Books

I finished reading the 619 page, 24th Edition, Bluejacket's Manual (2009) on January 23rd this year. Some parts were kinda slow, like retirement benefits or marlinespike knots, but in general I went right through it. It was published in May, I had it by June, and it only took that long of off and on reading to finish. Lots of stuff that I will become familiar with in the future, but it was good to get my toes wet and know going into it some of the things I will have to deal with.

Just recently I've discovered the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy's (MCPON's) Reading List. So I got a couple titles and discovered one more. I bought a reference timeline, and "Brave Ship, Brave Men" by Arnold Lott. The discovery was referenced in the Bluejacket's because it was by the same author. Thomas J. Cutler of the Naval Institute Press wrote "A Sailor's History of the U.S. Navy" (2005) and I received it in the mail the day before leaving on a week plus vacation to North Carolina. As he says in it, it's more of a book about Navy heritage than history. It jumps around on the timeline of events, but has a baseline of themes, telling stories about individual people. It was fabulous! And I finished it by reading solely on the airplane, both going and coming; I could barely put it down.

For certain, Mr. Cutler is proud to have served in the Navy, and it's inspiring.