Review: Poorly written by a self centered author.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 26, 2014
When I saw this book on Kindle it got my interest immediately because I served a boat of the same class out of Key West from 1956 thru 1959. What I expected was a book on that type of submarine from an enlisted man's point of view. I got almost nothing from the author that would explain serving on a submarine as an enlisted man that someone not familiar with the boat could learn anything from. The author would give the reader the impression that he, the Captain, a couple of officers and a handful of other crew men were the entire crew. The author never did explain how he happened to stand 2 different kinds of watches while at sea. A lookout is not a Radarman and they don't share watches. I doubt very much if a Lt. Commander, as Captain of the boat, would discuss the operations and defer to a lowly seaman for advise. I'm sorry, but I think time has inflated the importance of the authors actions. It seems he was always the one to pull the fat out of the fire when an emergency took place, and a submarine crew is a tightly trained and highly able group of men that act as a unit when faced with problems. How about a little information about what the rest of the crew does, like the electricians mates, the enginemen, the auxiliary men, the torpedo men, the cooks, The radiomen and the quartermasters. No boat could operate without those skilled crewmen or any other I may have missed.If the author had taken the time to outline his story line, then tell his episodes in some kind of chronological order it might have made more sense. That's only one reason why I say it was poorly written.