RED FLANNELS AND GREEN ICE

Winner of the Random House Servicemen's Prize Contest, this is a welcome account of personal discovery, of involuntary Arctic exploration. There is a youthful exuberance reminiscent of Peter Fleming's travelogues, there is an hilarity- mostly genuine, seldom forced, -- that lightens his historical and geographical inclusions, and there are vivid pictures of shipboard and shore life. This tells of the Laurel's trip, during the war, in the Greenland Patrol, and of the author's introduction to the Arctic in the Coast Guard Service, as a cowboy to icebergs. There is much of the men and their work and play, of the Laurel herself as she meets storm and ice and uncharted waters, of playing rendezvous with other ships, of missions on land and experiences -- often ludicrous -- with Eskimos and foreign residents, military and civilian. There are many highlights on Eskimo life, from igloos and ping-pong, to hunting and fishing and navigating, there is a party or two, some mountain climbing and information gathering, there is a certain delight at his own misadventures...For a man who contributed much in the cause of piscatorial malnutrition, who had a hard time living up to a rugged, salty reputation, the author takes the chill off Greenland's icy mountains in this friendly, funny report.