James Sadler

Westpac James Sadler

Experience the cramped quarters on a WWII vintage destroyer in the Tonkin Gulf. Laugh and love with eager young sailors in exotic ports of the Pacific Rim: Hong Kong, Subic Bay, Yokosuka, Kaohsiung, Tokyo, Singapore, Bangkok, and more. Dance to the constant pitch and roll that gives destroyers at sea the nickname of "tin cans". Smell spent cordite as big guns boom in support of marines ashore. Pray for survival in a typhoon with endless forty-foot waves crashing over the pilothouse. Endure initiation by King Neptunus Rex and his band of pirates at the equator.

Rush to battle stations when Russian bombers fly over at low altitude in the Sea of Japan. Take a front row seat to history as the USS Henry W. Tucker is the first American ship to arrive on scene when North Korea shoots down an American spy plane in April 1969. See the bodies and the debris; feel the intense cold of sea and sky; rendezvous with a Russian destroyer while the Nixon administration grapples with the possibility of igniting World War III.

All that and more unfolds in the pages of WestPac the true story of destroyer sailors deployed in the Western Pacific region during Vietnam and the Cold War.