Chet Bright with Derek Turner

Chet Bright faced the prospect of death on the water many times – during World War II, Korea and Vietnam – but in the end the sea was his savior.
The son of a West Texas cowboy, he ran away at seventeen to join the military after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
Aboard a destroyer during World War II, as a frogman with the Navy's elite Underwater Demolition Teams in Korea and later as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal expert, Bright found himself anchored to life on the water. It thrilled him and it scarred him, but he could not untether himself from the adventure it promised.
Bluejacket is the story of those adventures, from his time at war to his post-military years sailing the Caribbean in a boat built from a shell in his back yard.
He gave his life to the sea. In return, it gave him these memories.