Sampan Sailor (H)

As a Navy enlisted man during WW II, the author of this entertaining memoir served in China with the Sino-American Cooperative Organization, a weather-reporting project that played a role in the U.S. submarine campaign against Japanese shipping, in B-29 raids on Japanese cities and in the rescue of downed Allied airmen. Mishler's re-creation of his military experiences in Fukien Province with the ``Rice Paddy Navy'' is decidedly secondary to his reminiscences of day-to-day life in rural China as he plied the Nine Dragons River in the course of his duties. In his early 30s and gifted with curiosity and keen powers of observation, the author found his tour fascinating: ``How these Chinese continued to amaze me!'' Something of an operator, Mishler recounts with delightful relish his bargaining exploits with small merchants and country folk who sold him jewelry, bronze figurines and pottery. Mishler retired in 1971 after an executive career with the Veterans Administration. He died in 1992 at the age of 83. (Feb.)