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MWSA Review
Author Ray Perrotti has provided us with a fun, easy read in his memoir A Sailor's Journey. In the spring of 1966, Ray is about to graduate from high school and doesn't consider himself college material. With the Vietnam conflict getting bigger and bigger, and the military draft looming over him, Ray decides to get ahead of the inevitable and enlists in the U.S. Navy. A Sailor's Journey takes us from his first day at Boot Camp through his two-year stint in the navy. Serving on a couple of destroyers in a multitude of jobs, the author's enlistment includes two separate tours of duty off the coast of Vietnam where his destroyer runs the gun line, firing at enemy positions on shore. Unfortunately, the North Vietnamese guns fire back, and on one occasion, a round hits his ship, killing and wounding his shipmates. More than just the experience in combat, this book gives us a good look at the life of a sailor at sea.
Review by Bob Doerr (May 2021)
Author's Synopsis
In 1966, most young men graduating high school in America only saw three options: go to college, wait to be drafted, or enlist. Ray chose enlistment, and for the next three years, embarked on the adventure of a lifetime around the world on a Navy Destroyer.
Read firsthand accounts of working with NASA on Apollo capsule retrieval and participating in Naval rituals like crossing the Equator. Lose yourself in memories that have delighted friends and family for decades, now collected in this personal and honest look backward.
In A Sailor’s Journey, Ray Perrotti shares genuine, personal stories about Navy life during Vietnam. This memoir captures the good, the bad, and the hustle of a not-so-typical enlisted man, just trying to get through his commitment to serve.
ISBN/ASIN: 9798580693729
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 134