Lou Cypher
The Tokin' White Guy
3
Tom Clancy Was A Former Insurance Salesman Who Was Never In The Army
Tom Clancy was an amazing writer. Not only was he able to cram so much patriotism into every page that his books explode on July 4th, but he also packed them with technical details, tiny minutiae, and whatever passes for Easter eggs amongst military types. We can picture him typing his books in full army getup, surrounded by medals, mementos from covert missions across the globe, and a Russian skull or two.
In reality, Clancy was a big ol' nerd. A civilian one. Before finding acclaim in the notoriously difficult-to-market-to demographic of dads stuck at the airport, he was an insurance salesman whose prior involvement with the military extended to trying and failing to join the Army ROTC (he was rejected due to his nearsightedness). After moving into the insurance biz and still nursing a major case of military fanboyism, he decided to write some dumb book about submarine warfare -- a book that he fleshed out with research culled from technical manuals, declassified reports, and expert interviews, all stitched together like an elaborate fan theory.
In fact, this was how he wrote all of his books: the hard way. Even after finding success with The Hunt For Red October and being invited to actual military installations, he still relied mainly on his reading habits (that is, pure nerdery) to help him world-build. The military was so convinced that someone was leaking him information that when he had lunch with the secretary of the Navy in 1985, he was asked who had "cleared" Hunt for publication, adding that if Clancy was Navy, he'd already have been court-martialed.
It's said that the secretary was joking, but this was the era of the Cold War, so a polite laugh from Clancy could've seen him shot for espionage.
Tom Clancy Was A Former Insurance Salesman Who Was Never In The Army
Tom Clancy was an amazing writer. Not only was he able to cram so much patriotism into every page that his books explode on July 4th, but he also packed them with technical details, tiny minutiae, and whatever passes for Easter eggs amongst military types. We can picture him typing his books in full army getup, surrounded by medals, mementos from covert missions across the globe, and a Russian skull or two.
In reality, Clancy was a big ol' nerd. A civilian one. Before finding acclaim in the notoriously difficult-to-market-to demographic of dads stuck at the airport, he was an insurance salesman whose prior involvement with the military extended to trying and failing to join the Army ROTC (he was rejected due to his nearsightedness). After moving into the insurance biz and still nursing a major case of military fanboyism, he decided to write some dumb book about submarine warfare -- a book that he fleshed out with research culled from technical manuals, declassified reports, and expert interviews, all stitched together like an elaborate fan theory.
In fact, this was how he wrote all of his books: the hard way. Even after finding success with The Hunt For Red October and being invited to actual military installations, he still relied mainly on his reading habits (that is, pure nerdery) to help him world-build. The military was so convinced that someone was leaking him information that when he had lunch with the secretary of the Navy in 1985, he was asked who had "cleared" Hunt for publication, adding that if Clancy was Navy, he'd already have been court-martialed.
It's said that the secretary was joking, but this was the era of the Cold War, so a polite laugh from Clancy could've seen him shot for espionage.
