This memoir of James Stavridis' two years in command of the destroyer USS Barry (DDG-52) reveals the human side of what it is like to be in charge of a warship - for the first time and in the midst of international crisis. From Haiti to the Balkans to the Arabian Gulf, the Barry was involved in operations throughout the world during the author's 1993-95 tour. Drawing on daily journals he kept for the entire period, Stavridis exposes the complex nature of those deployments in a "real time" context and describes life on board the Barry and liberty ashore for enlisted and officers alike.