Stand by for Action

Having met at the naval base in San Francisco, Lt. Cmdr. Martin J. Roberts and Lt. Gregg Masterman would admit that their assignment aboard the USS Warren is not their first choice, it a recommissioned destroyer that would have been junked in better times. The Commanding Officer, Roberts was expecting to remain CO of his existing modern ship, the USS Crenshaw, which was in dock for major repairs, while Harvard educated Masterman, the Executive Officer from a privileged background, was happy with naval life on shore the aide to Rear Adm. Stephen Thomas, the base Commander, organizing social events, in the process having time for more leisurely pursuits, such as tennis at the club and women. While Masterman only sees the Warren as an accident waiting to happen if they are asked to go into active combat, Roberts has the view that one has to do the best as humanly possible no matter that they're working with WWI era equipment. The two men also have differing views of the sanctity of life, Masterman who has a sentimental view protecting those he knows, which is why he helped Henry Johnson, who was the Warren's civilian caretaker and who fought aboard the Warren during WWI, an assignment as Chief Yeoman on this crew despite his age, while Roberts knows that he has to make unsentimental decisions in looking at the bigger picture of life of the masses that he does not know, and in making those decisions no matter what happens that everything aboard the Warren is his responsibility in the buck stopping with him. In addition to some unexpected precious cargo they have to transport, the two men will have to test their and the Warren's mettle when they are asked to join a convoy of ships from Honolulu to San Francisco, they in the process open for attack by the Japanese.