Navy Captain Pete Adler has arrived at the pinnacle of a US Navy career. He is the commanding officer of an aircraft carrier. The first time he takes the ship to sea, a huge fire breaks out and threatens the survival of the ship and its crew of thousands. Many in Pete's crew perform heroic and noble deeds, and the carrier is saved. But there is no rest for Pete and the crew. They must repair the ship and make their scheduled deployment date. Again the crew responds heroically. In the midst of the repair effort, Pete's father dies. When he is at home for the funeral, he learns the nobility of some deeds is but skin-deep.
John Zerr (J.J. Zerr) was born in St. Peters, Missouri, and graduated from Duchesne High School. In 1959, he began a thirty-six year career in the Navy, during which he completed two tours on destroyers. After joining the aviation community, he flew 330 combat missions over Vietnam. Across his Navy career, he accumulated 1017 carrier landings.
Following the service, he worked in the aerospace industry for eleven years. He began his third career with the publication of The Ensign Locker in September 2010. The story is set on a US Navy destroyer operating in the Tonkin Gulf in 1966. His second novel, Sundown Town Duty Station, was published in 2013.
Chapter 6: "Before Pearl Harbor the USS Missouri was the cat's whiskers. Since then, flattops ruled the waves." Before Pearl Harbor? Not so. The USS Missouri of the Iowa-class battleships was not launched until 29 January 1944 and not commissioned until 11 June 1944, 30 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. That said, still an enjoyable read.