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They took great risk for fellow citizens

Today's youngest adults have no real memory of the Cold War and the high stakes games played by U.S. intelligence officers and military personnel to protect not only America but also the world from Soviet Communist aggression.

Some of the highest stakes games were played by the U.S. Navy's submariners, often called ''the silent service'' not only because subs must operate quietly but also because submariners are extremely secretive about their work.

Now a new book about one anti-Soviet sub operation sheds light on the submariners' service to the Republic during the closing years of the Cold War. ''Blind Man's Bluff'' tells how a special U.S. Navy communications team, locked in the torpedo room of a nuclear sub, tapped an undersea Soviet communications cable deep in Soviet waters.

Beginning in 1979, under personal orders of President Carter, the USS Parche parked itself on the bottom of the Barents Sea under the Arctic icecap, where experts listened in on highly sensitive Soviet military communications. Among other things, the sub team learned the details of Soviet nuclear war planning, including the knowledge that Soviet naval systems were not designed to launch first strike nuclear attack.

The missions were so sensitive that the captain of the Parche was under orders to destroy his ship and crew if ever there was a Soviet attempt to seize the sub. The submariners knew their mission was risky, but no one knew just how risky until the arrest of Soviet spy Ronald Pelton in 1985. He let the Soviets know their communications were compromised back in 1982, which resulted in the Soviet's discovery and destruction of another undersea listening pod in the Sea of Okhotsk.

Officially, the Navy still does not acknowledge the existence of the underwater spy missions, former submariners apparently are grateful for the recognition. Those of us who now sit in comfort and relative prosperity as a result of high risks taken by the crew of Parche and others who served during the Cold War should be thankful that good men were willing to risk all to preserve our freedom. Had the Parche been discovered by the Soviets its crew would have died under water and the demands of secrecy would have prevented any public recognition of their sacrifice.  .