TO THE WAR

A Mr. Roberts' recall of World War II by a Midwesterner who looks back in middle age. War rescued Robert Lee Edson from the limitations of Iowa: he joined the Navy and saw the world. In his high-hearted youth there were uniforms (""God, we were elegant and pretty"") and girls, good times and hard work. He served on the East Coast, then saw action in the Pacific where danger and news of Hiroshima (""I am still no closer to an accommodation of that monstrous revelation"") merged with stars over the Sulu sea, encounters with New Guinea primitives and the Japanese at peace. Lieutenant Lee emerged unscathed at the end of his great experience, has the uneasy feeling that with millions of other men he enjoyed the war and would go again. This worries him, for ""war is all right, you see, if you accept the idea of the domination of death."" A sentimental retread.