In the summer of 1978, a naive young man left school with a few mediocre qualifications, no real ambition, absolutely no idea what he was going to do next, and a job in the Royal Navy wasn't even on the radar. As for his knowledge of the Navy, the author had only seen a TV series called 'Warship'. Just how hard could it be? 32 Years Man and Buoy charts Ian Atkinson's Naval career through the highs and lows of basic training before spending more than half of his life serving his Queen and country. The author's recollections are an honest and humorous account of an immensely enjoyable career. He makes some monumental mistakes along the way as he slowly matures from a barely capable Marine Engineering Mechanic to the dizzy heights of a Chief Petty Officer Submariner. Serving on frigates, destroyers and submarines throughout his long career, Ian Atkinson had a lot of laughs and shed a lot of tears through times that were good, bad and sometimes downright ugly. Nobody ever said it would be plain sailing.