EPILOG
Rodman Theatre – Mare Island
The entire crew of the USS Halibut was assembled in the first few rows of the Rodman Theatre on Mare Island Naval Base. Behind them were their immediate families – wives, children, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters – sworn to secrecy as a condition of being present at this occasion. In addition, a few specially invited guests were present, including one tall gentleman with short-cropped brown hair and slightly Slavic features that tended to disappear the moment you noticed them. He was accompanied by two nondescript men in dark civilian suits who never strayed more than a couple of feet from the guest’s side.
The people in the theatre had been waiting for about fifteen minutes, when Master Chief Joe Thornton, Halibut’s Chief of the Boat, calle
