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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Constant Bearing - Decreasing Range, January 7, 2007
After reading Skip Vogel's "Constant Bearing..." my response was WOW! AWESOME!! The story, set in a fictional aircraft carrier, USS Union, was personal, incisive, redemptive, cathartic, historical, prophetic, visionary and accurate to the smallest details of normal routines in the lives of sailors aboard a Navy vessel in the 1970's. The storyline and message will speak to every person who wore the U.S. military uniform in that era, a time of radical change and turbulence. Vogel is able to capture and speak to a plethora of human emotions, couched within a context of humor, human conflict, compassion, intrigue, decepton, trust and viewing the human spirit at its worst and its best. The novel comes to a dramatic conclusion when each of the principle characters is able to exorcize personal demons which have plagued each one in separate ways from their days sailing in the USS UNION. Tears will come to the reader's eyes when experiencing the powerful resolution of wounds being healed. Greater tears will come when realizing that the basic theme of the story, the collision course between Public Policy and National Defense was not resolved, neither then nor now.
Walter D. Volz, Captain, USNR (ret)
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review by New York Times best-selling author Ellen Tanner Marsh, December 15, 2006
The title of this debut novel by Skip Vogel--and in particular its subtitle, "A Tale of Naval Intrigue,"--will recommend it to readers of military fiction of the Tom Clancy variety, though this novel does not (as Clancy's do) involve warfare or espionage or high-action thrills. Instead, Constant Bearing focuses on one particular aircraft carrier, the fictional U.S.S. Union, which has been re-commissioned in 1976, the year in which the novel is set. In their attempts to achieve an "E" rating--that is, Excellent--for the carrier, the crew is confronted with several obstacles, in the form of an NIS investigation over drugs and counterfeit money found on board; a dead man found in the women's bathroom; a missing crewmember (who apparently has jumped ship); and social experimentation (involving, just as an example, women in the military), which in the view of "old salts" like Captain Yorel, are jeopardizing the U.S. Navy's ability to function in its role as a navy.
The dangers of social experimentation is, indeed, the primary theme of this novel; and the attempts of the "old salts" to resist it to the end, in spite of every obstacle and the inexorable march of time and change, is what drives the plot.
And yet this quite remarkable novel will have an appeal not just to those cultish fans of its subgenre, but indeed to anyone who is interested in good, old-fashioned storytelling. Vogel displays remarkable skill in handling and developing, at a nicely slow and yet page-turning pace, a diversity of plot elements and characters. Nothing, however small, gets pushed aside by his discerning pen and everything, even the most seemingly unimportant stroke of description, is treated with care.
Such a strength is especially important in a novel which involves a career and a setting with its own culture and lingo; Vogel is able to explain Navy terms and locales with a specificity that makes them accessible to anyone, and he is able to do so precisely because of his ability to explain the matter at hand and still deftly move a plot forward. Vogel's storytelling skills shine particularly brightly in his ability to handle character. In the same way that no smallest detail escapes his attention, every character, however minor, is treated with equal care. It is important to point this out because very few writers have managed to achieve it; among contemporary writers, only a John Irving, or a Stephen King, or a Kurt Vonnegut, can accomplish such a task.
At the end, however, Constant Bearing proves to be a very finely wrought tale of the politics, and the equipment and the men who make up the U.S. Navy.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Constant Bearing--Decreasing Range: The Collision of Public Policy and National Defense, December 13, 2006
Run, do not walk, to get your hands on Skip Vogel's amazing new novel; "CONSTANT BEARING - DECREASING RANGE." A twenty year veteran of the United States Navy, Vogel gives the reader an insider's view of the sights and scenes of the United States military aboard a major combatant of the Fleet. This powerful novel is a close scrutiny of National Defense that can become sorely compromised by flawed public policy. Focusing on one of the most relevant, urgent issues in our Country today, Vogel tells a painful, yet emotional story; one that the reader will not soon forget.
James D. Pfannenstiel
Captain, USN (ret)
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