After his graduation from Princeton University and Naval Officer Candidate School, Bud Mackey finds himself aboard the USS Chevalier (DD 805) in the early days of the Vietnam War as the ship powers its way across the Pacific toward the Gulf of Tonkin. Along the journey, he contemplates major events of WWII, writes poetry about his experience, and journals about the people and places he encounters.
In this memoir, based on old journals and logbooks, Mackey shares his trenchant and often humorous descriptions of life on the high seas and in port. "We had the experience but missed the meaning," he writes. Ultimately, this is his attempt to glean insight from those long-ago days.

Edmonds "Bud" Prufrock Mackey was born in Columbus, Ohio, attended Saint Paul Academy in St. Paul, Minnesota and New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, and graduated from Princeton University in 1961. After completing Naval Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, he served on West Coast destroyers home ported in San Diego, California. From May till November 1963, his ship, the USS Chevalier (DD 805), was deployed to the western Pacific and the Gulf of Tonkin. Mackey is a resident of Kansas City and the author of Princess of the Mockingbird, an Illustrated Fable.