Stuart Landersman is a retired Navy Captain with thirty years of service. He grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York. He was an Eagle scout, president of his high school class and active in sports, particularly basketball which he played also in college. After college he went into the Navy and served in destroyers, frigates, cruisers and amphibious warfare ships and commanded a number of destroyers. He had thirty months of combat action in the Vietnam conflict including duty on the staff of Commander Seventh Fleet. He had a tour of duty as aide to Superintendent of the Naval Academy, attended the Naval Postgraduate School, Naval War College and National War College and has a Masters degree and a Master Mariners license. After retiring from the Navy he worked for the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, served as a Convoy Commodore and taught ship handling in simulators. He has written a number of articles on naval matters and has published a novel, SHELLBACK, and an autobiography, STU'S SEA STORIES.