Filled with the detail only an experienced naval Surface Warfare Officer and ship commander can provide, DAUNTLESS takes the reader inside a warship at sea.

On August 2, 1990, the Persian Gulf nation of Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait, occupying the country and claiming it as its 19th Province in a surprise lightning strike. Within three days Kuwaiti armed forces had been routed, the government escaping into exile, and the capital, Kuwait City, captured by Iraqi forces. On the day of the invasion, the United Nations issued U.N. Resolution 660 which condemned the invasion and demanded Iraq’s withdrawal.

In response to the invasion, United States President George H. W. Bush famously stated that this will not stand. Under the leadership of the U.S., five and one-half month-long Operation Desert Shield was begun to interdict illicit trade destined for Iraq and to mobilize a historical coalition of international forces to forcibly remove Iraq from Kuwait if diplomatic efforts failed. What followed was one of the most operationally successful wars in history, Operation Desert Storm.

Throughout the force build-up navy ships from thirteen nations conducted Maritime Interdiction Operations (MIO) to block prohibited cargoes from reaching Iraq MIO operations required the stop, boarding, and search of every ship approaching the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea and the coast of Iraq in the Persian Gulf. MIO was conducted day and night, in good weather and bad, subjecting naval personnel to the risk of injury and death on a daily basis. This novel, based on personal experience, perfectly captures life on a warship, preparing for combat while carrying out the often mundane, but nonetheless hazardous, mission of maritime interception.

W.D. Sullivan tells a very plausible, imaginable, ‘what if’ story representing an actual threat level in the region. And how one ship–of many in harm’s way–responds, exemplifying the U.S. Navy credo, Non Sibi Sed Patriae: Not for self, but for country.