Sea Stories: Reminiscences of a Navy Radioman 1952-1977

The book is about . . . well, the title and sub-title really say it all. The author served on a battleship, a destroyer escort, and an aircraft carrier, but mostly overseas (Italy, England, Ethiopia, Vietnam) and finished up in Dallas, Texas, and Charleston, South Carolina. While on the ships he experienced various liberty ports in western Europe and the far east, plus Cuba and Brazil. The book stretches from the days when nearly every literate sailor was reading The Caine Mutiny, through the time when Robert S. McNamara was fervently cursed, to the years of Admiral Elmo Zumwalt's changes, their subsequent rollback, and the accompanying post-Vietnam "erosion of benefits". The author enjoyed himself in a seamanlike manner and uses seamanlike terminology in reporting on same. He describes his near-brushes with the military justice system, which somehow never quite caught up with him. Those who served one or two enlistments during the time period covered should identify with the book. Among "lifers", some will like it; some will hate it. It should not be read by admirals or chaplains.