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With eight historical novels under the belt, U.S. Navy and Vietnam veteran Zerr uses his considerable understanding of the life and times of a young ensign to pen this blend of military adventure and family drama that is partially epistolary as well. Readers familiar with seagoing military service will enjoy the technical jargon. Those unfamiliar with U.S. Navy terminology will find the list of acronyms and U.S. Navy ranks in the end matter and a list of officers assigned to the fictional USS Manfred in the front matter helpful in navigating the acronym-laden narrative and large cast of characters. The abundance of technical detail lends authenticity to the story and creates an atmosphere of formality and polite distance that the military imposes. Occasionally the spare military-precise prose blooms into more vivid literary prose: "Not a breath of breeze riffled the polished, purplish - opaline surface until the Commodore's flagship sliced a wake into it."
It is 1966. Ensign Jon Zachery is a sensitive and thoughtful young man with a happy marriage. He and his wife, Teresa, are devout Catholics and manage their lives in a straightforward and sincere manner. They write to one another almost daily after Jon's deployment aboard a destroyer from the navy base in San Diego to a combat zone in the Tonkin Gulf. It wouldn't seem that these ingredients add up to much conflict and drama outside the war zone, but there are many bumps and jolts along the way.
As the story opens, Teresa's labor goes awry, and she needs an emergency C-section during the birth of their daughter. Jon faces the stark reality of how hard his military life would be without Teresa's love and support. She also realizes that she's as much married to the Navy as to Jon. While on duty, Jon rarely feels he has much in common with his fellow officers. He has a peculiar way of "opening mouth and inserting foot," unintentionally offending his superior officers and his colleagues on many occasions. After his deployment, Jon's detailed letter writing gets him into trouble when he says too much about some party downtime to his wife. Teresa reads too much between the lines and relays her concerns to other officers' wives with the result that both the information and misinformation go full circle to Jon's commander. This lands Jon—nicknamed Two Buckets because of his propensity for seasickness—temporarily off duty in the ensign locker, the tight quarters of the Manfred's five junior officers.
As the destroyer begins to engage in the war zone, the Manfred's missions support Marines in skirmishes in the northern jungles of South Vietnam while the crew encounters the Viet Cong deployed in the Saigon River. Along the way, there are shake-ups in command of the Manfred that are equally as dramatic as the handful of engagements with the enemy.
The Christian underpinnings of the novel seem to demand more nuanced observations and comparisons of the various paths that all participants in this war had traveled. However, Jon never really employs his inquiring and observant nature to see the Viet Cong as anything other than angry monsters or as soldiers "who have already died for their country." Instead, the spotlight is more on the loving support between Jon and Teresa as well as on Jon's somewhat reluctant but steady acceptance of Navy life and development from greenhorn to seasoned warrior. Readers interested in how military life can affect more than just the one wearing the uniform may enjoy this book.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review