Long before AIDS, the Moral Majority, and Don't Ask, Don't Tell, there was the era of bell bottoms and flower children. Vietnam and LBJ. Free love. It was an exhilarating time to be alive, especially for a handsome sailor a bout to return stateside with three purple hearts on his uniform and a fierce hunger in his heart.In January 1968. The new year isn't off to a promising start for Kurt Strom. Fresh from a celibate year in DaNang, he's flat broke, half-frozen, and hitchhiking on the slushy New Jersey Turnpike. When a macho, married cop comes along, Kurt finds himself longing for more than a ride. Trooper Nick Esoldi is open to friendship...and only friendship. But Kurt didn't survive Vietnam by giving up without a fight.As his journey takes him from a Newport naval base to the Enlisted Men's Club to the USO, Kurt manages to make his most ribald, risky fantasies become reality -- and avoid being dishonorably discharged. But the seductive Navy corpsman is more determined than ever to find his way back to Newark. For convinced that inside every straight man is a willing partner, Kurt is about to embark on the journey of his life -- and talk Nick into coming along for the ride.Evocative, funny and poignant, "Panthers in the Skins of Men" is the unforgettable story of one man's odyssey of sexual discovery.