THE GRAY LADY

(First published as THE DESTROYER)

The Gray Lady is an adventure/romance dealing with tragedy, love, sexual deviation, and extreme tests of character. The story is set aboard a U. S. Navy  destroyer participating in an eight-month deployment to the Western Pacific during 1980. Although the fast-paced tale realistically represents life on board a Navy warship while on an extended deployment, it more importantly depicts the  personal struggles of some of the officers whose lives are intertwined while assigned to duty in the ship.

Lieutenant Commander Paul Chandler, the destroyer's new Executive Officer, is attempting to deal with the recent tragic lost of his  wife and daughter in an automobile accident. He must face extreme adversity, both in his personal life and in his interactions with the destroyer's domineering Commanding Officer, whose character is marred both by his propensity for  manipulation and by his degenerate sexual behavior.

When the ship conducts a brief port call in Hawaii near the beginning of the deployment, Paul meets and begins to fall in love with a beautiful Australian nurse. Although he is  apprehensive about allowing himself to love again, their romance blossoms as they continue to correspond throughout the deployment and meet again upon the ship's return. In the midst of all the tragedy, a love story develops that will move the  reader to tears.

Part way through the deployment, Paul is faced with the embarkation of six female Naval Academy midshipmen who are assigned to his ship for six weeks of underway training. The events associated with the trainees' tour on  board, including their interactions among themselves, with the officers and crew, and with the ship's captain, are shocking, tragic and moving. The decisions that Lieutenant Commander Chandler must face regarding these events demand a strength  of character found only in those who have already experienced and overcome enormous obstacles. Paul must choose whether to risk his career while ruining that of his commanding officer in order to rescue one of the midshipmen.

The reader  will weep with Paul upon the loss of his reason for living and will rejoice with him as he attempts to regain it. As he handles the difficulties associated with the tragic death of his loved ones, a homosexual act between two of the  midshipmen, and the sexual exploitation of a midshipmen by the ship's commanding officer, Paul's anguish will touch the heart of every reader.