Rich Merritt was the epitome of the all American boy - a good son, teacher's pet, model Christian and Marine officer. But he discovered a dark secret about himself - he was gay. Reacting to Bill Clinton's |Don't Ask, Don't Tell| policy to homosexuals in the military, Merritt began moonlighting as a gay porn star - until he was outed. A humorous and compelling story of self- forgiveness and identity by a man who refused to allow himself to be defined by anyone else's standards.
This sailor's memoir leads from the U.S. Navy's peacetime "Pineapple Fleet" in Pearl Harbor to a secret convoy transporting the "Flying Tigers" to Asia. After the disaster at Pearl Harbor, his ship raids Japanese bases in the central Pacific. He watches Doolittle's bombers take off from the Hornet to bomb Tokyo, then proceeds to the carrier air battles of Midway and Santa Cruz. At Guadalcanal he is wounded when his ship sinks. From hospitals in New Zealand he moves to New Guinea, then to a destroyer at Okinawa, shooting at kamikazes. Post-war service in China and Japan round out his story.
