On finishing the academic program, Bruce was assigned to the missile-carrier destroyer USS Vincent to patrol along the Mediterranean Sea as a part of the US commitment to maintain peace in Europe. During one such operation when his destroyer was heading towards the Black Sea in north, two Russian jet fighters suddenly appeared in the sky encircling the destroyer, locking the vessel into their firing range. Though emergency sirens began to blare within Bruce’s warship for a possible confrontation, it turned out be a part of a regular harassment by the Russian air force personnel to the American naval forces in the region.
Next year, based on his commanding performance on the destroyer, Bruce was promoted to a Lieutenant level and assigned to the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Lincoln. His first mission was to take part in a joint naval exercise involving other NATO countries, off the coast of Faslane, Scotland. In the dark of the night his naval vessel slowly approached the naval base there. Bruce, through his night-vision goggles, felt spotting his childhood dream creature Nessie, the Loch Ness monster at the distant. Excited, he burst into the vessel’s control room, announcing Nessie’s presence at the horizon. The intelligence-gathering officer in charge smiled and pronounced “That’s no Nessie, but a Russian nuclear submarine, keeping a constant watch on us from underneath the international water.”
When this mission was underway, a change in political leadership had taken place in Washington, DC. As the morning sun began to appear in the eastern sky, Bruce received a wire report from the central command. It detailed about the secret collusion of his country’s newly elected political leadership with the arch enemy of Russian hierarchy in order to be victorious in that recently concluded national election.