier, ever.

One of the things that my friends find paradoxical about me is that I love military history, military fiction, and good war stories, in spite of the fact that I'm a liberal, dKos reading (and worse, participating) DFH. I'm usually good about putting aside the personal politics of authors of military fiction, particularly the more knuckle-dragging types like Tom Clancy.

I'm part of the Diary Rescue team, which is a great way to get exposed to a wider range of Kossack diaries. I pick time slots to read that I wouldn't normally, in the hopes of finding interesting gems. One that I found is Jeff Huber, a retired US Navy Commander, blogger, and I was pleased to discover, author of military fiction.

Wait a minute, a Kossack, a dang liburl who writes military fiction? I immediately shot over to amazon.com and bought his book, Bathtub Admirals. The book jacket says it's satire, but that's like saying that "Catch-22" is just a comedy novel.

Bathtub Admirals traces the career of Jack Hogan, from young LTJG through his retirement as a CDR. Hogan began his career as a "NFO" or Naval Flight Officer, flying in the backseat of E-2C "Hawkeye" planes, the Navy's "mini-AWACS." Knowing that there wasn't much of a future for a back-seat guy in Naval Aviation, Hogan becomes a qualified SWO, or Surface Warfare Officer. That extra studying and the extra ship duty costs him his first marriage, as the pressure to further his career during the Cold War took its toll on home life. The novel follows the now-bachelor Hogan through shore and carrier duty tours both as a SWO and as a part of flight squadrons, through an even more disastrous second marriage, culminating in his retirement as a Commander.

Huber's anecdotes on Navy life are priceless, but the overall theme of ineptitude and incompetence is what makes the novel so enjoyable. His Jack Hogan is, in many ways, the navy equivalent of Dilbert. Where Scott Adams' famous engineer is a cube-dweller in a nameless, faceless, corporate world occupied by various insane archetypes, Hogan encounters those archetypes on ships and shore bases. From "Admiral Fix Felon" (alleged to be part of an actual Mafia family) to "Senator Tailhook" (a woman senator who wanted to bring Naval Aviation down after the 1991 "Tailhook" scandal, to "Senator Ex-Prisoner-of-War" (the most blatant real-life reference, this time to John McCain), the Navy's top management and its political bosses are elegantly and humorously skewered.

Huber doesn't stop with Hogan's superiors, though. The ranks of Jack Hogan's contemporaries and colleagues also filled with characters that are worthy of Adams and Heller. From his "friend," Buzz, who more is more than willing to throw Hogan under the bus to further his own career to USNA grads with the connections and influence that Hogan, an AOCS officer doesn't have, to officers who are just flat-out idiots and/or criminals, Huber's navy is indeed a "Dilbert Zone."

The theme of incompetence, while making for hilarious reading, is one that really should give us all pause. These are the men who fight our wars. We entrust them with countless billions of dollars and some of the deadliest weapons in the history of mankind. Still, many battles are, as Jack Hogan says, lost because "two of their admirals hated each other more than they hated us."

Bathtub Admirals is a must-read for fans of military fiction, and highly recommended for everyone.

The day after I blew through this book in an afternoon/evening spent in too many waiting lounges, I realized I HAD to read it again, now that I know all the characters.

The second time through I found many points that made me stop and just shake my head. It was even better the second time through.

Huber's officially on my "I'll read anything he writes" list.

I am not a Navy man. I get seasick, in fact. But Jeff Huber's novel, Bathtub Admirals, took me out to sea and got me sick with laughter. The is the kind of skewer job the Pentagon deserves and that should hit the big screen with a hilarious bang. As an outsider, I always wonder how intelligent and capable our military leaders are. No doubt, there are bright and competent ones. But you fear that the majority are just exactly who Mr. Huber describes in his novel. This book should be read by all those who have served in the military, no matter what branch, and by those who have a real concern for this country because of the people who run it. And also for those who don't mind a good laugh while their steaming.

Unlike most who reviewed this book, I'm not military. Just lived a lot of years with Navy uncles, cousins, brothers, etc., I do read Commander Huber's blog, Pen and Sword, on a regular basis. It's pretty serious stuff, most of the time.

However, in Bathtub Admirals, Commander Huber writes satire, at its best. Floors are not floors, ceilings are not ceilings, doors are not doors. No place but in The Navy.

Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. It's a page-turner. The book's characters are intelligent, pathetic, funny, sad, and some, pompous as hell. (There probably is more truth than poetry in this book.)
If you are Navy, or ex-Navy, read this book. If you are military, or ex-military, read this book. If you ever were, or are married, read this book. If you have kids and a dog, (especially a dog) read this book. It's worth the time, you won't be dissappointed. It's a great read.

huber's blog at pen and sword is an entertaining, cynical, and credible analysis of current day foreign policy and how it relates to the military, especially to naval matters. so it is only fitting that he would put together a novel that captures that essence.

bathtub admirals feels like a first novel in some ways.. it is a little uneven in tone.. sometimes it is a bit surreal, and sometimes it can't decide if it wants to be a satire, tom clancy novel, or a moving portrait of someone caught in the system, but the author set out to intertwine those things in a fascinating manner! and he really pulls it off when all is said and done..

in a lot of ways it pretty much seems like a thinly-disguised autobiography which only adds to the mystique. the characters (and their ability to drop some crazy profane language) are rich and hilarious, and the technical details about military matters are also interesting and add an authenticity to the whole affair that really makes it shine. it is very sad and really insightful about human relationships at times too, which is surprising and welcome for an ostensibly 'military' book..

overall i highly recommend it, i love finding a book that i can't put down and end up plowing through in a day!

It should probably be noted at the outset: I'm a BED-WETTING liberal who has generally found books and films about the military boring by definition, ie., so irrelevant as to be almost devoid of meaning. Yet here I was, raptly turning pages, laughing out loud, actually speaking the words "Oh NO!" and being generally captivated. I felt as if I got some actual understanding of -- and even respect for -- many of those who choose to serve in the military, and I'm as grateful for that as I am for the wonderfully entertaining read. There may be "sour grapes" involved (as one reviewer here suggests) in some of Huber's scathing descriptions of the military institution, its characters, and their machinations. I wouldn't know about that. But I do notice that many of these same descriptions have been corroborated by other writers (including one or two reviewers here), so I personally tend to believe them. Anyway, all in all a compelling, jarring, dancing, soaring, and VERY worthwhile read!

I have to admit, I still find myself stealing clever lines from Jack and Buzz in banter. This book is an incredible amount of fun, considering the weight and gravity of its topic, and surprisingly accessible for a young reader of an utterly non-military background. I rate it right up there with my favorite Joseph Heller novels and stories. The storytelling techniques are dazzling throughout, and the characters are just as hilariously exasperating as real life.