Tom Clancy, Best-Selling Novelist of Military Thrillers, Dies at 66

NY Times ^ | 10/02/2013 | Julie Bosman

[SendShaqtoIraq]

Tom Clancy, whose complex, adrenaline-fueled military novels spawned a new genre of thrillers and made him one of the world’s best-known and best-selling authors, died on Tuesday in Baltimore. He was 66.

[Chode]

yup... iirc it was a white paper from a symposium, wasn't even classified

[CrazyIvan]

“ The Sum Of All Fears was my favorite. Too bad they butchered the hell out of it on film.”

Hunt For Red October was the only film that did justice to the book (just my opinion.)

[SendShaqtoIraq]

I can’t narrow it to one. I like all the jack Ryan ones ....Debt of honor, executive decision. Hunt for red October
Red storm rising

I don’t like his “virtual” ones

If you read them though look at the list and read them in order.

I swear to God though that the 9-11 terrorists read debt of honor.

[Pontiac]

The Elitist!

[The FIGHTIN Illini]

The Only Movie that I Can Stomach Arek Baldwin In

[Trongeau]

He was a heavy smoker since 1964 - never quit and was a 2.5 to 3 pack a day smoker. His lungs probably look like a coal mine.

[MasterGunner01]

Tom Clancy really invented the techno-thriller. His eye for details was really, really good. i found very few mistakes when he talked about hardware — he said an A-7 Corsair 2 had an afterburner [it was the similar looking F-8 Crusader] — and he missed the magazine capacity of the Browning High Power [13+1]. There was also the F19/F-117 mistake, but that was before the F-117 was declassified.

His hunting of Russian submarines in his “second Battle of the Atlantic” was true in its depiction of modern ant-submarine warfare at the time [”Red Storm Rising”].

Clancy was in ROTC, but his eyesight prevented him from serving in the military. He was a dedicated war game player and he [and his friends] were always dreaming up “what if” scenarios. Clancy liked to shoot and was a life member of the NRA. After his successes in the literary world, he bought a farm in MD and used to play around on his vintage M4 Sherman tank.

I will miss Tom Clancy. I loved his novels, their unique plots, and his enduring characters like Jack Ryan. Clancy was a favorite writer of Vince Flynn. [Flynn's “Term Limits” is a classic.]

Rest in Peace, Tom Clancy.

[spokeshave]

age 66...multi millionaire....so what did he die of....?

[Bill Russell]

My favorite author also. I remember when I first read Red Storm Rising in 1987. It was the height of Perestroika and was a new LT who had just graduated with a degree in Russian Studies the year before. In the first pages he developed a political/strategic scenario that was incredibly realistic. I remember asking myself if it was real or Memorex? (you remember, the old cassette tape commercial). I couldn’t put it down. -— the man could write great story. RIP Tom Clancy, thanks for so many great stories!

[edpc]

I had no problem with James Earl Jones as Admiral Pipes. A group of us were watching the movie together. When we saw the casting of Jonesy, we all looked at each other and said, “No way.”

[luvbach1]

I heard in news report that he was worth $300,000,000. A self-made man of great talent and productivity.

[x]

Not even when they deserved it?

Not even when they would have benefited from constructive criticism?

I haven't been able to find any evidence that Clancy voted for Obama or Kerry, let alone that he was a Democrat or a leftist (which ought to mean more than just somebody who votes for a Democrat).

To be sure, any evidence online gets buried when somebody dies, but somebody who gave money to Duncan Hunter (for president, 2008) and Herman Cain and Alan Keyes (senate races, 2004) probably doesn't deserve to be attacked as a leftist, no matter how much he disliked a policy of a Republican president.