Final Bearing

Commander George Wallace retired to the civilian business world in 1995, after twenty-two years of service on nuclear submarines. He served on two of Admiral Rickover’s famous ＂Forty One for Freedom＂, the USS John Adams SSBN 620 and the USS Woodrow Wilson SSBN 624, during which time he made nine one-hundred-day deterrent patrols through the height of the Cold War. Commander Wallace served as Executive Officer on the Sturgeon class nuclear attack submarine USS Spadefish, SSN 668. Spadefish and all her sisters were decommissioned during the downsizings that occurred in the 1990’s. The passing of that great ship served as the inspiration for ＂Final Bearing.＂ Commander Wallace commanded the Los Angeles class nuclear attack submarine USS Houston, SSN 713 from February 1990 to August 1992. During this tour of duty that he worked extensively with the SEAL community developing SEAL/submarine tactics. Under Commander Wallace, the Houston was awarded the CIA Meritorious Unit Citation. Commander Wallace lives with his wife, Penny, in Alexandria, Virginia. //Don Keith is a native Alabamian and attended the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa where he received his degree in broadcast and film with a double major in literature. He has won numerous awards from the Associated Press and United Press International for news writing and reporting. He is also the only person to be named Billboard Magazine ＂Radio Personality of the Year＂ in two formats, country and contemporary. Keith was a broadcast personality for over twenty years and also owned his own consultancy, co-owned a Mobile, Alabama, radio station, and hosted and produced several nationally syndicated radio shows. His first novel, ＂The Forever Season.＂ was published in fall 1995 to commercial and critical success. It won the Alabama Library Association’s ＂Fiction of the Year＂ award in 1997. His second novel, ＂Wizard of the Wind,＂ was based on Keith’s years in radio. Keith next released a series of young adult/men’s adventure novels co-written with Kent Wright set in stock car racing, titled ＂The Rolling Thunder Stock Car Racing Series.＂ Keith has most recently published several non-fiction historical works about World War II submarine history and co-authored ＂The Ice Diaries＂ with Captain William Anderson, the second skipper of USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine. Captain Anderson took the submarine on her historic trip across the top of the world and through the North Pole in August 1958. Mr. Keith lives with his wife, Charlene, in Indian Springs Village, Alabama.