Operation SECOND STARFISH: A Tale of Submarine Rescue, Science, and Friendship

A terrorist attack disables a US Navy submarine in dangerously deep waters off the coast of Florida. The Navy is compelled to use its least-favorite strategy to complete a rescue of the submarine crew: send divers to extreme depths. Can a team of the Navy's best ultra-deep divers perform this mission? When things go perilously wrong, can a novel approach in diving physiology that has not been fully tested under controlled laboratory conditions save the rescuers? The plot twists back and forth in time between calm and happy days of friends working together in the laboratory, and the drama of the rescue mission.

In this tale, Susan R. Kayar, Ph.D., a former physiologist in the Decompression Sickness Research Program of the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, weaves together 21st century technology in disabled submarine rescue and saturation diving with 20th century diving physiology. The story is told from the uncommon viewpoint of the rescuers, not the rescued, and is intended to educate as well as to entertain.

"Operation SECOND STARFISH is a thrilling DEEP SEA adventure that truly captures the emotional camaraderie, life-and-death bravery and can-do spirit of both the rescuers and those trapped deep below on the icy black ocean floor. Dr. Kayar's beautifully written sea story provides white-knuckle twists and turns every step of the way til the reader reaches the surface! I truly felt like I was back out on the salvage ship once again. It's a testimonial to all the men and women who actually work beneath the ocean surface in harm's way."
-Captain (retired) Bobbie Scholley, US Navy, Commanding Officer of Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit TWO during MONITOR Expedition 2001 and 2002.