The Deck Hand

In the early years of the Vietnam War, a young volunteer stepped aboard one of the U.S. Navy's largest aircraft carriers believing he understood what service meant. What followed—months of flight deck danger, relentless operations, loss, and quiet moments of reflection—would change him in ways he could not yet name.

This memoir traces that transformation from the inside. From the heat and chaos of Yankee Station to the long nights below deck, from the camaraderie that held the crew together to the accidents and injuries that left lasting marks, the story unfolds not as a collection of anecdotes, but as a single emotional journey.

As aircraft failed to return and the reality of war set in, the distance between who he was and who he was becoming grew wider—felt most sharply in the letters he wrote home, and in what he could no longer bring himself to say.