Terrence Riley, a flight surgeon and pilot with a lively sense of humor, writes about his two-year tour on the USS Forrestal to both entertain and inform.

As the book shows, the difficulties faced by a physician who assumes the role of a military officer on a capital ship are many. Riley is the first to reveal what it's really like to be a ship's doctor, and readers will come to appreciate the pressures, challenges, demands, and rewards.

He gives a number of insights about the role of doctors inside a military organization and offers a wealth of lively anecdotes as he describes his daily ministering to a ceaseless flow of patients with medical problems, large and small. As he takes readers on board for a glimpse of what happens in this steel-walled city of close to 6,000 sailors, it becomes immediately obvious that carrier life is dominated by the ongoing need for order and efficiency - that mistakes can have monstrous consequences.

At the same time a job well done can result in a tremendous sense of satisfaction.