Completed after eight years of writing and research, Nicole Waybright's memoir tells the true story of her coming-of-age struggles while deployed as an officer on a U.S. Navy destroyer. With heartbreaking and fearless realism, the author chronicles the despair and psychological crisis that she experienced while yet in the early days of a five-year military obligation. Long Way Out, a narrative nonfiction work, is presented in graphic and historically accurate detail based on the author's five years of (honorably discharged) service as a commissioned officer in the Surface Warfare (SWO) Navy, during the era of the first wave of women to be stationed aboard combatant ships. Alongside an account of the author's turbulent psychological journey, Long Way Out reveals the tragic story of the notorious executive officer - the first woman in U.S. history to command an Aegis destroyer and be stripped of command for "cruelty and maltreatment" of her crew - under whom the author served. TIME magazine later called this commander "the Female Captain Bligh." An unlikely turn of events finds the author with a radicalized self-understanding, committed to seeking self-awareness and courageously exploring ways to make her tour successful in the face of tremendous obstacles. Based in Jungian psychology. Includes details of topical issues within US Navy Surface Warfare (SWO) culture. "Long Way Out is a remarkable testament to personal courage and offers a bracing insight into military service and its sometimes toxic leadership." - Mark Thompson (Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and former National Security Correspondent for TIME Magazine) “This is a brave book by a brave naval officer. She documents convincingly the abusive, dysfunctional culture characteristic of surface warships in our Navy. As the horrific collisions involving USS McCAIN and USS FITZGERALD demonstrated, it’s not gotten better since Lieutenant Waybright resigned. I’m ashamed for my former Service.” - Captain John Byron (USN Ret.) served for 37 years in a cruiser and five submarines. He is author of prizewinning essays on national security matters. The U.S. Naval Institute's professional journal, Proceedings, twice named him its Author of the Year. "Nicole Waybright's book, Long Way Out, is an eye-opener. I spent 31 years in the U.S. Army and have seen my share of bad leadership. But I had no idea that it could be intensified to the point of insanity when exercised toward women, and even by women." - Lawrence Wilkerson (Professor, College of William and Mary; U.S. Army Col., retired; former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell) "This book is for everyone trying to find their true self. Nicole Waybright's gripping narrative charts the individuation journey of herself as a young woman officer on board a Navy destroyer, where lack of authenticity and integrity in the structures leads to terrible bullying and dysfunction...It is a lifesaver for those who find themselves locked into a family or work environment or institution going progressively insane due to being severed from authentic roots....This is a superb and important book!" - Susan Rowland, PhD, MA Oxford University, associate Chair of PhD Program in Jungian and Archetypal Studies. Author of seven books on Jung. Previously Professor of Jungian Studies at the University of Greenwich, London, founding Chair of the International Association of Jungian Studies 2003-6. Reviewed in Military Times as one of the 14 best reads for 2017, J. Ford Huffman refers to the book as "...a fastidious memoir about a square peg trying to fit into a porthole.” NICOLE WAYBRIGHT resides in New England. She received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from Boston Univ. in 1996. Nicole was honorably discharged from the Navy in 2001. In 2006 she received her MA in Spanish from the Univ. of Rhode Island. "Long Way Out is a remarkable testament to personal courage and offers a bracing insight into military service and its sometimes toxic leadership." - Mark Thompson (Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and former National Security Correspondent for TIME Magazine) "This is a brave book by a brave naval officer. She documents convincingly the abusive, dysfunctional culture characteristic of surface warships in our Navy. As the horrific collisions involving USS McCAIN and USS FITZGERALD demonstrated, it's not gotten better since Lieutenant Waybright resigned. I'm ashamed for my former Service." Captain John Byron (USN Ret.) served for 37 years in a cruiser and five submarines. He is author of prizewinning essays on national security matters. The Navy's professional journal twice named him its Author of the Year. "Nicole Waybright's book, Long Way Out, is an eye-opener. I spent 31 years in the U.S. Army and have seen my share of bad leadership. But I had no idea that it could be intensified to the point of insanity when exercised toward women, and even by women." - Lawrence Wilkerson (Professor, College of