This sea story isn't another high-stakes thriller, the likes of which flood the magazine aisle at the local supermarket. It is instead, that side of the fleet seen only by the men who man the grey ghosts of the US Navy-the story of the long, hot, sometimes dangerous, and always critical watches in a ship's engine room; the hole snipes, in particular, and the lifer corps in general, regardless of their rating. This is a story of that lifer corps that makes the navy work and about the culture that it breeds and the rare breed that rules that culture. Not all career navy men resemble some of the characters in this story, but there is not one fleet sailor, career or not, that does not remember one. This story is for them.