A toast! A great post to keep things in perspective. I’d rather be in Atlanta than Okinawa.

Did a few "weather" deviations to fly over Iwo Jima going to Saipan. Bravery isn't an adequate word.

I was fortunate enough to hike from the airfield on Iwo Jima down time the beaches/landing sites, and then climb Mt. Suribachi. On the way back, we were able to go through some of caves on the island.

It was hot, steamy and the waves were treacherous. The sand was deep on the beaches, and there was a lot of exposed area between the water and any cover whatsoever.

Massive respect for our Marine brethren who fought some amazing battles. Too many young lives lost...


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I just read “Countdown 1945” by Chris Wallace. It covers the period between when Truman became president (and didn’t know the Manhattan Project existed) and the dropping of the bomb. More than half of the total casualties in the Pacific occurred during the time from when he became VP until the end of the war. It was a very good read.

If you want an unvarnished peek(s) into the life of a Marine rifleman in the Pacific, start with Leckie's "Helmet For My Pillow" and follow with EB Sledge's "With The Old Breed". Both profound books that I read as a young Marine and left me awed.

The HBO miniseries "The Pacific" was largely based on those two books. The video is "good", if you can use that word about such a subject. A couple scenes in particular. The books however convey a world beyond anything my feeble vocabulary could describe. How could anything be worse than fighting the Nazis in Europe? Try the Japanese in the Pacific, in spades. How can a book evoke such a sense of pervasive putrid rotting death? The heat, the rain, the flies, the mud, the death.


My son picked "With the Old Breed" off the CNO's book list for a summer Academy assignment. Thought I'd read it along with him as it had been on my list of books to read. It was so "good"/awful, I grabbed "Helmet". After reading those, I would definitely be checking the Pilot box and not the Grunt box on the application.


I was going to write they were "manly men". Doesn't even remotely do those heros justice.

Thanks for the info. I've read quite a bit about the theater. John Tolland has written some great books. My great uncle, who I got to know in the 1960's, was a disabled WW2 vet. He was in bad shape, I later found out about his time in a Japanese POW camp. Not from him. Never said a word about the war.

Sledge’s description of his battles was absolutely brutal. For a third person view of brutality of the Pacific, I’d recommend Dower’s War Without Mercy. Tens of thousands of combatants and less than 100 POWs in many cases. It’s was a war of no quarter.

I'll chime in here and say the most reliably cheapest way to acquire used books is Ebay, of all places.

Beats Amazon hands down, not even close.

Great books, so eye opening,

“I am staying with my boys” will complete that trilogy of work.
great book, first hand account of Guadalcanal.

How did any of those boys come home alive...??