"It's not just a job ... it's an adventure!" is the recruiting slogan of the US Navy in the mid-1970's, at the end of Vietnam. Americans have been told the war in Southeast Asia is over. Seaman Matthew Bertram, expecting a Navy enlistment of travel and adventure discovers that the war is not yet over. When he finds himself on charges for diving into Subic Bay to save his Chief's dentures, he discovers that the life of Navy adventure will take a sudden and catastrophic turn as he takes on a mission that will change his life forever. Writer Mark David Albertson brings the US Navy of the mid-70's to colorful life, exploring the world of a young sailor intent on finding adventure. Along with the fun of exploring new places, Mark paints a portrait of what it was like to be a sailor during this unusual time in history. His remarkable knack of telling a good sea story will leave readers laughing, crying, and on the edge of their seats as Mark's character experiences an adventure he never knew was coming.

In August, 1964, a young U.S. Navy radio operator found himself in waters he had never heard of, participating in the expansion of a war in a nation he didn't know existed: Vietnam. What he learned from actions he witnessed and the classified messages he handled over the next 10 months left him shaken, disillusioned, and full of questions about America's responses to events in the Tonkin Gulf and South China Sea, including the rush to bomb North Vietnam and the Johnson Administration's decisions to vastly expand the presence of U.S. ground, air, and naval forces in Southeast Asia. Some within the U.S. 7th Fleet knew almost from the outset that the still-controversial "second attack" which triggered the 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution did not involve North Vietnamese PT boats firing on U.S. Navy destroyers in pitch-dark seas. What it did involve, others have since shown, was something simpler and much stranger.This is one sailor's memories of being present at the ragged beginnings of a long conflict that ultimately failed and cost 58,000 American lives.