Strictly popular story telling, good stuff for men, this is well handled material on the ways and means by which a war was fought, and the men who fought, not always with guns, and the carefree moments that broke the tension and monotony. These stories from the critical days of early war to the advance against the Japs, in the Pacific, have an authentic feeling of place and character, a real effect of the emotional atmosphere of that time. Certain characters appear in more than one tale, and the teller is a "paper work sailor" who knew and saw the results of sitting it out on the rock, who felt the American quality of men in every service branch, as they celebrated in victory or grew more determined in defeat. There's romance, for a nurse, for a happy-go-lucky flier; there's mysterious aid from the jungles that suddenly disappears; the milk run and its cost; Bloody Mary, a Tokinese, and her defiance of military and civilian government, her ambition to find an American husband for her daughter; a doctor's desire to express his love for his wife; a Christmas that was successful in spite of disastrous threats; the building of an air strip; a marriage with a half Javanese girl; the payoff of an officious officer at a Naval Supply Depot; a big strike and the payment it demands.... Don't well as war stuff, in the ordinary sense, but as stories rooted in the experiences of the last few years.
