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Last Gunship Dial M for Mullinnix
The Vietnam War is raging along the coast. Aboard U.S. Navy destroyer USS Mullinnix, a murder threatens to tear the crew apart. As the ship pounds enemy positions with her five-inch guns, a darker battle unfolds inside the hull. One of betrayal, secrets, and revenge.
War kills everything! A boiler room explosion and fire, a putrefied body in the bilges, a reefer dedicated to body bags, and the unimaginable. A murderer aboard ship!
Wood captures the psychological & emotional reality of serving during the Vietnam War with authenticity. Raw. Real. Vivid. Humanity laid bare.
A Vietnam War thriller in the vein of W.E.B. Griffin, Tom Clancy, & Patrick Robinson.
War kills everything! A boiler room explosion and fire, a putrefied body in the bilges, a reefer dedicated to body bags, and the unimaginable. A murderer aboard ship!
Wood captures the psychological & emotional reality of serving during the Vietnam War with authenticity. Raw. Real. Vivid. Humanity laid bare.
A Vietnam War thriller in the vein of W.E.B. Griffin, Tom Clancy, & Patrick Robinson.
313 pages, Paperback
Published December 12, 2025
About the author
Frank A. Wood
8 books1 followerFrank Wood was in the United States Navy from 1970-74. He served aboard USS Mullinnix DD-944 from boot camp and A-school short of four years. Mullinnix, a Norfolk-based destroyer, was ordered to Vietnam in April 1972.
Last Gunship USS Mullinnix DD-944 1972 Memoirs of a FTGSN is Wood’s first historical novel.
Wood's second book is a prequel, set in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis (Last Gunship USS Mullinnix DD-944 Cuban Quarantine). The UNITAS III cruise started like any other. Then the world made a hard left turn. On the brink of nuclear war, who would blink first? Relive the harrowing moments when the world deterred on utter destruction.
Wood's third book, "Last Gunship Dial M for Murder" is a murder mystery set aboard the USS Mullinnix DD-944 during the Vietnam War during the mid-1960s.
He is currently working on his fourth book, Last Gunship From Mullinnix With Love. A suspenseful Cold War spy thriller set in the North Sea in the mid-1960s, shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
.
Wood lives in northwest Arkansas with his wife Kim and Ely.
Last Gunship USS Mullinnix DD-944 1972 Memoirs of a FTGSN is Wood’s first historical novel.
Wood's second book is a prequel, set in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis (Last Gunship USS Mullinnix DD-944 Cuban Quarantine). The UNITAS III cruise started like any other. Then the world made a hard left turn. On the brink of nuclear war, who would blink first? Relive the harrowing moments when the world deterred on utter destruction.
Wood's third book, "Last Gunship Dial M for Murder" is a murder mystery set aboard the USS Mullinnix DD-944 during the Vietnam War during the mid-1960s.
He is currently working on his fourth book, Last Gunship From Mullinnix With Love. A suspenseful Cold War spy thriller set in the North Sea in the mid-1960s, shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
.
Wood lives in northwest Arkansas with his wife Kim and Ely.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 3, 2026
Last Gunship: Dial M for Mullinnix is a Vietnam War novel that refuses mythmaking. Frank A. Wood places the reader aboard the USS Mullinnix and lets the reality of the Gunline speak for itself claustrophobic, relentless, and morally corrosive.
What distinguishes this book is its psychological accuracy. Combat isn’t framed as heroism or spectacle but as erosion: of certainty, of innocence, of trust. The mystery element the presence of death aboard ship beyond enemy fire deepens the unease, turning the vessel itself into a pressure chamber where fear, suspicion, and exhaustion feed off one another.
Wood’s depiction of naval life is unsentimental and precise. The mechanics of shipboard duty, the constant threat of incoming fire, and the emotional dissonance of serving in a war increasingly understood as futile are rendered with lived-in authenticity. The result is not just tension, but disillusionment quiet, accumulating, and lasting.
This is a strong, honest Vietnam era novel that will resonate with readers who value emotional truth, moral ambiguity, and war stories that acknowledge what combat takes from those who survive it.
What distinguishes this book is its psychological accuracy. Combat isn’t framed as heroism or spectacle but as erosion: of certainty, of innocence, of trust. The mystery element the presence of death aboard ship beyond enemy fire deepens the unease, turning the vessel itself into a pressure chamber where fear, suspicion, and exhaustion feed off one another.
Wood’s depiction of naval life is unsentimental and precise. The mechanics of shipboard duty, the constant threat of incoming fire, and the emotional dissonance of serving in a war increasingly understood as futile are rendered with lived-in authenticity. The result is not just tension, but disillusionment quiet, accumulating, and lasting.
This is a strong, honest Vietnam era novel that will resonate with readers who value emotional truth, moral ambiguity, and war stories that acknowledge what combat takes from those who survive it.
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April 23, 2026Read and scored as part of Military Writers' Society of America's 2026 review season. See mwsadispatches.com for more information.
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April 14, 2026MWSA Review
In his third book, Last Gunship: Dial M for Mullinnix, author Frank Wood departs from his normal non-fiction style and creates a murder thriller at sea. USS Mullinnix has a job to do on the gunline of Vietnam, killing the enemy. But a member of the crew is killing civilians in port and the crew underway, and the ship's company is more scared of this faceless killer than it is of the enemy. Will the killer be brought to justice, or will the ship tear itself apart faster than a main boiler explosion?
Frank Wood knows the life of a "tin-can sailor," and it brings it vividly to the pages of this book. He weaves an intricate story while capturing the sometimes terrifying but usually mundane life of a ship on the gunline in Vietnam. Those who have sailed aboard small Navy ships will feel nostalgic about this book, and those who enjoy murder mysteries will find something to enjoy as well.
Review by Rob Ballister
In his third book, Last Gunship: Dial M for Mullinnix, author Frank Wood departs from his normal non-fiction style and creates a murder thriller at sea. USS Mullinnix has a job to do on the gunline of Vietnam, killing the enemy. But a member of the crew is killing civilians in port and the crew underway, and the ship's company is more scared of this faceless killer than it is of the enemy. Will the killer be brought to justice, or will the ship tear itself apart faster than a main boiler explosion?
Frank Wood knows the life of a "tin-can sailor," and it brings it vividly to the pages of this book. He weaves an intricate story while capturing the sometimes terrifying but usually mundane life of a ship on the gunline in Vietnam. Those who have sailed aboard small Navy ships will feel nostalgic about this book, and those who enjoy murder mysteries will find something to enjoy as well.
Review by Rob Ballister
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews