ething for every reader: a studied analysis of mid-twentieth-century geopolitical and military history, a rigorous technical exposition on how to keep a "Tin Can" Navy destroyer up to speed and mission-ready, and reflections by a freshly minted naval officer learning about life and leadership on his first seagoing assignment.

"I reported aboard the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. as a very young man," writes the author, "but took giant steps, along with many others, to reach manhood."

"The folks I depict in this story are my heroes. Life is about providing an inheritance to society beyond what we experienced. We have crashes along the way, but we make our world a little bit better."

Get to know the JPK and its men. Come aboard. Permission granted.

Throughout a distinguished military career, Capt. Randolph M. Brooks, USN (Ret.), put his nuclear engineering and ocean engineering training to work aboard several US Navy ships, including the USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (DD-850), on which he served from 1970 to 1973 as Chief Engineer. In addition, he has been a project leader for overhauls and conversions of US seagoing vessels. He has taught and supervised post-graduate studies at MIT and was the Director of Submarine Design and Engineering in Washington, DC, helping to design the USS Virginia class submarine now being built. Now retired, he lives in South Carolina with his wife, Debora.