Rudi Gunn is not a character in Pacific Vortex. I have noticed he is missing in other books (four) too. Has any one else?

Its interesting that NUMA's Director of Operations, Rudi Gunn, is not part of the action in the very first Dirk Pitt adventure written ... (Pacific Vortex)

It could be that Commander Rudi Gunn was not thought of until Mediterranean Caper and that he was included in Pacific Vortex when that book was rewritten in 1981. Pacific Vortex was originally written in 1965 but went unpublished until 1983 after Night Probe.

Mediterranean Caper was the 2nd Dirk Pitt adventure written in the late 60's (published in 1973) and that book has Dirk Pitt and his old friend, Rudi Gunn, boozing on with Chivas Regal and smoking cigerettes like buddies from way back even though Gunn is Pitt's superior.

An "old friend" and "Commander" with 15 years experience in the Navy would have been useful to Dirk Pitt in Pacific Vortex especially since that book revolved around a search for the US naval submarine, Starbuck.

The only mention of Rudi Gunn in Pacific Vortex was that he was a cousin of Commander Burdette Denver ... a few lines that could have been edited in later on ...

Cheers ... p:

I had to skim through Medditeranean Caper for The Quest and I did see some lines with those two chatting like they had known eachother since High School. You never know it might be talked about in future edits...

The next two books I noticed Rudi Gunn did not appear in are Iceberg and Vixen 03...

:blink: have you also noticed that the only book Al is not in is Iceberg? p:

I'm going to be reading that soon :rolleyes: i'll se if I can infere why b:

That is true Butch 179, Iceberg is the only book Al Giordino does not make an appearance. ;)

Besides Pacific Vortex, Iceberg and Vixen 03, Admiral Sandecker's second in command, Rudi Gunn, also doesn't make an appearance in two other books...

OK, the next book Rudi Gunn does not make an appearance in is Deep Six.

However, Hiram Yeager and St. Julien Perlmutter make their debut in Deep Six!

Guess Gunn was off overseeing some NUMA project on site. That leaves one more book Rudi does not appear in...

I have noted it as well. Face it. Dr. C is not the most consitant with the facts with his characters. Like ol' Pitt is 6 foot 3 in Pac Vortex and Med Caper (Mayday!) and 6 foot 2 in Titanic. Growing an inch in Vixen and remaining 6' 3" till the end. I think Dr. C. has the same answer that George Lucas has when some has a question about "the Force." He replies not with paraphrase but with a proclamation: "You must be a fan!"
I guess it is simple fiction not history.
Keep up the sharpe eyes
Cheers!
M

The last book I noticed Rudi Gunn did not make an appearance in is Dragon.
(Oooops, I feel the craving for a crab Louis salad kicking in...) w:

Why was Rudi not named director of NUMA considering his experience as second in command for years. Not to knock Dirk but Dirk is not a political animal. I can see that Dirk might have a vision where Rudi would be lacking in that department.

Tonym5. Dirk asked that same question at the end of TO but Adm. Sandecker said that Rudi didn't want the job. He's much more comfortable as second in command and his organizational skills would be very useful to Pitt.

Figures!!

Rudi Gunn is missing from his desk from time to time too!

For example, he sneaks off to fly with Al giordino to St. Paul Island:

Rudi Gunn smiled. "I'll be in enough hot water for sneaking off with you when the admiral finds out I'm not sitting behind my desk in Washington."

"What excuse did you give for disappearing for six days?"

"I told my office to say I flew to the Baltic Sea to check on an underwater shipwreck project NUMA is surveying with Danish archaeologists."
Atlantis Found (15)

w:

Rudi Gunn gets away from th office again:

"I couldn't resist dumping the routine of Washington to mix a little business with adventure, so I volunteered for the dirty job of briefing and joining you on the Customs project."

"You mean you sold Sandecker a bill of goods and skipped town?" said Pitt.

"Mercifully for everyone involved, he doesn't know about the hunt for the galleon. At least not yet."

Inca Gold (14)

i'm here :P as it goes rudi likes to be the man behind the scenes which is why he didn't want Sandeckers job,and why we hardly see him in some books,hes there orchestrating things for sandecker but alas not mentioned is how he likes it.

Yeah probably the only reason I didn't like Iceberg as much was becasue Giordino wasn't in it!! As you can tell by my user name I'm a fan of his!!