Long Slow Target chronicles the highs and lows of a former teacher making the transition from naïve civilian to the supply officer (“pork chop”) of an aged ship tasked with sailing up and down the rivers of Vietnam. The welcome-aboard speech the ship’s grizzled skipper gives to his shave-tail ensign says it all:

“We don’t do spit and polish well on the Fat Lady. We’re slow as molasses in January and easier to hit than the broadside of a barn-from the inside! Half of our equipment is down hard, and the other half has been patched up three times over. As far as money goes, we always suck hind teat. But without our dirty little ship, nothing would get done in this godforsaken country. In ‘Nam, nasty comes in all shapes and sizes, and I’m here to tell you that hauling our butts around the Delta, we’ve seen our fair share of nasty.”

Larry Allen Lindsey is the award-winning author of STUMP! A former high school teacher/varsity basketball coach, he is a retired US Navy Supply Corps officer who served on a twice re-commissioned World War II amphibious ship (USS Hampshire County LST- 819) arduously deployed to Vietnam in the late 1960s. After tours with both the Seabees and the Marines, his final assignment was as the military pay director of Southern California. An adventurous sort, he earned his pilot’s license on Guam, obtained a deepwater diving certification on Okinawa, dived the underwater caves of Saipan, landed on the deserted landing strip of Tinian, drove the ALCAN Highway, and transited the Grand Canyon in a capricious wooden craft that almost drowned him at Badger Rapids. He currently resides in sunny San Diego with his wife and a cantankerous corgi named Geoff Peterson.