1970 ushered out a decade of events that some thought would tear America apart. An unpopular war in Viet Nam followed her into the new decade like the shadow of a bad omen. Riots in every major city in the North and violent peace rallies in the South divided America along racial lines. The assassination of three men many considered the greatest leaders America had ever produced, a young President, his chosen predecessor and a King of peace raised the question if America's best days were behind her. This is the world John Carter would enter in six months when he graduated from high school. Over the past four years John watched the changing of America with anger as the images were displayed daily on his family's television and played out live in his recently integrated high school. He spent the past two years working after school and weekends to help his mother hold the family together while his father served a two year sentence in a federal prison. Now it was time for his dad to come home and John would be released from the responsibilities that befall the man of the house. Average grades and no athletic accomplishments meant college was all but out of the question. Work in one of the flourishing factories in Dayton until the Army drafted him was the most likely scenario. Then his escape was provided when he overheard a conversation between two friends. He would join the Navy. He would hold the Navy to its recruiting poster promise. "Join the Navy and See the World" A world he thought would be void of violence, hatred, and racism and full of fun and adventure. What he didn't expect was more responsibility and greater challenges then he had ever had or faced. The lessons he would learn during his 3 month "Maiden Cruise" would come in far away places and from the most unlikely people. These life lessons would cause him to reconsider his ideas about race, people and the country he had learned to hate.