Mac McDowell Mission Series

Blending personal experience and real-world events in a fictional wrapping, Operation Ivy Bells offers a never-before-seen glimpse of these heroic men fearlessly facing death to gather the intel that tipped the scales to win the Cold War.

USS Teuthis Saturation Dive Team Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Mac McDowell is leading his submarine team on a mission to lay SOSUS arrays under the ice in the Arctic when they clash with a new Alfa-class highly automated Soviet submarine. Overwhelmed by mechanical problems, the Soviet crew abandons their sub near Pt. Barrow, Alaska. The Teuthis skipper launches DSRV-1 Mystic, so Mac and his crew can board the empty sub and gather intelligence. The arrival of an even more advanced Soviet sub leads to breathtaking underwater clashes with the specter of war looming. 

As USS Teuthis Saturation Dive Team Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Mac McDowell leads his submarine team laying SOSUS arrays under the Arctic ice, they capture an abandoned fully automated Alfa-class Soviet sub. Piloting their prize through the ice pack to the US East Coast, they must evade or confront other Soviet subs trying to recover the sub — or sink it.

Recovering from his Operation Arctic Sting injuries, USS Teuthis Executive Officer Mac McDowell is tasked with laying SOSUS arrays in the southern Atlantic and off Thurston Island, Western Antarctica. Teuthis tangles with Argentine subs in the south Atlantic, then confronts a ChiCom sub off Thurston Island. Mac and his team experience serious setbacks at the hands of the ChiComs while installing a relay transmitter on a nearby mountain peak.