GUYS ON ICE

The sergeant in command of operations on an isolated bit of earth in the lap of the Bering Sea during the last war here tells frankly and with a rough humor and common sense the story of a year on St. Paul's with his men. He and his twenty volunteers were to act as a lookout for Dutch Harbor, and to blow up the island if the Japanese landed. How the men set up operations, and how they reacted to isolation were of concern to their leader, who worked hard to maintain morale. Reconnaissance in heavy seas, a bout with a Jap submarine and later seal-poachers, a meeting with a Russian ship, the long winter with its casualties -- death and insanity, the St. Paul's Special homemade brandy and the jokes the men played on each other and some stuffy lieutenants, hunting man, fowl and reindeer form a part of this story of a sergeant managing his men and his job. A book which men with army experience will especially appreciate -- a story of the long wait, its toll and its alleviations and its adventures. Rugged.