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First published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, June 2010

Photo of the author taken on the Battleship
Texas
(BB-35) State Historic Site—3527 Battleground Rd., La Porte, Texas 77571, with the permission of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept.

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

Anderson, Taylor.

Distant thunders / Taylor Anderson.

p. cm.—(Destroyermen ; bk. 4)

eISBN : 978-1-101-18799-9

1. Imaginary wars and battles—Fiction. 2. World War, 1939-1945—Fiction. I. Title. PS3601.N5475D57 2010

813’.6—dc22 2010003854

Set in Minion

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FOR: REBECCA—AND MY NIECE, JENNIFER. (I ALWAYS
HAVE TO WRITE OR MENTALLY ADD “NIECE” WHEN I THINK
OF JENNIFER BECAUSE, IN SO MANY WAYS, SHE WAS
ALWAYS THE “DAUGHTER” I NEVER HAD—
BEFORE I HAD A DAUGHTER.)

JENNIFER, YOU AND REBECCA COULDN’T BE MORE
DIFFERENT, BUT NEVER DOUBT THAT I LOVE YOU BOTH
WITH ALL MY HEART

TO: THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE ARMED FORCES
OF THE UNITED STATES—AND THOSE OF ALL NATIONS
WHO FIGHT BRAVELY AT THEIR SIDE. PAST, PRESENT,
AND FUTURE. GOD BLESS YOU ALL.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As usual, there are some great folks I need to thank: Chief among these are Russell Galen, the best agent in the world, and Ginjer Buchanan, the finest editor anyone could ever hope to have. CPO, (SW-MTS) USN—(Ret.), Bruce Kent ranks near the top as well. He reminded me that I’ve neglected the EMs and he was right. Granted, there weren’t nearly as many things for electrician’s mates to
do
on four-stacker destroyers as even I originally thought, but that’s because a truly astonishing variety of machinery that would later be electrically powered was either manually or steam operated. That doesn’t mean EMs on four-stackers would have been bored. Far from it. They were dealing with the same broken-down, archaic equipment as everyone else; equipment essentially representing the very dawn of the electrical age! Because of that, their contributions would have been particularly difficult and essential. The information Chief Kent kindly supplied, or pointed me toward, was both fun and fascinating. Together we made a number of discoveries that contributed significantly to this story, I believe. If I didn’t use the information right, it’s my fault, not his.

Dave Leedom, LTC, USAFR, helped, as always, to inspire my aerial high jinks, while keeping my head out of the clouds and my feet on the ground—figuratively speaking. The inimitable (Bad) Dennis Petty continues to provide . . . inspiration . . . and remains a formidable companion during my own unusual adventures. Just so everyone is clear on this, it’s
my
turn to shoot
him
—just a little. My parents, Don and Jeanette Anderson, have always inspired me and remain possibly my greatest fans and fiercest critics. My wife, Christine, mostly falls in the general “fierce critic” category, but I guess I’ll keep her anyway. James Kirkland and Schuetzen Powder LLC have my deepest appreciation for all their “ballistics testing” support over the years, and all the guys and gals on my gun’s crews are still the best in the country. Andy Gillham is the greatest musician alive and I will always fondly—if vaguely—remember the Sasquatch and space alien hunts of our younger years. We never caught any of the boogers, but that never really mattered, did it? Special thanks go to Tom Potter, a fellow historian and “naval thinker” with a brilliant mind. Ha! He’ll get it.

Otherwise, the list of usual suspects is long and has been recited before, but I need to add Pete Hodges and Kate Baker to the list. Good friends are hard to find and I treasure all of mine—even Jim. If I forgot to mention anybody or goofed up in any way, it’s all Jim’s fault. Actually, Jim deserves a lot of credit. He did more in a few brief seconds to disprove the conspiracy theory surrounding the Kennedy assassination than anyone else has done in the last forty-six years. “Magic bullets” do, in fact, exist. We get it, Jim. No need to KEEP proving your point! (Jim is nothing if not thorough, when it comes to science.)

“Weapons more violent, when next we meet.”

—Paradise Lost