“...The army and navy are called the school of life. This is true. Service in our armed forces is often a test of a person’s entire essence in conditions as close to extreme as possible... This is a school of life that, before my eyes, broke some people physically and, worst of all, broke them morally, but it also educated character and opened a person’s eyes , forced us to take a fresh look at people, at familiar things and make a real revaluation of seemingly unshakable values. On the ship I saw both hardened pilots, but in fact - honest, fair people, real men, and advanced excellent students, who, in fact, in terms of their moral qualities were not a match for these pilots. And this book is about how my friends and I went through this school of life...”