Expanding on Kaplan's acclaimed Imperial Grunts, Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts shifts focus to the Pacific and completes his analysis of Army Special Forces and the Marines, while also taking listeners into the heart of the myriad tribal cultures of the Air Force, surface and subsurface navies, and the regular Army's Stryker brigades. Kaplan goes deep into their highly technical and exotic worlds, and he tells this story through the words and perspectives of the enlisted personnel and junior officers themselves.