Retired Vice Admiral Jim Hull discusses a broad range of people and experiences that taught him “so much about life and people and professionalism,” and helped shape his understanding of leadership and his views on respect and caring for people. He describes his 378-foot cutter's first mission in Vietnamese waters during which they followed a trawler that had left Hanoi filled with insurgents and ammunition, and then sank it five days later. He tells of gunfire support missions and of boarding fishing boats to stop infiltration of arms and people. He discusses the old world hierarchy that was still in place aboard ship (“the captain was the god”), and he describes advancements in navigation and communications. Hull includes his recollections of life aboard ship, of food and exercise, and duties and friendships, and time on liberty.