Sweepers is the fourth novel by Navy Captain PT Deutermann. It starts off with a flashback during the Vietnam War, where a Lieutenant Jack Sherman is in command of a riverine patrol boat on the Mekong Delta. The passenger on the boat is a lone Navy SEAL, who Sherman and the rest of his crew are terrified of. They get the SEAL to his insertion point, then bug out.
Fast forward to the present day, and Jack Sherman is now a Rear Admiral select note . He has received some death threats, and the Navy assigns JAG lawyer Commander Karen Lawrence to investigate. Karen herself is a year away from retiring with twenty years in, so she expects this to be a simple case. When threats turn to attempts on his life, NCIS agent and former Marine infantry officer Train von Heissien is also assigned to the case. They dig into whoever might hold a grudge against the admiral, including his delinquent son. In doing so, they uncover a dark secret about the Admiral from his time as a patrol boat skipper in Vietnam - and an apparently MIA Navy SEAL who is out for revenge.
- Antagonistic Offspring: Admiral Sherman’s son becomes a drug using delinquent.
- Combat Medic: Glantz the SEAL targeting Admiral Sherman was this. Apparently, he used this knowledge to heal himself of some horrific injuries sustained during his captivity in Vietnam.
- Death Faked for You: Train believes that this is Glantz’s fate - as he is now an even better deniable black ops asset.
- The Dreaded: Sherman and his PT boat crew are terrified of the SEALs they sometimes ferry around the Mekong Delta because those guys “sneak into enemy tents to knife officers!”
- Large and in Charge: Train is yuuuuuge!! And he was an infantry officer in the Marines.
-
Mis-blamed: Glantz blames Sherman for bugging out a little too early during a hot extraction, reporting him dead and not coming back for him later. While Sherman did initially abandon Glantz, he may have made a sound decision under fire to not risk the lives of multiple crewmen for one guy. However, Sherman didn't report Glantz dead, and he wanted to go back. He was overruled by his immediate superior Lt Cdr Kensington, and JAG lawyer Lt Cdr Carpenter. Both of them end up having their promotions to Admiral and beyond revoked and dismissed. - No One Could Survive That!: Apparently, Glantz can survive such incidents. This sentiment makes it very easy for the CIA to fake his death and repurpose him as a "sweeper" who "cleans up" agents who have gone rogue.
- Retirony: Commander Lawrence is a month away from retiring after twenty years in the Navy JAG Corps. She considers reaching the rank of O-5 Commander to have been a “successful” career.
