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Saint, Sinner, Sailor

by Virgil C. Odom ENC USN Retired

330 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0340; ISBN 1-55369-527-5; US$27.00, C$30.95, EUR22.50, £15.50

Saint, Sinner, Sailor gets inside the mind and thoughts of a U.S. Navy sailor through his 20-year career, including time in love and at war, with prostitutes, alcohol, and the consequences of loving females that should have had an 'off-limits' sign on them.

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about the book      about the author      excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book Saint, Sinner, Sailor is about a young boy from the south who joined the navy in search of adventure and to see the world. After four years, author Virgil C. Odom re-enlisted and was sent to the Philippines, where he fell in love with a beautiful young Filipino woman, a marriage with whom was planned but aborted after Odom's transfer to Kodiak, Alaska. After leaving Alaska, and having had duty aboard the destroyers U.S.S. Halsey Powell,U.S.S. Colahan, and on the U.S.S. Berkeley, he finally made it 'close' to the Philippines -- Vietnam, about 600 miles away. Assigned to River Patrol 541 near the Rung Sat Special Zone, he witnessed war and death, leaving the conflict with a permanent scar on his memory. After a close call with a Navy psychiatrist, Odom was almost on the streets before turning his life around and completing his career in the Navy. Saint, Sinner, Sailor is neither 'all war' nor fiction. It is about the amazing, real life of an American sailor.

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About the Author Virgil C. Odom was born in 1936 and raised in the south on a sharecropper's farm. At 18, he moved to Houston, Texas where he worked with his uncle assembling automobile batteries at the Globe-Union Battery Plant. Odom enlisted in the US Navy, and had a remarkable 20-year career. The Wackenhut Security Group employed Chief Odom at University Hospital as a part-time employee during his two years before retiring from the Navy. After retirement, Odom moved to a small town 10 miles north of the Georgia-Florida border and settled down to take up woodworking as a hobby. He built the small house he lives in today with the help of his grandson, Matthew Dillon Boone. Odom currently enjoys photography, assembling small picture albums, and trying to contact his many Navy friends from the past 47+ years. Chief Odom still wishes to return to the Philippines and search for his many friends he left behind.

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Excerpts

Jennifer said 'take this cup and pair of dark glasses and stand out on the sidewalk; don't turn your head when a woman walks by, they'll know you're not blind!'

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'One more thing my little sailor boy, I'm going to stop yelling 'attention on deck' and saluting you every morning!
'Last but not least, I'm not reading the Blue Jackets Manual to you anymore at night until you stop pinching my butt and saying 'now hear this' when you want to talk!'

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Jennifer smiled and stood up, the towel and blanket dropping to the floor, telling me, 'take off your uniform, you won't need it anymore until Monday morning'. That night if anyone had offered me the rank of Admiral and to take command of a large fleet of warships I would have refused. I was in a sailor's heaven, to hell with the fleet!

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When I entered the room I could see Chief Petty officers 'wall to wall' and I thought 'probably every Chief in the Navy here to see me get all my 'Hero medal' for all the long years of busting my ass on that Minesweeper!'

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We didn't think we'd be welcomed as Great Warriors returning from battle when we arrived in the States. Why did the civilians at the airport get up and move away from us? Did we look bad and smell that bad? Did they realize we'd just came from fighting a war that their sons didn't want any part of?

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Tia said 'maybe we can find someplace to be alone. Do you still want to make love to me now, knowing I've helped the Vietcong?'
I thought for a few seconds and replied; 'when we're both undressed we'll still be the same two people, making love to you has nothing to do with making war with you'.
Tia smiled and asked; 'is that a yes?'

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I think what really bothered my wife the most was that I'd forget and call another woman's name during our'marital moments of bliss'.
Of course, I couldn't figure out how she got the name 'George' out of the name 'Virgil'.

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In a few seconds a beautiful woman came to the door. She started crying and threw her arms around me; telling me 'I knew you would come back to me!'
The small child stood beside me and said; 'Mama this is the man in the pictures you have that you said you'd always love, see the tattoos? This is the man I want you to marry then I'll have me a Daddy!'

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One of the small Minesweepers had been hit with an RPG and had struck and underwater mine. Some one had arrived with body bags and most of the bodies had been put inside. I looked at a body bag that hadn't been closed and saw an arm with a tattoo of a Texas Longhorn Steer. I didn't have to wonder who was in this bag; this young boy would be going back home to Texas.

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Both PBRs opened up on the junks with everything we had, turning the boats broadside, making it possible for all guns to fire on the targets. In less than 30 seconds all the junks were exploding and burning, the river of fires slowly drifting out with the tide.

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Catalogue Information

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