Zen for a Frogman

Stories about US Navy SEALs and Underwater Demolition Teams, BUDS Training, combat, sailing adventures, sea stories, hornets, Rugby.

This is a collection of adventure stories. Some take the reader into the sea with US Navy SEAL Teams and Frogmen. The author challenges the reader with tales about the rigors of training and the dangers of combat. In this fiction, the sea is an enemy that tests the courage, determination and stamina of men and boys in boats and ships. Battle on the Rugby pitch, Zen Buddhism, swarms of hornets, hazards of the depths, blazing barrels of the Viet Cong, fear in combat and high on long ladders, boredom at sea, insanity, revenge, love and death fill the pages of this book. Several pleasant poems separate the exciting adventures.

Gilbert H. Mackin, a New Englander, was a reserve officer on active duty in the US Navy from 1962 until 1966. After sea duty on USS Terrell County (LST-1157) he served for two years as intelligence officer for Underwater Demolition Team Eleven. He holds three degrees, a BS from Trinity College, Hartford, a Masters from the University of Massachusetts and a PhD from the University of California. The author is a sailing enthusiast with experience single handing a fifty foot ketch along the Pacific coast. He now resides in Maryland and sails a Cape Dory Typhoon on the Chesapeake Bay. He has written an unpublished play in three acts and other short stories to be published in a second collection.