Now Hear This: The Memoir of a Junior Naval Officer in the Great Pacific War

Leach, history professor emeritus at Vanderbilt, served as an antisubmarine officer aboard a Navy destroyer for some 90 weeks during World War II. Although the ""Lucky Elden'' steamed more than 100,000 miles in two oceans, earning five battle stars, the crew never saw an enemy ship or plane and was never damaged by enemy fire. While not a chronicle of warfare in the strictest sense, this memoir is nonetheless a worthy addition to naval literature of the war, for the author, then a modest, God-fearing young man from Rhode Island, was fascinated by the ship's routine, its crew and naval customs, all of which are described interestingly. The book also contains scenes reminiscent of Mister Roberts: the captain's drunken search for contraband liquor; the desperate attempts by another captain to please a not-to-be-pleased commodore; a case of mistaken identity in which the author was assumed to have fathered a child by a woman he never met. Photos. (August 15)