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Captain George P. Sotos, USN (ret.),
“as the first commanding officer of the massive underground Fleet Operations Control Center at Kunia, Hawaii, and, subsequently,
as the head of planning and design of the command and control systems for the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1965 to 1970, Captain
Sotos is uniquely qualified to write a story about strategic command and control systems for nuclear warfare.
Captain George P. Sotos extensive sea
duty includes command of two Destroyer Escorts, a Destroyer, a squadron of nine Destroyer Escort Radar
ships, a Landing Ship Dock and a Fleet Oiler. He is a graduate of the Naval War College. and a former director
of the Department of Defense Computer Institute, which later became part of the National War College.
His decorations include the Presidential
Unit Citation for outstanding performance in combat on an escort vessel; the Meritorious Service Medal for superior initiative
and outstanding leadership in meeting the Joint Chiefs of Staff requirements for a command and control system; and Legion
of Merit for outstanding service as Director of the Department of Defense Computer Institute. Captain
George P. Sotos retired from the Navy in 1972 after over thirty-one years of service. He is the author
of Plateau of Chains.
One reader of Plateau of
Chains said, it “is a tense drama that might actually have happened during the cold war. The story takes
place at the time of the Cuban missile crisis. In an underground bunker in Hawaii a practice nuclear attack message is transmitted
to the Navy fleet as the real thing. How could such a thing have happened? Who could have been responsible? Was it the commander
of the cave? Did the attack get called off in time? Was it an honest mistake or an enemy plot to start World War III? These
and other questions in this fast-paced book are answered in a spell binding, fast paced manner. This story could only have
been told by a Navy officer who worked in that cave and could have experienced a similar scenario. That officer was the author,
Capt. George Sotos, USN Retired. The big question remains: If this really happened, did the Pentagon know about? And if it
did, why has this near catastrophe been kept a secret for so long?”
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According to the book Description of
Plateau of Chains, “A routine war game at the Naval War College erupts into an all out nuclear
war between the Soviet Union and the United States – even though the civilian leader of neither country gave orders
to launch nuclear weapons.
The Naval War College chief of staff, Rear Admiral Adelide
Lord, is incensed at this complete disregard for the authority of established civilian leaders demonstrated by the war game
leaders. He is further enraged when Commander John A. Lucas, USN, the officer
responsible for and initiating the world wide nuclear conflagration, convinces the large student body that the command and
control system is defective and his decision to launch nuclear weapons without permission of the nation’s
civilian leader was correct.
Shocked and horrified at the mutinous
conduct of the elite student body, Admiral Lord berates the entire class and accuses Lucas of inciting them to treason. Suspecting
to find a history of disregard for authority, Admiral Lord orders a secret investigation of Lucas, and is astonished when,
almost immediately, the investigation uncovers Lucas’ culpability in an unreported wrongful death of a naval officer.
But, because the investigation also
places Admiral Lord in jeopardy it is dropped completely, only to be discovered 15 years later by the Naval Investigative
Service (NIS) during a background investigation (BI) on Lucas, prior to his appointment to a prestigious White House job.
Hungry for more dirt, the NIS digs further into Lucas’ past. His tour as the first commanding officer of the
super-secret underground Kunia Command Center, where he was astride of the “execute” message for nuclear warfare
in the Pacific, is carefully sifted. Also, his five year tour as head of planning and design of the Command and Control system
for the Joint Chiefs of Staff is examined in detail; as is his friendship with the skipper of a Soviet Destroyer that shadowed
the Sixth Fleet when Lucas commanded a Destroyer attached to that fleet.
Not only does the NIS convince the
reluctant Chief of Naval Operations to deny Lucas the security clearance needed for the White House job, the NIS prepares
to bring him to trial and put him in jail. Just when all the cards are stacked against Lucas, an old War College friend, a
General in the Air force, learns of Lucas’ problems and contacts the Chief of Naval Operations. At that point, the story
takes a dramatic, surprising and unexpected turn as the General weighs in heavily on the contents of the background investigation.”
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