Chief Machinist's Mate (CMM) Walter Lynch is a Chief Petty Officer aboard the USS John Paul Jones who normally supervises the operation of the destroyer's turbine engines. He is a mountain of a man nicknamed The Beast because of his imposing size. Despite the intimidating nickname, Chief Lynch is generally easy-going. He is a friend of Lt. Alex Hopper, and often tries to be a voice of reason for the rash and often irresponsible officer.************************************************Spoiler Alert**********************************************************When Lt. Hopper finds out from his brother that he is under investigation for his fistfight with Captain Nagata and will likely be kicked out of the Navy, Chief Lynch expresses his concern and offers Hopper a chance to talk about it, which Hopper curtly refuses.He is later part of Lt. Hopper's boarding party that attempts to communicate with the first alien ship. Upon returning to the damaged John Paul Jones after the sinking of the Sampson, they discover that the captain and executive officer were both killed when the ship was hit, and that Hopper is now the acting CO. Hopper, wanting to avenge his brother, orders the John Paul Jones to attack with any weapon that will function and, failing that, to ram the nearest alien ship. Beast tries frantically to talk Hopper out of the suicide run, along with Bosun's Mate Ord, who says, They've killed everything that's fired on them! When the JDFS Myoko is sunk trying to support the John Paul Jones, Beast finally gets through to Hopper by reminding him that there are sailors in the water who need to be rescued. He then leads the John Paul Jones' crew in pulling the Myoko's survivors out of the water. Among those helped aboard by Chief Lynch is Captain Nagata.When aliens board the destroyer, Chief Lynch has returned to his post in the engine room. An alien breaks through the hatch intent on disabling the ship's engines. Beast orders his engine crew to get out, then engages the alien in hand-to-hand combat. He quickly finds that he is overmatched by the alien's powered-armor suit, and grabs a halligan tool as a weapon. Beast succeeds only in slowing the alien down (and pissing him off), but is saved by Lt. Hopper and GM2 Raikes.Beast survives the sinking of the John Paul Jones, and follows Hopper and the other survivors to the USS Missouri. He initially scoffs at the idea of reactivating the old battleship, pointing out that he is familiar with modern diesel turbine engines and has no idea how to run the Missouri's old triple-expansion steam boilers, and that the 200 survivors from the John Paul Jones and the Myoko are nowhere near enough men to crew an Iowa-class battleship (which carried a crew of 2500). However, he agrees when he finds out that many old veterans who served on the Missouri and were in Hawaii as guests for the RIMPAC excercise or work in the museum are now aboard and willing to help (in fact, they have already started preparing her for battle).Beast takes his station in the Missouri's engine room, helping the old vets. After the Missouri is damaged in the engagement with the alien force field ship, he applies his considerable strength to helping move the last 16-inch round (which weighs 1200 pounds) from the disabled Turret 3 to Turret 2, 500 feet forward.He is one of several survivors from the John Paul Jones who are decorated with Lt. Hopper at the end. Show less «