My Crime Fiction: 'The Old Huk'

The below story is Chapter Four of a crime thriller that I hope to publish this year. 

The character of Salvatore Lorino was introduced in Chapter Two. You can link to Chapter Two and other chapters below.  

The below chapter originally appeared in American Crime Magazine.

You can read the story below:

The Old Huk

By Paul Davis 

When the USS Kitty Hawk returned to Subic Bay for repairs and replenishment, Lorino went aboard. He reported to sick bay, where he handled over his medical records from the Subic Bay base hospital to the ship’s doctor. He was examined by the doctor, and he determined that Lorino was fit enough for a return to duty. 

He then walked back to the deck division and handed over the doctor’s report to his chief. The chief, who liked Lorino, said he was glad to have him back aboard. 

“The watch bill has already been posted,” the chief said. “So go hit the beach and enjoy liberty in Olongapo.” 

“Thanks, chief,” Lorino said. 

“Unless you’re tired of Olongapo…” the chief said with a grin.

“Nah, chief. I love Olongapo.”  

“We all do, son.”   

Before Lorino shoved off, he hunted down Winston. He found Winston lounging in the Deck Department’s berthing compartment. Winston was smoking a cigarette and drinking a Coke. “Hey, welcome back,” Winston said. 

Winston laid down his Coke can on the deck and got up from his chair. He took Lorino by the arm and went to his rack in the middle of a three-tier stack of bunks. He lifted the mattress and the lid to the locker underneath his mattress and pulled out the meth in the paper bag. 

Lorino made Winston a junior partner in his new shabu venture As Lorino’s immediate supervisor, Winston agreed to assign him to nonexistent tasks, which allowed Lorino to wander freely about the ship and sell the meth. 

Lorino laid in his rack beneath Winston’s and pulled the gray curtain shut across the rack for privacy. He filled small plastic bags with the meth. He then got up and traversed about the carrier from the galley to the bridge and sold the bags of meth to a good number of enlisted sailors who wanted to be up and “wired” on meth as they drank, danced, and partied with the bar girls in Olongapo. Lorino quickly sold all of the meth and he turned a good profit. He gave Winston a small percentage of the profits. 

Lorino and Winston left the carrier that evening and walked into Olongapo to buy more shabu. They entered the Americano and walked up to the bar. 

“Hey, Chief,” Lorino called out to Walker who was at the other end of the bar. “Can we get a couple of San Miguels over here?” 

Walker laughed and brought over two bottles of beer. He called over a short, muscular Filipino with a round face. The Filipino was clad in a cowboy hat, a leather vest over a t-shirt, tight jeans and cowboy boots. 

“This is Cearro Valle, my bouncer,” Walker said as they all shook hands. “We call him “Duke,” like John Wayne the cowboy movie star.”   

 Valle grinned. “Howdy, pardner,” he said with a high pitch voice and a thick Filipino accent, which made the Americans laugh. 

“Duke, Duke, do your John Wayne impression,” Walker said. 

“Well, listen and listen good, Pilgrim,” Valle said as he pulled his cowboy hat down just above his eyes. 

Everyone laughed. It was the worst John Wayne impression Lorino had ever heard, but it was the funniest. Walker slapped the short bouncer on the back. 

“I love this guy.” 

As they were laughing at Valle’s John Wayne impression at the bar, a sailor and a Marine began punching and grappling with each other on the dance floor. The other servicemen and bar girls moved back as tables and chairs were knocked over by the two fighters. Lorino thought Valle less a comical figure when he saw the bouncer break up the fight. 

Valle easily pulled the two drunk servicemen apart. The two Americans looked down on the much shorter Valle and began throwing punches again. Valle kicked the sailor behind his left knee and the sailor fell to the floor. Valle threw his open right hand at the Marine’s throat, and he too fell to the floor. 

Valle reached down and grabbed both Americans in a head lock under each of his muscled arms. Speaking softly to them, he dragged the two kicking and screaming servicemen to the bar’s door and tossed them out into the street. 

The sailor and the Marine resumed fighting in the street until petty officers from the Navy shore patrol pulled up to the bar. They hopped out of their jeep and broke the two servicemen apart and placed them in handcuffs. The two inebriated combatants were tossed into a jeep and taken back to the Subic Bay base. 

After things settled down in the bar, Lorino pulled Walker aside and asked him if he could buy more shabu. 

“I was hoping you’d come back in,” Walker said. “I told “the Old Huk” about you and he wants to meet you. 

“Who? The Hook?” 

“The Old Huk, pronounced hook, but spelled H-U-K,” Walker explained. 

“Camama is the big boss around here. He was impressed with your beat-down of the two cops and the shooting of Reeinald. He wants to meet you.” 

Walker told Winston to stay at the bar and he beckoned a girl to come over to keep the petty officer company. He told Lorino to follow him and the two walked out of the Americano and into the hotel next door to the bar. They walked past the reception desk, and Walker knocked on the door of a back room. 

Walker and Lorino entered the back room and Lorino saw two Filipinos sitting on a couch. Walker introduced Lorino to Amado Camama, a small, elderly, and wizened man, who wore a white Barong Tagalog shirt with detailed embroidery and a mandarin collar. 

Walker introduced Lorino to Jackie Sicat, a young skinny career criminal with long black hair. Sicat wore flashy “mod” clothing from the 1960s and large sunglasses. Lorino’s first thought was that Sicat was trying too hard to appear as a tough guy gangster. He knew wannabe guys like this who posed as gangsters in South Philly. Lorino instantly respected the Old Huk, but he disliked Sicat on first sight. 

Sicat took a long drag on his cigarette and then told Lorino that the boss, who sat there impassively, liked his style. Reeinald Bulan, who was a Camama gang competitor, was confined to a wheelchair due to Lorino shooting him. 

“Those two cops you beat up work for us now,” Sicat said. “They no bother you no more, and you no bother them. Understand?” 

“Yeah, sure” Lorino replied. 

“You deal with the chief, and you only buy shabu with us. No one else,” Sicat said. “Got it?” 

“I got it,” Lorino said. 

They all shook hands and Walker and Lorino left the room. 

Back at the Americano, Walker told Lorino about Camama and Sicat. 

Walker explained to Lorino that Amado Camama, known in Olongapo as “the Old Huk,” was the leader of the Camama gang. The gang controlled most of the crime in Olongapo. They were into drug trafficking, extortion, black marketeering, and other crimes. Camama was both feared and respected. 

Walker said that Camama grew up in a rural village and joined the Hukbalahap, the Communist guerillas who fought the Japanese after they invaded and occupied the Philippines during World War II. Often armed only with a Bolo knife, Camama was an effective assassin. 

“What’s a Bolo knife,” Lorino asked Walker. 

Walker explained that the Bolo was a long knife with a curved blade that was similar to a machete and was a common tool, as well as a weapon, in the Philippines. 

Walker said that during World War II, Camama was sent out by the Communist guerilla group to murder selected Japanese soldiers, villagers who defied the Communists, and rival guerillas that were led and organized by Americans.   

After the war, Camama became a leader with the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan, the Communist People’s Liberation Army, known as the Huks, who fought the Philippine Government. 

After the Huks were defeated by the Philippine government, with help from the United States, a fellow Huk guerilla named Oscar Sicat, who grew up in Olongapo, brought Camama back to the city with him. The two former Huks became feared armed robbers, and they later expanded their strongarm criminal activity and became a prominent organized crime group in Olongapo.     

The two gang leaders later had a falling out and Sicat’s teenage son Jackie sided with Camama against his own father. He volunteered to set up his father for Camama. When the elder Sicat met his son at a bar, Camama came out from the back of the bar and attacked his former partner in crime with a razor-sharp Bolo knife. The son sat there quietly as his father was hacked to death. 

Jackie Sicat rose in the Camama gang and became the Old Huk’s chief lieutenant. Camama, Walker told Lorino, was intelligent, prone to violence, good with a gun and a Bolo knife, and was totally ruthless. This skill set served Camama well as a Huk communist guerilla, and it served him well as he transitioned into a criminal gang boss. 

Lorino, Winston and a bar girl named Marie sat at a table, drinking and listening to the Americano’s country & western band. Marie, a perky, cherubic young woman, hugged Winston and giggled. Walker sat down at the table and called his wife over. He spoke into her ear. She smiled and walked away. She returned briefly with a tall, beautiful girl in tow. 

“This is Jade,” the mama-san said to Lorino. “She like you big-time.” 

“Oh, yeah? You wanna drink?” Lorino said as he pushed out a chair for the bar girl. 

Jade, dressed in a tight light blue dress, had long dark hair and an innocent pretty face, although she was a veteran hostess. She sat down next to Lorino as the mama-san called over a waiter. The waiter came over with beers for Walker and Lorino and a glass of whiskey for the girl. 

“I love you, no bullshit,” Jade said with a throaty laugh as she snuggled up to Lorino.

Her use of the oft repeated Olongapo bar girl phrase that Americans got a kick out of, made Lorino, Winston and Walker laugh.     

“Hey Jade,” Lorino said. “Like the Beatles’ song.” 

 “That was Hey Jude, Winston said. 

Lorino shrugged. “What’s the difference?” 

Although most young American sailors went wild over the pretty Filipinas in Olongapo, Lorino was more interested in business. He pursued his business opportunities rather than the company of bar girls. But now that he had secured a meth connection and began his drug dealing enterprise on the Kitty Hawk, he felt he could at last relax and have some fun with a bar girl. 

Later that evening, Lorino saw Sicat enter the bar with an entourage of four other Filipino gangsters. He’s acting like royalty, or a Cosa Nostra capo, Lorino thought to himself. The chief rushed up to Sicat and guided him and his cronies to a table at the rear of the bar. Walker hailed a waiter, and motioned to his wife, the mama-san, who was already rounding up girls to sit with Sicat and his associates. 

Lorino’s dislike for Sicat grew as he watched the little crime prince act like a big shot, a pezzonovante. He smiled to himself as he thought about smacking Sicat and knocking his sunglasses clear off his face. 

An hour or so later, a short and wiry Filipino police officer in uniform entered the bar, followed by the biggest Filipino Lorino had ever seen. The Filipino cops headed for Sicat’s table. 

“Who are they?” Lorino asked Walker. 

“That’s an Olongapo cop, Lieutenant Colonel Cesar Rosa and his sergeant,” Walker told Lorino. “Rosa’s the worst kind of cop – fucking honest.” 

“Yeah. We got some of those pricks in South Philly too.” 

Lorino initially thought the cops were there to collect bribes, but he chuckled to himself as he saw Sicat visibly upset as Rosa pointed his finger in the gang leader’s face. Rosa spoke harshly to him in Tagalog.

“Some big shot gangster,” Lorino scoffed. “Afraid of a cop, even if the cop is a pint-sized Frank Rizzo.” 

Lorino saw the puzzled look on Walker’s face. 

“Rizzo. He’s a big, tough son of a bitch South Philly cop who’s now the police commissoner of Philadelphia,” Lorino explained.        

As the bar was closing, Walker gave Lorino a key to a room in the Old Huk’s hotel next door to the Americano. Arm-in-arm, Lorino and Jade staggered to the hotel. He waved to the desk clerks in the hotel lobby, and they waved back. Lorino and Jade took the stairs to the second floor and to the room that the chief arranged for him. Once in the room, Lorino took Jade in his arms and pulled off her dress. They kissed and laid across the bed. 

In the morning, Lorino was famished. He wanted an American breakfast of bacon and eggs. Jade took him to a small cafe, and she ordered for the two them in Tagalog. Lorino sipped his hot coffee as the waiter laid down two plates. 

"What the fuck is this?"

“It’s Sinangag. It’s good. Eat it.” 

Lorino obeyed and dug in. Jade was right. Lorino loved the fried rice, scrambled eggs and garlic. 

After their fine meal, Lorino and Jade returned to the hotel room and laid about, smoking, drinking and having sex. Later that evening, Lorino and Jade left the hotel and went to the Americano, where they joined Winston and Belinda at a table.     

While Lorino, Jade, Winston and Belinda were drinking at the table, a Filipino walked into the bar and strode up to Walker, who was behind the bar. He spoke briefly to Walker and then turned around and walked out of the bar. Walker called Lorino over to the bar. 

“Let’s take a ride.” 

Walker and Lorino left the bar and saw a jeepney with Camama, Sicat and a short muscular bodyguard sitting in it. Walker and Lorino piled in the jeepney.

The jeepney drove from the Americano to a series of shacks located against the Olongapo River. They all climbed out of the jeepney and walked to the back of a shack where three Filipinos were waiting. The back was lit dimly from the lights from the shack. Two of the Filipinos held handguns and the third Filipino, a small and slim young man, stood there shaking and crying. 

Sicat brought out an old metal folding chair that had “Property of U.S. Navy” stenciled in black on the back. He opened the chair and Camama down and faced the crying man. Walker pulled Lorino back a bit and advised him to say and do nothing. 

The visibly upset Filipino began speaking in rapid Tagalog as Camama sat there with a grim face. The frightened Filipino then let out a forced laugh. 

“Remy is a dope,” Walker said in a whisper to Lorino. “His ass is on the line, and he just told a stupid joke.” 

Lorino noticed that no one laughed. 

Camama nodded and one of the Filipinos with a handgun stepped up behind Remy and shot him in the back of the head. He fell to his knees and then fell forward, his face splashing into the mud. Camama turned his head and looked directly at Lorino. 

“Now that is funny,” the Old Huk said in English. 

One of the Filipinos gunmen carried out an ice cooler from the shack and set it on the ground, not far from the dead body. The cooler, like the folding chair, had “Property of U.S. Navy” stenciled in black on it. The Filipino opened the cooler and handed out bottles of San Miguel. Lorino took one and Walker grabbed two for himself. 

“Remy tried to go over to Bulan’s gang,” Walker explained. “The Old Huk didn’t like that. This is how he shows his displeasure.” 

“Yeah, I got the point,” Lorino replied. 

Back at the Americano, Walker put his arm around Lorino as they stood at the bar. 

“You done good,” Walker said. “You didn’t react at all. The old Huk liked that.”

“I seen guys whacked before in South Philly,” Lorino replied and shrugged. “No biggy.” 

“You got a future with us, boy,” Walker said beaming with delight.

© 2023 By Paul Davis 

 

 

Note: You can read other chapters via the below links:

Paul Davis On Crime: Chapter One: Butterfly

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Salvatore Lorino'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: Join The Navy And See Olongapo

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Boots On The Ground'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The 30-Day Detail'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Cat Street'

Paul Davis On Crime: Chapter 12: On Yankee Station

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Cherry Boy'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Hit'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: Welcome To Japan, Davis-San

Paul Davis On Crime: A Look Back At Life Aboard An Aircraft Carrier During The Vietnam War: 'The Compartment Cleaner'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Murder By Fire'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Admiral McCain'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Hit The Head'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'A Night At The Americano'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Missing Muster'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Barracks Thief'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The City of Bizarre Happenings'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Refrigerator Thieves'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Go Forth, Goforth'

                                                                                                

National Vietnam Veterans Day 2026

As we celebrate National Vietnam Veterans Day again today, I’m thinking of my late, older brother Eddie Davis (seen in the below photo). He served as a soldier in Chu Lai, South Vietnam in 1968-1969.

I had a modest role in the conflict, having served as a teenage sailor on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (see the below photos) on “Yankee Station” off the coast of North Vietnam in 1970-1971.  

The Vietnam War was and is misunderstood and has been politized deeply. And returning veterans were often blamed and defamed for the policy errors made by the leaders of both political parties. 

Like most of the combat pilots I spoke to on the aircraft carrier, as well as many veterans, I believe we should have gone all out and won the war instead of fighting a protracted war of attrition featured nightly on the TV news.

You can read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on the Vietnam War via the link below: 

Paul Davis On Crime: My Piece On The Vietnam War And The Lessons Learned For Iraq, Afghanistan And The War On Terrorism

You can also read my post on the aircraft carrier at war (with good photos) via the link below:   

Paul Davis On Crime: On Yankee Station: A Look Back At The Aircraft Carrier USS Kitty Hawk During The Vietnam War, 1970-1971 

And lastly, you can also read On Yankee Station, a chapter of a novel I hope to soon publish. 

Paul Davis On Crime: Chapter 12: On Yankee Station                                                                           

Dorthy Parker On Ernest Hemingway

Dorthy Parker (August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967), seen in the above photo, was a brilliant and quite clever writer.

Her 1929 New Yorker profile of a young Ernest Hemingway is a classic piece of journalism.

You can read the piece via the link below:

People Want to Hear Things about Ernest Hemingway | The New Yorker 

Chinese National Pleads Guilty Yo Elder Fraud Scheme

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:

SAN DIEGO – Danxiu Wang, a Chinese national residing in California, pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting she participated in an international fraud and money laundering scheme that tricked more than 40 elderly victims out of more than $1.2 million.

According to court documents and statements made in court, this case arises from an investigation into a call center scam that targeted elderly individuals in California and elsewhere in the United States in May 2025. According to charging documents, Wang and others used the following methods to defraud the victims:

• Technical support scam: Scammers pose as legitimate tech support representatives, claiming a victim’s computer or account has been compromised and tricking them into paying for unnecessary or fake repairs.
• Refund scam: Fraudsters contact victims with claims they are owed a refund, then manipulate them into providing banking information or transferring money under the guise of correcting a supposed overpayment.
• Bank impersonation scam: Criminals impersonate banks or financial institutions through calls, texts, or emails, creating a false sense of urgency to pressure victims into revealing sensitive information or moving funds to fraudulent accounts.

Wang admitted in her plea agreement that she met victims in-person to collect the funds. She kept a percentage of the fraud proceeds before passing the remainder on to other members of the conspiracy.  

Wang is scheduled to be sentenced June 15, 2026, at 10 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Linda Lopez.

If you or someone you know is 60 or older and has been a victim of financial fraud, help is available through the National Elder Fraud Hotline: 1-833 FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311). You can also report fraud to any local law enforcement agency or on the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

The FBI requests that victims report:

• The name of the person or company that contacted you.
• Methods of communication used, including websites, emails, and telephone numbers.
• Any bank account number(s) to which you wired funds and the recipient’s name(s).

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Brooks.

DEFENDANT                                    Case Number 25cr4149-LL-1                                 

Danxiu Wang                                      Age: 30                                              San Gabriel, CA

SUMMARY OF CHARGES

Wire Fraud Conspiracy – Title 18, U.S.C., Section 1349

Maximum Penalty: Twenty years in prison and $1 million fine

INVESTIGATING AGENCY

Federal Bureau of Investigation 

My Philly Daily Crime Beat Column On The DA Gangbusters' Takedown Of 21 Violent Philly Gang Members

Philly Daily ran my Crime Beat column on the DA’s takedown of 21 violent gang members. 

You can read the column via the link below or the following text:

Davis: DA Gangbusters take down 21 violent Philly gang members - Philly Daily

While Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is grandstanding at the Philadelphia airport, leveling silly threats at federal ICE agents who are aiding travelers process security procedures in the absence of TSA security personnel who are unpaid by Congress, it appears that some of his subordinates at the DA office are on the job.  

A case in point is the March 19^th announcement that the DA’s office brought charges against 21 defendants, all members of local street gangs in Philadelphia. The 21 defendants were indicted for their role in more than a dozen shootings and gun-related crimes across Philadelphia. According to the DA’s Office, the crimes occurred between January 2022 and August 2023, with a total of 32 victims, including the murder of 18-year-old Aquill Foster.

“The 33rd Philadelphia County Investigating Grand Jury has determined that Maliek Robbins, Jayme Drayton, Marquan Flamer, Baahij Arthur, Atum El, Emmitt Hardee, Damar Holmes, Rahmel Humphrey, Carl Jarett, Quadir Spady, Elante Outerbridge, Eli Simmons, Malik Sweets, Ivan Williams, Javon Fisher, Baseer Johnson, Aliaan Harris, Taaj Lennon, Bryant Cumberbatch and Samerah Pendleton are implicated in one homicide, 18 non-fatal shootings, three gunpoint carjackings, one car theft, and one gunpoint robbery,” stated the DA’s Office. “One other individual is not being named at this time as part of the ongoing investigation. The Investigating Grand Jury also determined that the defendants are connected to the street groups known as “The Senders,” “The Close Range Gang,” “7th Street,” and “PNB.”

“Five of the defendants were taken into custody today while several others were already in custody awaiting trial on other charges.”

The Charges are:

Maliek Robbins

• Aggravated Assault
• Robbery
• Conspiracy

Jayme Drayton

• Murder

Marquan Flamer

• Murder

Baahij Arthur

• Attempted Murder

Atum El

• Attempted Murder

Emmitt Hardee

• Conspiracy to Commit Attempted Murder

Damar Holmes

• Aggravated Assault

Rahmel Humphrey

• Attempted Murder

Carl Jarett

• Attempted Murder
• Robbery
• Theft by Unlawful Taking

Quadir Spady

• Attempted Murder
• Aggravated Assault

Elante Outerbridge

• Attempted Murder
• Robbery

Eli Simmons

• Attempted Murder
• Aggravated Assault
• Robbery

Malik Sweets

• Attempted Murder

Ivan Williams

• Attempted Murder

Javon Fisher

• Attempted Murder
• Aggravated Assault
• Robbery

Baseer Johnson

• Attempted Murder
• Robbery
• Aggravated Assault

Aliaan Harris

• Attempted Murder

Taaj Lennon

• Aggravated Assault

Bryant Cumberbatch

• Attempted Murder
• Aggravated Assault

Samerah Pendleton

• Conspiracy to Commit Attempted Murder

“This is a good day for the citizens of Philadelphia, including the residents of South Philadelphia whose neighborhoods have been terrorized by this senseless violence like many other neighborhoods,” said Krasner. “Our office will continue to take down those who perpetrate violence and we will not stop until all Philadelphia neighborhoods feel safe. Thank you to Assistant District Attorneys Bill Fritze, Adam Farraye, and Katherine Reamy, the entire DAO’s Gun Violence Task Force, and our law enforcement partners for their thorough and decisive work in this investigation.”

Bill Fritze, the DA’s chief of the Gun Violence Task Force, added, “The charges we announced today are the continuation of the efforts we first disclosed a year ago with the sweeping indictments of these gangs based in South Philadelphia. Utilizing a number of methods, the continued investigations of those initial shootings committed in retaliation revealed other targeted shootings in which often innocent bystanders were struck by gunfire. We also thank the individuals whose hard work led to these arrests, specifically Detectives Kelley Gallagher, Patrick Cavalieri, David Gannone, Ryan Moore, Christopher Maitland, Andrew Gallagher, Steven Blackwell, Officers Copestick and Berryman from the Criminal Intelligence Unit, the Attorney General’s Office including Agent Matthew Winscomb, our partners at the FBI and the DIVIC, and Criminal Analysts Amanda McCourtie and Ashley Waples.”

Aiding the prosecutors in this case were the videos some of the gangbangers placed on Youtube, bragging about the shootings.

Back in the mid and late 1960s, I was a street corner half-a-hoodlum. Our South Philly street corner crew were no angels, and although we were more about girls, dancing and having fun, there was, admittedly, gang violence. But unlike today’s street gangs, we didn’t revel in it – and we certainly didn’t brag about it publicly.

Paul Davis’s Crime Beat column appears here each week. He is also a contributor to Broad + Liberty and Counterterrorism magazine. He can be reached at pauldavisoncrime.com. 

My Counterterrorism Magazine Q&A With M.P. Woodward, Author Of 'Red Tide: A Novel Of The Next Pacific War'

Counterterrorism magazine published my Q&A with M. P. Woodward, the author of Red Tide: A Novel of the Next Pacific War. 

You can read the interview via the pages below or the following text:

My Q&A With M.P. Woodward, Author of

Red Tide: A Novel of the Next Pacific War

TM.P. Woodward is the New York Times bestselling author of multiple thriller series including Tom Clancy Jack Ryan Sr., Tom Clancy Jack Ryan Jr., “The Handler,” and “The Fourth Option” with Jack Carr. 

 

He served as a U.S. Naval intelligence officer before going on to an international career in the streaming media industry. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.  

M P. Wood Ward was interviewed by Paul Davis. 

Editor’s Note: The interview was conducted prior to the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran.  

IACSP: I read “Red Tide” and I liked it, partly because I served on an aircraft carrier when I was a teenage during the Vietnam War. Why did you write “Red Tide” and how would you describe the novel? 

Woodward: I would describe it as speculative fiction of the likely scenario of war between the U.S. and China in our modern context. I wanted to illustrate that there are very few boundaries today between global businesses and traditional national sovereignty, to where businesses and governments are effectively intertwined. And because businesses are global, it can effect government relations in unexpected ways, and in writing what I see as a likely conflict with China, I wanted to mix together the complex history of Chinese and American relations particularly over Taiwan and the somewhat ironic situation where Taiwan has evolved to be the world’s foremost source of chips with their foundries, which is in itself a scarce resource for which businesses and governments are combined. So, to me that seems like a natural collision course. 

IACSP: Why do semiconductors play such an important role in your fictional war between the U.S. and China?

Woodward: Because semiconductors are the basis of all technology now, and technology is the basis of all business now. I spent 20 years in the technology industry. much of that in the chip adjacent industry and I worked for a time at a Taiwanese company. I have seen over and over again competition amongst companies for chip technologies. I've also seen just by virtue of the way companies make decisions, that it's much easier to design chips and the tools to design chips continue to get better, but to manufacture them takes billions and billions of dollars in capital, and so companies like Apple can design their own chips to improve the user experience of their products, but they still rely on the foundries that are so highly specialized they are in fact some of the most expensive valuable facilities in the entire world. So, just as in previous eras of history nations have competed over scarce resources, things like oil natural resources, I think that these foundries are in effect another scarce resource. That and the fact that they're in Taiwan is simply astounding.

IACSP: Why did you create Admiral Cole and the Cole family and have family members central to the drama?

I’m reminded of Herman Wouk’s Henry family in the “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance. 

Woodward: Yes, the “The Winds of War and “War and Remembrance” were two books that were very influential for me, as was “The Caine Mutiny” and “Once An Eagle.”  Those are probably my four favorite books, all of them do an amazing job of reflecting the times through personalities, and in the case of Wouk, he does that with not only personalities but the families that come along with them. Having been a naval officer myself and seeing the way the world has evolved, I felt that it was high time someone's reflect what it's like for military families in our current environment. And just as Myrer and Wouk did, that means showing that the services sort of expand and contract relative to current political thinking or current national demands. So I wanted to show that Admiral Cole was someone who was commissioned at the tail end of the Cold War when the Navy was quite large, but finds himself in a Navy that has half the size that it used to be, yet is facing renewed global threats and is presiding over a Navy that was designed to fight one kind of battle and finds itself fighting a different one. And I wanted to have an officer who had been around long enough to recognize those changes, but to grapple with them because he's got a love for the way things were done, but he's intellectually flexible enough to recognize that it would have to change.

IACSP: In addition to the Cole family, you created Gabe Sorkin, a naval reserve character. How would you describe him?

Woodward: That's something I wanted you to pull forward from my own tech career where I have seen in the past 10 years that there are a number of people in tech who have come to understand with China’s revanchism that they're grateful for the umbrella that the United States security has provided them in building global businesses. You see this today with Palmer Luckey. He’s the guy who invented Oculus and VR and now he's turned his talents to defense. You see that with Peter Thiel’s Palantir as well.

I have met several reservists who are in the tech industry who feel strongly about this, and I think some months ago the Trump administration actually created a program, and I laughed because I thought that's Gabe Sorkin, but they created a program where they commissioned certain tech executives who wanted to volunteer as 05-level officers (Lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, Army and Marine Corp, and commander in the Navy), so they can contribute. That's also very similar to what happened in World War II. So, I just wanted to echo in those eras in history and a little of my own experience.

IACSP: What kind of research did you do for Red Tide?

Woodward: I'm working on a doctorate at Harvard University right now and the big part of that has been Chinese history and government, so my research really came through two sources. One, through school, where I studied China extensively. But on the technology side, it was really my experience with tech firms and a Taiwanese company.

IACSP:  Do you think a future war with China as you describe in “Red Tide” is possible, or even enviable?

Woodward: There's a Harvard historian named Graham Allison who talks about something called the “Thucydides’ Trap.” Thucydides was this historian who wrote about wars inevitability when there's one power that's rising and another power that's ruling, so Graham Allison sort of seized on that idea and wrote a book called “Destined For War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?” He's analyzed all these conflicts in history and seen a common pattern when there's a rising power they come into conflict with the ruling power and the situation we've seen is that the United states has been certainly since the end of the Cold War the single superpower and China is rising to challenge that, and because of the of the competition around the intermingling of business and government in the competition around that single source of chips to me that is a primary source of conflict as are other areas that feed the same technology industry such as rare earth materials for example, or the domain of satellites and spectrum to complete communications, So I do not necessarily think war is inevitable, but I think conflict in these areas is inevitable and that's why when I wrote “Red Tide” it's a naval war, but it's also something of a limited war.

We've seen this in the Russian and Ukraine war; we've seen it all around the world in the age of nuclear weapons. So far, the governments have been forced into limited wars short of full-scale escalation or proxy wars, and the most likely scenario would be for the Chinese to simply blockade Taiwan, and then military forces that could do something about it, which in this case is the U.S. Navy/

IACSP: Does the U.S. Navy needs to build more ships and upgrade technology to counter the Chinese Navy, which is becoming more and more powerful each day?

Woodward: Quite definitely, yes. I would say that since the end of World War II, we've had historic prosperity and every measure of quality of life has improved in 80 years. In 1945 when nations got together to talk about how to treat the oceans, it was agreed that the oceans would be free, and that's where we came up with things like 12 nautical miles territorial limits, et cetera, and the US Navy for the last 70 years really enforced that. But the U.S. Navy can’t do that anymore and that's going to split up the oceans into regional hegemons. China is well poised to do that for two reasons. One it has illegally seized reefs in the South China Sea, and I think about 20 per cent of World Trade goes through the South China Sea, so that's one area. But the other area is around shipbuilding. They've matched the size of our amphibious fleet in the past five to ten years, something that took us decades and decades to build. Their ship building capacity is much greater than the U.S. and these are all issues that I’ve tried to highlight.

IACSP: Can you tell us about your background as a naval intelligence officer and later in the tech industry? Did you always want to be a writer?

Woodward: I always wanted to be a writer. The four books that I mentioned were all books that I absorbed in high school,  and I graduated high school at the height of the Cold War and then went to school on a Navy ROTC scholarship and studied Russian with the intent of becoming an intelligence officer and then became an intelligence officer. I was commissioned around 1990 and so the Cold War was still functioning. The world very rapidly changed however and I kind of came in the interlude between the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the War on Terror, So I got a little bit of the tactical side of both, but it was a terrific career that exposed me to many different facets of the Navy. Also, as a junior officer, it got me very close to decision makers and commanders. Helping as a staff officer, you're really getting to see policy enforced, so that was that was one of my kind of worldview.

IACSP: Where did you serve?

Woodward: I was in the Philippines for a while and then after that I was in an airwing on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. I then worked for United States Pacific Command as a staff intelligence officer in Hawaii and San Diego. That brought me all around the Pacific.

IACSP: What was your rank when you left the Navy?

Woodward: I was a lieutenant. I was just coming up against 04 rank. I had gotten my MBA at night, and the Cold War was over, and the technology sector was booming, the Internet had just been invented, and the Navy was shrinking, so I thought it was a tempting time to leave.

IACSP: What about your career in the tech industry?

Woodward: I went into Internet communications immediately with Motorola and then the wireless industry and a wireless startup doing video transmission over very low bandwidth, and then that led to a career with wireless carriers and then with smartphone manufacturers. AT&T had got very involved in smartphones and launched the iPhone and then went to the actual smartphone manufacturer Android called HTC, which was bought by Google. Then I ended up at Amazon, where I spent the last seven years of my career before leaving tech in 2022.

IACSP: I suppose both your Navy experience and business experience aided you in writing Red Tide.

Woodward: Oh, completely yeah. The Navy experience gave me insight into people and personalities, strains on families, Navy operations, and where I saw how we interfaced with allies. But then at tech, I saw the constraints around chips and the criticality of chips, and in my last job streaming video with Internet for international partners, and so we were active in more than 40 countries. That was reviving my thoughts around the importance of the Navy and global commerce and the different points of view from people around the world and in their view of the United States and China.

IACSP: “Red Tide” was not only interesting and suspenseful, but it was also illuminating. I'm a Navy veteran, but I think even nonveterans will enjoy it. I've read that you've also written thrillers based on Tom Clancy's characters. How did that happen?

Woodward: My first book, “The Handler,” was published in 2021-2022. The editor who bought that series was also the editor for the Tom Clancy series. Tom Clancy died in 2014, but Putnam has carried on the characters with legacy authors, and so that editor offered me the job of writing the Jack Ryan Jr. series. I've written three Jack Ryan Jr. books, and they promoted me to do the Jack Ryan Sr. series. My first Jack Ryan Sr. book comes out later this year. Its called “The Coldest War.” It's about a conflict with Russia.

IACSP: I read that you are writing a thriller with Jack Carr. I interviewed him here when his first book came out. How did that come about, and what's the thriller about?

Woodward: Jack Carr called me up a year and a half ago and told me that there was a lot of demand for his books and he wanted to continue to write about the James Reese  universe himself, but he also had an idea, he had two ideas actually, for four separate thrillers, and he asked me if I would be willing to partner with him and co-write and basically developed his idea into a full draft of the novel, and then and work together to bring it to market. So, I did that. Jack is a wonderful guy and a former naval officer like me, and he had really liked my work in “The Handler” and “Red Tide.”

This story is different than the genres we have been writing. It is about a veteran of the global war on terror with a special forces background like Jack, but who's been sort of used up and spit out by it. He needs purpose, needs something and finds that in helping people who are facing you know corrupt governments. So this story takes place in New Orleans where he's effectively investigating the death of the son of one of his old friends, who he lost in Afghanistan. The son is trying to become a journalist and rise on and do special things, and uncovered deep government corruption in New Orleans, and ended up being murdered. So, this character uses his skills to take on this corrupt government directly. So, it's sort of about justice at the end of the day.

IACSP: Thank you for speaking to us and thank you for your service.