Crossing the Line: A Bluejacket's World War II Odyssey

Amid the host of personal memoirs published about World War II, Kernan's stands out as the classic description of an enlisted man's perspective of the great age of aircraft carriers. Crossing the Line conveys the realities of a sailor's life on a wartime carrier, relating the inveterate routines along with the moments of sheer terror that mobilized boys into fighting men. Kernan writes with unerring honesty of the enlisted man's struggle to survive with honor; the poor equipment, faulty tactics, and petty rules; the loneliness as well as the congenial interludes with crew mates; the escape sought in barroom brawls and brothels during liberty.