A story about growing up as the son of a poverty-stricken Tennessee sharecropper in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains and, at age 19, being accepted by the United States Navy despite not having finished grammar school. Set in the Cold War period from Korea to Vietnam, the story describes the day-to-day successes and failures of a sailor's life at sea and adventures in ports around the world. It also describes the transformation of an uneducated recruit into a ship's electrician, his progress through the enlisted ranks to Chief Petty Officer and then to commissioning as an Ensign. It ends when our subject, newly married and now a Lieutenant, completes a tour of Duty as a Recruiting Officer in Memphis, TN and reports to the USS Hornet (CVS-12) for duty as the ships Electrical Officer.