Ensign Jon Zachery, US Navy, does not fit in with his fellow officers aboard destroyer USS Manfred. Some call him useless, a mammary gland on a male pig. On the first day in the combat zone in the Tonkin Gulf, Manfred is attacked by North Vietnamese PT boats, and Ensign Zachery meets the nation's enemy face-to-face, with a .45 holstered to his side. Back home in San Diego, one month into a seven-or eight, or maybe nine-month deployment, Teresa's life revolves around their three-month-old daughter and her daily letter to Jon, and his to her. She realizes she is married to the US Navy every bit as much as she is married to Jon.