Excerpts

Check out excerpts from Joe’s books When the Dust Settled and Unshackled by clicking on the images below!

Fire Below, Fire Within

Excerpt from Unshackled

The heat was already thick that morning when disaster struck.

I was working down in the starboard filter room when the sharp wail of the General Quarters alarm shattered the air. A fire had broken out in the starboard hangar bay. We’d been through countless drills since the start of the World Cruise, but this one hit differently. You could feel it in the way the ship jolted to life—in the way your gut twisted before your brain caught up.

I climbed the ladder fast, sealed the hatch, and locked it down tight. Then came the worst part—waiting. We had been in general quarters a lot. I was trained, equipped, and prepared for whatever came. When I joined the Navy, I knew what I was getting into. I could lose my life in the line of duty. This was par for the course—and I was all in.

Our firefighters were the best. I’d been part of the in-port team—I knew the drills, the gear, the muscle memory. The U.S. Navy didn’t play games when it came to fires at sea.

But training couldn’t silence the voices in my head. The ones that had nothing to do with the present.

That fire no one could run from triggered something I thought I’d buried a long time ago.