“This is a humorous, yet serious, story about maturing, perseverance and the loneliness inherent in young men going out into the world.”
Albany, N.Y. (PRWEB) November 12, 2013
In his new book “In the Trough: Three Years on Ocean Station” (published by iUniverse) author and former naval reserve officer Thomas F. Jaras recalls his three years in the early 1960s aboard U.S.S. Vance, a destroyer escort radar picket ship guiding aircraft to the Antarctic continent his first year and then nuclear deterrence patrols on the northern Pacific Barrier, an extension of the Distant Early Warning Line.
The Vance, an old World War II-era destroyer, was described by Jaras and his shipmates as “the worst-riding ship in the Cold War Navy.” Its task was to stay afloat in mid ocean, often in some of the world’s worst weather conditions, and use its radar to patrol the skies between the Soviet Union and North America. Jaras, young, inexperienced and naïve, fears the best years of his life are being wasted at sea. He desperately searches for women, love and a normal existence during his infrequent short stints ashore. Despite this hardship, his departure from sea duty is tearful.
“Anyone who has been to sea, especially those with naval service and Antarctic experience, will identify with the story,” Jaras says. “This is a humorous, yet serious, story about maturing, perseverance and the loneliness inherent in young men going out into the world.”
“In the Trough”
By Thomas F. Jaras
Hardcover | 6 x 9 in | 340 pages | ISBN 9781491706558x
Softcover | 6 x 9 in | 340 pages | ISBN 9781491706534
E-Book | 340 pages | ISBN 9781491706541
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble
About the Author
Thomas F. Jaras earned a doctorate in European history from Georgetown University. He has been a Smithsonian fellow, teacher, national renewable energy consultant, museum consultant, state science and technology staffer and naval officer. Now retired, he lives in Albany, N.Y.
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