The Gray Lady

The Gray Lady is an action-adventure / romance involving tragedy, love, sexual deviation, and extreme tests of character for Lieutenant Commander Paul Chandler, the ship's newly assigned Executive Officer. Set aboard a U. S. Navy destroyer participating in an eight-month deployment to the Western Pacific, this fast-paced tale realistically represents life on board a Navy warship while on extended deployment, while also depicting the personal struggles of some of the ship's officers whose lives are intertwined while assigned to duty in the ship.While attempting to cure his emotional wounds caused by the tragic loss of his wife and daughter in an automobile accident, Paul must also face extreme adversity in his interactions with his ship's domineering captain, whose character is marred by incompetence, a propensity for manipulation, and by degenerate sexual behavior, among other flaws.When the ship conducts a brief port call in Hawaii near the beginning of the deployment, Paul meets Julie, a beautiful Australian nurse. Although apprehensive about allowing himself to love again, Paul cannot stop thinking of Julie as they continue to correspond throughout the deployment and hope to meet again upon the The Gray Lady's (Julie's name for Paul's ship) return. In the midst of all the tragedy in his life, Paul realizes that he may be allowing himself to fall in love with Julie, although he understands that their relationship can never be.Part way through the deployment, Paul is faced with the embarkation of six female Naval Academy midshipmen, who are assigned to the destroyer for six weeks of underway training. 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 impassioned. The decisions facing Lieutenant Commander Chandler regarding these events demand a strength of character possessed by only a few. Ultimately, he must choose whether to place duty above all else by risking his own career, while destroying that of his commanding officer.As events begin to transpire resulting in the possibility of Paul and Julie finding a way to be together again, the love story culminates in an ending that will bring tears to the eyes of anyone who has ever loved and lost, and loved again.