Machine Guns and Fairy Tales-To: Retired Rear Admiral William Hamill

"Promise me a purpose", he said under his breath to the master at arms. As recalcitrant hope shined in his eyes. "Pretend you matter" was the master at arms reply. He added "without a speech impediment". "Look lively and keep sharp, that is the answer to the riddle of life. The core has the answer".
The cadet was 18 years old and as soon as he graduated high school he enlisted in the service of the Navy. He was an adept student and sought to become a man on his excursions on the open sea.
Trevor Conroy was an orphan most of his life, his parents had died in a car crash when he was eight years old. He had gone to high school in New York City while living in an orphanage and vowed to make something of himself. He was totally obsessed with proving his worth.
There was something amusing about life out at sea when you had been an orphan beforehand, the abundance of ocean life and the swells. The more you drifted, the more you dreamed. Some dreams resided in the past, while some precepts where guided toward the future, but with the water and the wind at your heels you always seemed to feel the tug of war in the present. Absent as a vacant catharsis, the open minded set sail to their own emotions.
The master at arms, Sergeant Dwayne Stern was displaying the proper way to load and deload a weapon...
After drills the Sergeant said "Sit up and sit down, do some more pushups! No slackers in this outfit!"
Trevor thought back to High School, where he was the star quarterback for his home team of the Beavers. He knew the game inside and out, he could throw like a pro, but the mastery of the game lied in the connection. Pontificating about miserable losses are let downs where the team lost morale. His ideal notion was cadence to the Navy and respect from his peers. He was an apt minded pupil and thought of himself to be a "rigor hound". The loss of his parents made him somewhat of an overachiever to stay above ground and afloat.
"There is no solid ground in the thin air of space". The same rule applied to the ocean with limited space aboard a cruising warship.
The key to Trevor's life had been good navigation and an open minded spirit. He was an aspiring songwriter and musician, as his hobby in the down time they had on the ship. He was writing a new song called "Dog Sea Night" aboard the vessel in the twilight of the midsea night. He sank away into that special place in his mind that all sea dwellers seem to incarnate when their minds and bodies were fine tuned to the existing peace. The sea, unlike the land, had foggy nights where you could lose yourself in the wind. It's howl, it's calling, and it's tranquility for some. On such nights Trevor wrote his best tunes.