The Honorable Way: Life Lessons Aboard a Destroyer in the Western Pacific, 1963

After his graduation from Princeton University and Naval Officer Candidate School, Bud Mackey finds himself aboard the USS Chevalier (DD 805) in the early days of the Vietnam War as the ship powers its way across the Pacific toward the Gulf of Tonkin. Along the journey, he contemplates major events of WWII, writes poetry about his experience, and journals about the people and places he encounters.

In this memoir, based on old journals and logbooks, Mackey shares his trenchant and often humorous descriptions of life on the high seas and in port. "We had the experience but missed the meaning," he writes. Ultimately, this is his attempt to glean insight from those long-ago days.