Author-Photo-Easter

About Rick Campbell

A native of Cocoa, Florida, Rick attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and spent over thirty years in the Navy. His tours of duty include four nuclear powered submarines, the Pentagon, and the Undersea Weapons Program Office. On his last submarine, he was one of the two men whose permission was required to launch its twenty-four nuclear warhead-tipped missiles.

Upon retirement from the Navy, Rick was offered a two-book deal (which has been extended to eight books) by Macmillan / St. Martin's Press for his novel -
The Trident Deception, which was hailed by Booklist as "The best submarine novel written in the last 30 years, since Tom Clancy's classic - The Hunt for Red October". His first six books were Barnes & Noble Top-10 and Amazon #1 Bestsellers, and his seventh book—The Bin Laden Plot —releases in April 2024. Rick lives with his family in the greater Washington, D.C. area, and is working on the 8th book in this series, scheduled for release in spring 2025.



A Little Bit More About Rick


Rick was born in Cornwall, New York, the only son of an enlisted Airman and a German waitress. After three years in the Northeast, Rick spent four years in Germany, where he learned to love all things “-wurst” and “-snitzel”. And liquor-filled chocolates. After a year in frigid Duluth, Minnesota, his father retired from the Air Force, packed their belongings into their Volkswagen Bug, and drove his family to sunny Cocoa, Florida, where Rick blossomed into an awkward teenager.

Annapolis Wedding
After high school, Rick decided to join the Navy, not realizing he was incredibly susceptible to seasickness. He was appointed to the United States Naval Academy and stepped onto the hallowed grounds at Annapolis, where he earned a degree in Systems Engineering. As Rick approached graduation, he applied for and was accepted into the Navy’s submarine program. After graduation, he was commissioned an Ensign in the Navy, and after 15 months of nuclear power and basic submarine officer training, Rick reported to his first submarine. Along the way, Rick married the love of his life, Lynne. (To cut to the chase, they have three wonderful kids.)

USS John Adams
Rick’s first submarine was USS JOHN ADAMS (BLUE Crew) – Ballistic missile submarines have two crews (BLUE and GOLD) so the submarines and their nuclear weapons can spend more time at sea. Although Rick was stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, the submarine operated from its base in Holy Loch, Scotland. It didn’t take long for Rick to learn which way was forward and which way was aft, and he soon earned his Dolphins (well, there was quite a bit more to it than that) and after two years, his submarine was decommissioned in the Naval shipyard in Bremerton, Washington.

USS GEORGIA
Rick, now a Lieutenant, spent a few months aboard one of the new TRIDENT submarines, USS GEORGIA, in Bangor, Washington, before escaping sea duty and reporting to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California for two years, where he earned a Masters degree in Operations Research, followed by another 6 months in Groton, Connecticut, for Submarine Officer Advanced Course.

USS KAMEHAMEHA
Rick then reported aboard USS KAMEHAMEHA as the head of its Engineering Department, responsible for the operation and maintenance of its nuclear reactor and propulsion plant. During his three and half years aboard, Rick helped supervise the conversion of KAMEHAMEHA from a ballistic missile submarine to a Special Warfare platform, able to carry two Dry Deck Shelters and SEAL Delivery Vehicles inside, along with two platoons of SEALs. After the conversion in Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California, USS KAMEHAMEHA was transferred to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where Rick spent the last two years of his tour and did two WESTPAC deployments.

USS MARYLAND
After completing his Department Head sea tour, Rick was assigned as the SUBMARINE GROUP TEN Engineer in Kings Bay, Georgia, where he managed a hodge-podge of activities for the Admiral, while also helping new TRIDENT submarine crews prepare for their first Operational Reactor Safeguards Examination by Naval Reactors. The two years at SUBMARINE GROUP TEN passed quickly, and Rick reported aboard USS MARYLAND (GOLD crew) as its Executive officer, where he was one of the two men, along with the submarine's Commanding Officer, who must agree before the crew would execute nuclear launch orders.

Pentagon
From the quiet town of St. Marys, Georgia, Rick reported to the hectic world of the Pentagon, where he was responsible for modernizing submarine Combat Control Systems and internal communication networks. Shortly after arriving at the Pentagon, Rick was accepted into the Navy’s Acquisition Professional Corps, which in simple terms, is the group of people who buy all the stuff that Rick and his operational buddies had been so good at breaking. After three years in the Pentagon, Rick transferred to the Undersea Weapons Program Office at the Washington Navy Yard, where he spent the next few years responsible for maintenance of the U.S. Navy’s Warshot and Exercise torpedoes.

As Rick approached the end of his career, he pondered his future and thought about the story that had been rolling around inside his head for twenty years, and finally decided to put pen to paper. This first book was a science fiction story. To be more specific, it was a military science fiction paranormal romance novel – I guess Rick couldn’t decide what genre to write. He had no idea how to get it published but soon figured out he needed a literary agent. He wasn’t sure how to hire one, but being a good nuke (nuclear trained officer), he bought a book and followed the instructions. He wrote a query letter (a one page letter that said – a little bit about the book, a little bit about him, and do you want to read it?), and fired off the query about his pending #1 bestseller to forty agents. Not a single agent replied.

Undeterred… well, actually he was. But he decided to give it another try. There’s an adage that says – “Either write what you love, or write what you know.” Well, Rick wrote what he loved, and no one else loved it. So he decided to write what he knows. And what was that, he asked? “Submarines!”



Finally, on a more personal note… I knew what I was doing as a Submariner, but as a writer, it’s a brave new world out there, and who knows where the journey will take me. Thankfully, I’ve got a few wise people helping me steer clear of the shoals:

USS KAMEHAMEHA


Oh, c’mon. If THAT didn’t convince you to buy a book… (They’re really good books! If you’re still not sure, check out the industry reviews on the BOOKS tab and customer reviews at Amazon.)