I know a lot of people in the book opted not to read it until it came out, but how much did you feel compelled to alert about what you would publishing about them?
Not as many as you’d think. Most of my family members and the guys in the Navy said “Write what you see.” That was incredibly freeing. The only person who got a pre-read was my Mom and we worked out her problems with it, that wasn’t easy, but we got through it.

Why now?
My dad’s plane, the EA-6B Prowler was finally being retired. It was my Dad’s plane. If I was going to follow his old plane with his final squadron it had to be now. So that was a great motivator.

In an interview with the Awl you discuss your initial efforts to sell the story, which were unsuccessful. As a magazine writer I imagine you have a lot of experience pitching stories: what’s the difference when it’s your own life, both in terms of the pitch and how you feel if it gets passed on?
Actually, I wasn’t unsuccessful. I sent in my proposal, my agent slapped a cover page on it and we had an auction a few days later. The editor I mentioned passed on it, but there were other offers on the table thank goodness. We sent it out to probably seven or eight places, some passed, some didn’t. The different in pitching this versus a magazine piece is I knew what I wanted to do and was prepared to take less money from a place that would let me tell the story as I wanted it to be written. That isn’t always possible in magazines.

What are some of the biggest real-life cliches about living on an aircraft carrier?
The noise. You can not imagine how loud the flight deck is. You can not imagine how a catapult launch will nearly shake you out of your bunk. There is noise everywhere and all the time.