cover image Making Waves: A Woman in This Man's Navy

Making Waves: A Woman in This Man's Navy

LouAnne Johnson. St. Martin's Press, $16.95 (233pp) ISBN 978-0-312-50813-5

Another story about a naive recruit learning to live in the military servicea genre that goes all the way back to World War II and See Here, Private Hargrovethis entry is unusual because the recruit is a woman and because she is a spunky and feisty human being. There are the customary mock-horrors of basic trainingthe shock of living without privacy and the petty officer, outwardly hard as nails, who sheds a tear when her ""girls'' finish. There are adjustments to conditions on various bases in the U.S. and the difficulties of finding quarters in the Philippines. But most of all, there is the problem of fitting into ``this man's Navy,'' and, despite Johnson's light touch, she raises some serious questions. She claims she was sexually harassed at almost every turn and on many occasions was discriminated against by men genuinely bitter about females serving in the armed forces. (December 15