Carrier Daze

Book excerpt: In 1951, as tensions escalate on the Korean Peninsula, a Stanford freshman who prefers a dry ship to a wet foxhole, and who has a ferocious fear of flying, joins the Stanford NROTC on the promise of a Marine Colonel that he never has to fly in the Navy. The Colonel of course meant fly like at the controls of an airplane. Our young hero thought he meant fly like in an airplane. And thus began the hysterical adventures of he who didnt want to fly but ended up in the air. Four years later, he is commissioned an ensign after graduating from Stanford and completing two years of law school. He then receives orders for Japan and nervously boards a cargo plane, beginning an unforgettable adventure to keep America safe for democracy with a laugh a minute. When Dick finally arrives on his assigned ship, the USS Oriskany, he is appointed temporary legal officer and even more temporarily, a lieutenant commander. In the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean, he handles legal cases, makes new friends, and learns how to survive life on an aircraft carrier. His adventures eventually lead him to the girl of his dreams, literally, and onto the deck of the USS Lake Champlain where more hysterical and some very moving events await. Carrier Daze shares tales of a nave naval officers entertaining adventures on the water and beyond as he serves his country and becomes a man.