In this chapter, Grant picks up the story right after high school—at the moment he felt cornered.

After being told he had “no technical skills” and wasn’t smart enough for college, Grant didn’t know what to do. So, as he puts it, he “went and hid” in the Navy.

He’s assigned ship duty on the USS Magoffin, a troop transport—hot, un-air conditioned, and demanding. But the Navy also expands his world. He visits California, Japan, Hong Kong, and spends a week touring Brisbane, Australia—experiences that spark a lifelong love of travel.

Onboard, Grant finds ways to adapt and make life interesting. He becomes a coxswain on a landing craft, then pivots toward office work. He asks his father to send a portable typewriter, uses his typing skills from high school, takes the needed course, passes the test, and becomes a yeoman.

Grant also discovers a creative side. He finds a closet full of paperbacks, sets up a ship’s library, and helps revive a daily routine of announcements and music over the ship’s radio—anything to break up the monotony and bring a little humanity into ship life.

Then comes a turning point: Grant hears President Kennedy speak in a news conference, saying the U.S. only has advisors in Vietnam and no troops fighting—while Grant’s ship has transported thousands of combat troops. The contradiction shakes him. It becomes the beginning of a deeper skepticism about what governments tell the public.

Over the next few years, Grant shifts dramatically—from deeply patriotic to convinced the Vietnam War was wrong, leading him to participate in anti-war rallies. At 21, he registers as a Democrat, marking a clear departure from his upbringing.

When he returns home, the old household rules feel impossible to slip back into. He’s been on his own long enough—and changed enough—that he chooses his own direction, enrolling at St. Petersburg Junior College.

This chapter is about more than military service. It’s about identity—how travel, responsibility, creativity, and truth-telling reshaped Grant’s worldview and set him on a new path.