''Tom Clancy's Op-Center'' is a novel series, created by

Tom Clancy Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science, military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of ...

and

Steve Pieczenik Steve R. Pieczenik () (born December 7, 1943) is a Cuban-American psychiatrist, author, publisher, and conspiracy theorist,. He is a former consultant of the United States Department of State. Pieczenik has made several appearances on InfoWars. H ...

, though the first 12 books were written by

Jeff Rovin Jeff Rovin is an American magazine editor, freelance writer, columnist, and author, who has appeared on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list. Biography Jeff Rovin has been editor-in-chief of ''Weekly World News'', an assistant editor and ...

between 1995 and 2005. The four books in the series reboot from 2014 are written by Dick Couch, George Galdorisi and Jeff Rovin.

Main characters

These characters are in most or all stories from the main series: *Paul Hood: The Director of Op-Center and former Mayor of L.A. *General Mike Rodgers: Deputy Director of Op-Center and STRIKER Commander *Bob Herbert: Chief of Intelligence *Matt Stoll: In-house computer genius *Darrel McCaskey: The FBI Liaison *Lowell Coffey II: Op-Center's lawyer *Liz Gordon: Op-Center's psychologist These characters are in the stories from the reboot series: *Chase Williams: The Director of Op-Center and a former U.S. Naval Admiral *Aaron Bleich: Geek Programmer and Data Analyst *Roger McCord: Intelligence Director *Brian Dawson: Operations Director *Jim Wright: Domestic Crisis Manager *Richard Middleton: Planning Director *Hector Rodriquez: JSOC Liaison, Retired Army Sergeant Major *Sandee Barron: Helicopter Pilot *Mike Volner: JSOC Response Team Commander *Allen Kim: FBI CIRG Team Leader

List of Op-Center Novels

The books in the ''Tom Clancy's Op-Center'' series:

National Crisis Management Center (Op-Center)

Although familiarly called "Op-Center", the actual name of the largely autonomous agency is the "''National Crisis Management Center''". The charter of the NCMC, or Op-Center, is unlike any other in the history of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. They handle both domestic and international crises. Director Paul Hood reports to the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

himself, and what had started as "an information clearinghouse with

SWAT In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

capabilities" now has the singular capacity to monitor, initiate, and manage operations worldwide. The organization had its own paramilitary response team, called the Striker team, named by an Op-Center member who was a soccer fan, composed of members of the U.S. military special operations community. The series also mentioned similar organizations from England, whose response team was called Bengal, and Russia, with a team called Hammer. It is

headquartered Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top ...

in a nondescript, two-story building located near the Naval Reserve flight line at

Andrews Air Force Base Andrews Air Force Base (Andrews AFB, AAFB) is the airfield portion of Joint Base Andrews, which is under the jurisdiction of the United States Air Force. In 2009, Andrews Air Force Base merged with Naval Air Facility Washington to form Joint B ...

that used to be a ready room, a staging area for crack flight crews. In the event of a nuclear attack, it would have been their job to evacuate key officials from

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

According to the 2014 reboot franchise, the NCMC was eventually disbanded after the

Secretary of Defense A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...

and the

Director of National Intelligence The director of national intelligence (DNI) is a senior, cabinet-level United States government official, required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Commu ...

managed to convince the President of the United States to shut the organization down due to the effectiveness of the US Intelligence Community and Special Forces in the War on Terror (much to the disgust of Paul Hood and Mike Rogers). Years later however, terrorists blow up several NFL stadiums across the country and leave thousands dead or mutilated. It is determined in the resulting investigation that the inability of government agencies to prevent the attacks was due to a lack of information, as well as the inability to put the pieces together in time. In response, the President executes an emergency order that reboots Op-Center for the 21st Century. Retired Admiral Chase Williams is eventually named the new director and Op-Center's new headquarters is located in the basement of the

National Geospatial Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of national ...

; as its response team, Op-Center utilizes soldiers from the

Joint Special Operations Command The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) is a joint component command of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and is charged with studying special operations requirements and techniques to ensure interoperability and equip ...

for overseas missions and a SWAT team from the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

Critical Incident Response Group The Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) is a division of the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. CIRG enables the FBI to rapidly respond to, and effectively manage, special cr ...

in order to respond to domestic emergencies.

Net Force

The third ''Op-Center'' novel, ''Games of State'', briefly alludes to the concept of a "Net Force". This concept was later expanded into its own ''

Net Force Net Force may refer to: * Net force, the overall force acting on an object * ''NetForce'' (film), a 1999 American television film * Tom Clancy's Net Force, a novel series * Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers Tom Clancy's Net Force Explorers or Ne ...

'' series, created by the same men as ''Op-Center'' but written by

Steve Perry Stephen Ray Perry (born January 22, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the rock band Journey during their most commercially successful periods from 1977 to 1987, and again from 1995 to 1998. He also wrote/co ...

(and later cowritten with

Larry Segriff Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

). No direct connection has yet been drawn between the two series, however.

In other media

'' OP Center'' was a 1995 made-for-TV movie starring

Harry Hamlin Harry Robinson Hamlin (born October 30, 1951) is an American actor, author, and entrepreneur. He is best known for his roles as Perseus in the 1981 fantasy film '' Clash of the Titans'' and as Michael Kuzak in the legal drama series ''L.A. Law'' ...

as Paul Hood, newly minted director of the "OP Center".Blockbuste
Tom Clancy's 'OP Center' (1995)
In ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

'' episode "

Sweets and Sour Marge "Sweets and Sour Marge" is the eighth episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 20, 2002. In the episode, Homer gather ...

", it reveals that

Moe Szyslak Moe Szyslak is a recurring character from the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". Moe is the proprietor and bartender of M ...

's favourite book is ''Tom Clancy's Op-Center''.

References

External links

Penguin (publisher)