This is a rather later appearing (2006) World War II memoir written by a former gunnery officer of the "four piper" destroyer USS Stewart (DD-224) about his experiences in the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies (NEI) over the first four months of America's participation in the Pacific War. In his 244 pages, author Lodwick H. Alford relates the beginning of his waritme U.S. Navy career, although he served in several other ships in the course of the conflict and remained in the service up to his retirement at the rank of Captain in 1967.

Alford relates his story in 21 chapters and three appendices, of which one appendix details the fates of significant personalities mentioned in the book, the second of which discusses the recognitions, awards and decorations awarded to or that should have been awarded to U.S. Asiatic Fleet personnel, and the third of which lists the crew of the Stewart during her one major engagement (the Battle of Badoeng Strait) and her subsequent abandonment in the NEI port city of Surabaya. Alford also provides his reader with some photographs and a bibliography.

It is easy to see why Alford focuses his book on this very brief period of his wartime service and his naval career. The story of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet is a compelling and tragic one because of the juxtaposed themes of sacrifice, determination, and stupidity. The resiliancy of the Fleet's ship and crews at a time when no help was forthcoming from either the U.S. Pacific Fleet or the rest of the Navy in the continental United States is a story worth repeating for succeeding generations of Americans. Alford tells his story well. He uses a variety of sources including his own journal to weave his tale (much valuable history would have been lost had these veterans followed the rules and not maintained personal journals).

Alford, for the most part, avoids the bane of many World War II memoirs in that he does not impose a "god's eye view" of the happenings around him. Alford mostly keeps the reader with him in the hull of the Stewart and of the USS Isabel (PY-10), the ship with which he makes his escape to Australia after the abandonment of the Stewart in Surabaya. If Alford takes the narrative off the ship, he does so gracefully in the form of conversations with other Asiatic Fleet officers with direct knowledge of the events spoken of. Alford has strong feelings about how Asiatic Fleet commander Admiral Thomas C. Hart was treated during this period so he cites extensively from Leutze's biography of the admiral for this section of the book. These accounts are duly noted in the book's bibliography. Alford also uses explanatory and citation footnotes in the pages of his book.

So how does this book compare with a memoir I recently reviewed about the same theater of war? Compared with J. Daniel Mullin's "Another Six-hundred", a book Alford cites in his own work, "Playing for Time" has a smoother feel to it, perhaps because Alford used a small publishing house that probably furnished an editor rather than publishing the book himself. Because Alford keeps his story fairly tight to his ship, his book is much smaller than Mullin's work. Mullin is angry, almost seething, in his indignation at how the Asiatic Fleet and its destroyer force has been treated by historians. Alford is more thoughtful, expressing sorror at the failure of the nation and the Navy to recognize the sacrifices of those who paid the ultimate cost for their county's unpreparedness at the beginning of the war. Regardless of stylistic differences, both books are invaluable resources documenting a period of American history which many would like to forget. A reader could not go wrong by reading both books. ( )