After his submarine is twice attacked and finally scuttled off the coast of North Korea, DeLong is the last man off the USS Santa Fe. Earlier the twenty-year-old, queer, disgruntled petty officer thought he'd wrangled his way off the boat in the days of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell' by kissing another sailor on the mess deck. The retributions from the crew, predictable and otherwise, only reinforce his defiance. And the totally un-Navy-like incidents in the head and laundry room harden his resolve to become a civilian even more. But when the Santa Fe is attacked, DeLong finds he's still very much a sailor. At times a reluctant one, perplexed by the transformation, and never quite a hero, but nevertheless a sailor.