This book is the factual account of the life of the author during and after his service as a sailor in the US Navy. The author is a man with many questions about destiny and with many of his questions yet unanswered. We are taken through a journey with him during the Vietnam War where a tragic explosion occurred on his ship, the USS Oriskany. This terrible event resulted in 44 men dying aboard that ship. Among the 44 was the man that saved our authors life. The book details the many questions that still haunt the author as he has not found the answers he is desperately searching for. It is clear that the accident on the USS Oriskany changed his life and is the root cause of his many dreams.

 We are taken with him on many of these dreams where he must become the hero in varied arrays of desperate situations. He takes himself back to the old west where he is a gunfighter against the bad guy then in the next dream he is an infantry soldier in the jungles of Vietnam. He states, “In reality I had served in the Navy and all I saw was the coast of North Vietnam.”

The author’s detailed descriptions of those dreams are well written and very interesting giving the reader a sense that he is reading a good fiction novel. The author does make it clear of his concern that these many dreams could possibly be self destructive.

Specifically, the “daydream”, as he refers to them, where he was in country in an Army unit serving as a Second Lt was well done and held my interest.

Though I was disappointed that the book was not divided into chapters which made it somewhat uncomfortable to read, I do think that most Navy veterans would identify with this author as they read how his service affected the rest of his life.

Reviewed by Don Arndt, MWSA Reviewer (September 2009)