MIKE ROHRBAUGH

Mike Rohrbaugh is an officer in the U.S. Navy.

He holds the rank of Commander when we first meet him. He is, without a doubt, a very capable officer working in the Intelligence field where his keen and accurate analysis of a lot of small items put together properly proves extremely valuable to the country's leadership.

In his younger days, Rohrbaugh would have certainly been one of the men told to head into potential war zones to gather needed intel and report it back as well as be there should the orders come down to take action. On Rohrbaugh's chest are an impressive five rows of service ribbons, testament to the fact that he has quite often put himself in harm's way for his nation. Since one of those ribbons is the Navy Cross, the second highest award for bravery a military man can get, his devotion and his courage are without question.

He earned many of them while serving as a Navy SEAL and eventually leading SEAL Team One out of San Diego which made him and his people one of the first ones called for any trouble happening in the Pacific Theater. Rohrbaugh muses early on in the first recorded adventure, though, that his days of leading a team was gone, a task meant "for the younger guys".

Now he is "desk-bound" and though it may chafe a bit to see others head into danger, he knows his job now is to plan the mission and analyze the results. Considering that these planned missions are up against powerful nations who would love to see America fail, his need to plan correctly is vital.

Rohrbaugh will be the driving force on America's side (IMHO) in the first recorded adventure. He will have vital roles in the next two though they will be driven more by a fascinating man named Nick Parkos.

I selected Mike Rohrbaugh as the lead character in this series, not necessarily the author. I did so because he was the Intel officer who was most prominent in gathering of data and analyzing it but there are a lot of other characters who make up this ensemble piece so if you read these two exciting adventures and have different ideas as to who the main character is, you would be as right as me.

I like Rohrbaugh because he is intelligent, trustworthy, and interesting. I was also beginning to like his wife, Kate, but oddly enough he did not mention her past the mid-point of the first book. Too bad.

But there are a lot of other people to keep track of in this series which gave me thoughts of Tom Clancy's earlier novels in the use of a lot of people doing a lot of important things.

So Rohrbaugh is my choice. Let me know what you think.