Jocko Podcast - 491: SLEDGEHAMMER. Eugene Sledge's son Henry Shares Lost Stories of The Old Breed 1st Marine Division.

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

>Join Jocko Underground< Get "With The Old Breed: Full Story Revealed" >HERE<The Old Breed… The Complete Story Revealed brings to life an abundance of new material from the original manuscript of Eugene Sledge’s classic memoir With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa. By interspersing his own personal anecdotes throughout, Henry Sledge takes his father’s work and gives it newfound context, sharing memories of conversations between father and son. The result is a flowing narrative that portrays an intimate look at a WWII veteran and his struggles to adapt to civilian life following the war.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko Podcast number 491 with Dave Burke and me, Jocker Willink. Good evening, Dave. Good evening. In the early morning light, word was passed that they had to move out and attack across the airfield. Quote, many of us had no water and ammunition supplies were low. We hoped supplies would come up before the attack. We were thirsty and we could not go much longer without water.

A concentration of heavy machine gun fire swept over their gun pit. First, I distinctly heard three separate shots. Crack, crack, crack, crack as the bullets passed over, quickly followed by the report of the gun. That's a hotchkiss, said Snafu as we ducked our heads. No sooner had he uttered the remark than the gun fired a long burst and tracers streaked over us. And the slugs cracked as they went over, not more than a foot above ground level. Whether those Japanese heavy machine gunners were laying down harassing fire, supporting another counterattack, or whether they actually observed our position by the muzzle flashes from our mortar

or sauced by the light of the star shells, we couldn't know. End quote. My father knew that as soon as this machine gun fire ended, they were going to have to prepare to attack across the airfield. The thought of this filled him and all the Marines who would have to do it with dread. And that right there is an excerpt from a, new book. The new book is called The Old Breed, The Complete Story Revealed, and is written by a man named W. Henry Sledge. And if the name Sledge rings a bell, it should. Henry Sledge is the son of the

legendary Marine Eugene Sledge. Sledgehammer. A mortar man from three, five Marines who fought the battles at Pelulu and Okinawa, which were some of the most brutal, savage, and bloody warfare in history. Thousands of men were killed. Tens of thousands were wounded. The Japanese Imperial Army did not believe in surrender. So they fought to the death. And the Japanese rarely took prisoners. They executed our troops and mutilated. their bodies. And in the face of that horror, some of our troops escalated their ferocity as well. And some committed acts that were outside the bounds of what is considered acceptable behavior by civilized society. And yet through all that, Eugene Sledge, son of a doctor from a good family,

fought with tenacity, yet he maintained his humanity. And he wrote about his experiences in combat in a book called With the Old Breed at Pelaloo and Okinawa book, lauded by some as the best memoir of World War II and some as the best memoir of war ever written. It was one of the first books that were, We covered on this podcast. And that book is one of the books used as the basis for the incredible HBO series called The Pacific, which I always explained to me is the best movie about war. Eugene Sledge also wrote a book called China Marine. And this was a book that was about the time after the fighting had ceased, where he served in post-war China.

and then his return home to Alabama and the challenges of reintegrating with his family, with his friends, with civilian life, and we covered that book on podcast 82. So Eugene Sledge passed on many lessons before he died

in 2001. But there are more lessons to learn. There are more experiences to share. And in this new book, The Old Breed, the complete story revealed. His son, Henry, has assembled notes from his experiences with his father and sections from drafts that did not make it into the final version of the book with the old breed.

And these experiences, these conversations, these memories of Henry's father give us a better understanding of war, of leadership, and truly of life. And it is an absolute honor to have Henry's sloth. here with us tonight to discuss his new book and discuss his father, Eugene Sledgehammer Sledge. Henry, thank you so much for joining us. It's an honor to have a year. Thank you, Jocko.

Really, really pleased to be here. Yeah, I mean, we had to take a moment just to say, we better press record because as soon as you walked in here, you saw the books we've got out here, and we got a copy of the original book, The Old Breed, written by McMillan, which came out in 1949, just a really direct translation of what happened in the Pacific.

And then, of course, I got my first edition copy of With the Old Breed by your dad. Now I've got your first edition copy. I've got China Marine over here. Your dad, you know, battle tested, battle proven Marine. Tested to the absolute limits of human endurance. And yet, a gentle, kind, understanding, intellectually curious, just a tender-hearted man. His book is a masterpiece.

And your book, you went and dug out the old manuscripts of it and then went through line by line and figured out what got cut. What got cut from your dad's book? That's kind of how you put it together. Exactly. So I got my hands on the original unedited manuscript, which all my father's papers are in the archives at Auburn University. I have some great friends at Auburn. I contacted the people in special collections. And his original unedited manuscript is actually enclosed papers.

So if someone, historians go there all the time to look at his letters and papers because they want to write about him or quote him in something. but they can't get to the original manuscript. Being enclosed papers means only the family can see it. That's the typed version, which they electronically scanned and sent to me, and then I printed out. But to see, they've got in this expandable folder, this stack of yellow legal pads, which is his handwritten. So I had to ask their permission, since it's enclosed papers,

if I could see it. And I told them what I wanted to do. You know, I'd had a conversation with my mom, and she, I'd been on a podcast of somebody, and she knew the passion that I had for my dad's legacy. And she said, you need to get your hands on that original manuscript, because I think there's stuff in there that could add to the story. And so I did and sat down with, with the old breed in one hand, in that manuscript and the other.

And I got, Jocco, I got as microscopic as I could. Like I highlighted everything, and it was 820 pages. I had it printed out in 200-page books, four of them, because I wanted a user-friendly format to go through and analyze this thing to extract what I could to do what I felt like I needed to do. And the analogy I've used, and I hope this isn't getting too down in the weeds, but imagine, like, if you're really good at woodwork, and you see it, you've got your shop, you've got scraps of wood on the floor,

do you see a scrap of wood that somebody else might throw away? if you're good at woodwork, you can take that and finesse it into something else and use it and make it a thing of beauty. So to draw that analogy across, when I went through and I found sentences, not just entire anecdotes, but sentences that had been edited out. I thought, you know, that could be pretty cool if I'd worked that into my narrative. And so I got as microscopic as I could, but I ended up going through like five highlighters. And it took me a few months to go through all of it and highlight, you know, what got edited. out. But that was the start of the process. And how long did the whole process take you?

I started November, 2021 of sitting down with it and doing the highlighting. And it took me about three months to get through that. And then I went back through it and reread everything in its entirety and made brackets around what I thought I would want to use because there's a lot of stuff I didn't use. And, you know, like we talked about here a little while ago, when you're writing a book, I mean, there's a lot that I had to edit out when my agent said, look, man, we got to keep this thing around 110,000 words. Because when I finished my manuscript, like my narrative plus what I extracted of his, it was 164,000 words. It's a big book. My agent said, Henry, I will fight this fight for you any way you want, but that is going to be a big-ass book. I don't think we want it that big.

You want it to move, right? And I said, well, yeah, of course, man. I mean, I'm proud of this because people can see more of my dad. And so he said, let's try to get it to about 110,000 words. And so my wife and son and I went to the beach, and I'm like, this was I'd already written it all. And I'm like, okay, I've got to go through this thing and now start trimming it down. And so I did. But, I mean, to give you an example, like he wrote pages that I couldn't put in here about how

ammunition was packaged and crated. And I did bring some of that in, but you wouldn't believe how much. And it was really esoteric detail. But as I've told people, you know, if you're an infantryman and it's raining and been raining for two weeks and you're in knee-deep mud on Okinawa and you've got to hump infantry or you've got to hump ammunition up to a fighting position from an ammunition dump and you're under constant nambu fire, you're going to be really interested in how that ammunition is packaged.

And because he went into, you know, being a scientist and as observant as he was, he went into a lot of extremely arcane detail. And so when I made my final pass through, like, okay, I've got to get this thing trimmed down to start looking for a publisher. Some of that had to go. But I tried to keep the essence of it. It reminds me of, so in the military, you know, you have, you're gathering intel. You've got people gathering intel, right?

And you're trying to paint as complete of a picture as you possible. we can of whatever situation you're going into. And that's why every little, when we would debrief after a mission, you're trying to capture every little detail because, you know, it might not be a big deal if I walk into a building and, oh, yeah, there was a red carpet on the floor. And then it doesn't mean anything to me. And we happen to find some, some demolition, some enemy demolitions underneath it, right? IED making material. Well, I didn't figure to report the red carpet. Well, Dave does a mission and he also doesn't report that there's a red carp. Well, we don't know it, but that's what the enemy is using to signify where they're hiding their explosives and you have to

assemble that information. So these little scraps of wood that you're talking about, they start to paint a picture. And then that makes me think of Gettysburg. So I've been to Gettysburg many, many times and that whole, you get you these little tiny details. And one detail that I know that I brought up at Gettysburg when we take groups there is is something called a single last shoe. So I have a company. We make boots, right? And so the last is what you, the last is like a form that you make the boot around. Well, in modern times, we have a left last for your left foot and a right last for your right foot. Well, the soldiers in the Civil War, they use boots that were made on a single last, which means there was no difference between the left boot and the right

boot. And then they had wooden so, you know, you sit there and you tell people, hey, these guys were marching 30 miles a day on, what was it, 920 calories of hard tack and crackers. And then that sounds really bad. And then you say, and by the way, they had wooden souls on their shoes. And by the way, it's a single last and everyone goes, what's a single last? It's the same shoe on the left and right foot. And people start to realize the suffering. So when you're talking about your dad and when you're having to carry ammunition under heavy Japanese fire, and I remember this part of the book we were talking about like if there's

barely enough room on this one ammo case to get your fingernails. Yeah, that was a 30 ball. Yeah, the 30 ball. You can barely get your fingernails in there to carry it. And so it's just a poor design. And who's going to suffer? Well, the people in the factory don't care. It's a little smaller.

It's a little easier for them to load on the truck, but you get that thing out in the field, you start to realize what an impact it has. And that's what I, you know, there's obviously there's a lot of information about the Pacific campaign. There's a lot of information about Pelulu and Okinawa. And yet you still get an even clearer picture from your book

and you still get a better understanding. And if anyone's watched the Pacific, you start going, oh, okay, so there's little, indications in the Pacific. And again, this is something we talked about before we hit record. When you make a movie, stuff just gets cut. Whole storylines get cut. Characters get cut. And you look up and it just has to happen for the movie. You can't make a movie that's, you know, a hundred hours long. Right. And so things get cut. But you can see little indicators in the movie and then little indicators and with the old breed and you go, oh, and then your

expansion on it and the details. It just takes it to, a whole other level of comprehension of what of what's what the guys went through right it's it's another level of of context and depth and meaning um to the original book and to the pacific and to anyone that thinks about history and world war two this is a just an epic account well that that's when you speak of pellaloo you know so much has been written about it and it it it is it is a it's It is a fascinating campaign in its own right. When I was growing up and my dad was writing with the old breed, it was referred to as the forgotten battle.

And that was something that I think embittered him. Not because he personally suffered there, but because like any good military man, he's thinking about his buddies who didn't make it home. But after the Pacific, which I thought did a phenomenal job of showing the amphibious, the viciously opposed. host amphibious landing after the way my dad wrote about it, the visceral detail-oriented way that

he wrote about it and with the old breed, you know, when I sat down and started going through that, I couldn't replicate with the old breed. I mean, that was the thing. I mean, it was, I was really trying to be careful to bring something to the forward that that would give, like you said, additional color and context and depth to sledgehammer story without just somebody going, well, I mean, it's just, he's just re-quoting his father. You know, I tried to reproduce what my father said in my own words to maintain the flow of the narrative. But there, and I was really happy when I went back and I just, God, I had to go through it so many times and read it again and again again to make sure, okay, I've got to bring people something from my dad that they haven't heard before. And so, you know, everything in bold is what didn't get published with the old reading.

and I felt like, you know, okay, what was different about the landing at Pelluloon? It was pretty cool to really get down in the weeds with it and analytical and see that, you know, when they were going in on the Amtraks, like they went up on a reef and down in deeper water, up on a reef, you know, because he talked about how they were bumping into each other and really could feel the OVT just structurally being strained, you know, but it was a robust vehicle and it could take it. but the way it was edited originally and published with the old breed, you know, they lurch up over the reef and then settle down into deeper water

and then start taking enemy mortar fire. And what from reading the unpublished material, I was able to illustrate that that happened, but it actually happened two or three times. It wasn't just this quick, oh, here's the reef, now we're over it, into deeper water, on end of the beach.

Yeah, those little details that come out are, they just like you said, So much so much more context, so much more meaning. It's epic to read. And for me, you know, I like when I know the characters, right? Like we know the characters in this, starting with your dad and right on down the line. So you're jumping into a story that you're already familiar with and yet you're going to get so much more out of it. Yeah, let's get into a little bit.

Let's get into the book. Starting here. It says, one pleasant spring afternoon, my parents were driving down Spring Hill, in Mobile, Alabama when my mother saw something in the middle of the road. It was a squirrel that had been run over by another car when it had tried to dart across the street. It was eviscerated, bloody, and barely recognizable. As they drove past it, she remarked, oh, that poor squirrel. My father preoccupied with typical things that would be on the mind of a young,

recently married husband, barely acknowledged it. This surprised her, and she glanced at him. He shrugged. I had friends that looked worse than that. So, is this your mom telling you? that story later on? Is that where that comes from? It is. I heard her tell that story, but she also told it in some HBO interviews when we were interviewed for the ramp up to the Pacific miniseries. And, you know, my mom had this delightful, soft southern accent, you know, and to hear her say,

well, Shug, I had friends that looked worse than that. And to hear her tell it, she said, in that moment, you know, like that was a light bulb for her. because think about it. I mean, that's still that point in time when so many World War II veterans, I mean, World War II veterans were everywhere. And a lot of them were very taciturn about what they had seen and done. And some didn't talk about it at all. And then, you know, some did.

My father, as it turned out, fortunately turned out to be one who did. But in that moment, and this was long before my brother came along where I came along, I think that was a bit of a wake-up colleague. She realized, damn, he's seen some. some pretty rough stuff. Yeah, and you add into that the fact that like what what we see today in the media, I mean, you can go on YouTube right now and you can go watch combat that's taking place in Ukraine all just completely unfiltered combat, mutilated bodies, a whole nine yards.

You know, 1947, that didn't exist. And so, and even the news, you know, there was very limited release of images. You know, they actually used Tarawa when the, when the bodies washed up on. tar way they use that to try and drive sales of war bonds and to let people know that this was no easy task but imagine that you you get to taro a bit before you finally say hey it's pretty rough over here right so for your mom to kind of be a little bit disconnected and be surprised that's well and you know you refer to that footage at tarl i mean which tarl was just this horrific storm landing with the second marine division you know and that was a bit of a wake-up call to the home front

to see and there's an early picture of dead army soldier or dead soldier or dead soldiers on the beaches at New Guinea. I think Boona. I'm not sure about that. But pictures like that of dead American Marines and soldiers, that was a shock to the home front because we didn't have that level of desensitization that maybe we have now due to exactly what you're talking about, Jock. I mean, there's a proliferation of everything in the media, that blood, gore, violence,

whatever you want, you can find it in 1946 or seven or seven. nine or whatever, you know, that would have been, you know, my parents got married in 1952, but that wasn't there then. Continuing on here, fast forward a little bit. In the years after the war, my father often had nightmares. He would wake in a cold sweat, pulse racing. My mother may have found this somewhat unsettling at first, but she knew he had been a Marine in the Pacific, had seen heavy combat, and it somehow survived against an enemy renowned

for creeping around at night trying to slip into a man's foxhole and cut his throat. She talked to his friends of his who were veterans themselves. One of these was Sid Phillips, also from Mobile. He told her that he had nightmares too because they had dealt with the enemy infiltrators every night on the canal. Sid advised her not to touch him when he was asleep. My mother asked, what do I do if I need him in the middle of the night? Sid answered, I'll tell you what to do.

Lean over and whisper in his ear, sledgehammer. The ways combat veterans dealt with their trauma varied from individual to individual. Some tried to suppress it, turned to alcohol. Some probably took it out on their families, and my father started to write. He would get up in the middle of the night and go sit by the fireplace in the living room. He had a small New Testament Bible through the entire war in the pocket of his dungary jacket, and in it he kept and made notes about locations dates and weather conditions. He also kept notes on pieces of paper that he tucked into the Bible.

Not long after he got home, he had written a detailed out. line with all this information, armed with this, a pencil as sharp as his memory, and a yellow legal pad, he started writing what was to become his classic memoir with the old breed. Now, you allude to it, but writing for therapy. This is something that I have recommended to a lot of people. I know that I kind of stumbled upon this this type of therapy in the fact that when I when I've lost friends and lost guys, I was often the guy that was going to stand up and give the eulogy at a memorial service. And I didn't think of it the first time, the second time, the third time, but I started to realize a pattern of when you sit down, you write, you get emotional

when you write and you start to put your emotions and your thoughts and your feelings down on a piece of paper, it's a form of detachment. And I think it's very helpful. And one of my friends died who was in 2017, a friend of my name, Saston, he was one of my platoon commanders in Iraq. And he was kind of like a part of the family. You know, he was like a part of my family. He was like a little brother to me, maybe like a little bit of a son to me and which made him very close with my son when my son was you know seven, eight, nine, ten years old we would surf together and when Seth

was killed in a parachute accident and when he died a few months went by and my son who is now probably at that time 13 or 14 years old after a couple months he came home and he said dad you know I'm I'm thinking about I'm sitting in class and I'm trying to think about the work that we're doing, but I keep thinking about Seth. And it's hard to concentrate. And I said, well, and I thought about that experience I had of writing.

So I said, I want you to write him a letter and write his mom a letter and say, well, this is what you miss. This is what you cared about. This is what you loved about Seth. This is what you want to tell him. And do that. And my son did it. And after he did that, he never, you know, he carried on. And so I think your dad writing this, I'm imagining, probably had a similar effect.

Yeah, I think the writing was definitely a catharsis, a cathartic process. I have talked about that because I firmly believe it. And that's, you know, getting up in the middle of the night, seeing him sitting in front of the fireplace with one of our dogs there on the floor snooze in a way. I mean, that's a really, a really pleasant memory. And I mean, it's evocative. You know, I mean, when I think about like the grandfather clock we had on the mantel, and I still remember the sound that thing would make. And my dad's sitting there, you know, Holly, the doxon, which I talk about her a lot because, God, she was there for all of it. She's over there snoozing away. And my dad just sitting there scribbling away. And here's a guy who,

who has made it home to a good life. He's got his beautiful wife, my mom, asleep in the next room. He's got his two boys, my brother and me, asleep in the bedrooms. And he's sitting there in the embrace of Kith and Kinn writing. And he has to take him back, he has to take himself back to a place where you guys know what I'm talking about because you've been through it. But he's imagining he's got to mentally put himself back into the place where it was the worst time in his life. And, you know, we, and if I'm getting into this too soon, we can go back and revisit.

But when you write something like what he says about Pelaloo, Pelaloo, Pellow eroded the veneer of civilization and made savages of us all. I mean, I think about, you know, the dichotomy of, you know, the dichotomy of, you're in that safe place, a father and a husband, but you've got to mentally get back to deal with that and factually get it correct and tell that story in a way that your buddies who think about it. He knew all his friends were probably going to read with the old breed because they were all in there, you know, younger than I am now at that point in time.

I mean, that was a real mental burden for him, which helps explain why. when it got published, you know, I talk about a letter I read that he had written to Stumpy Stanley who took over K company after Captain Hal Dean was killed on Pelaloo. And he said, you know, with the old breed's about to be published, I can lay my pen down and focus on my family, my career. And this has been an unpleasant task. And yet he had to take that burden on and deal with it, you know, masterfully. Yeah. And I'm just going to, I, I, just can't let this slide because you might try and do this again. You cannot say that we know what it was like.

Like I'm sitting here with Dave Burke. Like just so you know, we will not accept what these guys did was far and away beyond anything that we ever experienced. Well, you have a better idea than I do. Vicariously through my dad. Yeah. You know. Yeah. There's a just I just wanted to.

make sure that I make that clear. There's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no, there's no one sitting at this table that, um, believes we did anything even remotely close to, to what, to what these guys did. Um, just fast forward a little bit. Your brother John's born in 1957, uh, your dad gets his PhD in biology, the University of Florida, uh, moved to Montevallo. Am I saying that right? Montevillo. Montevillo, right? In 1962, you're born in 1965. He's an assistant professor biology. This is when you're watching them right. You're watching them right. They built their dream home on Cardinal Crest Road. Yeah. Got some property. And your mom has to start typing this.

Your mom, I don't know if she got volunteered for this duty. She got she got volunteered, as we say. Yeah. She, well, and you know, she, now she passed away November 22, Jocko, but she, I did not know that until, you know, we were talking about it. And I said, But take me back, Mom, to, you know, when you started typing the manuscript. She said, well, you know, I only type the Pelaloo part. Your dad's secretary at the University of Montevalo typed the Okinawa part because then he got a grant. So that took over into his secretary type of the rest of it. But she said, yeah, she said at first I didn't want to do it.

And now you've got to think about it. We didn't have cell phones and laptops. I mean, my dad did not know how to type. And so he's writing this manuscript. and she said he came to me and said, will you type this so that the boys will have something more, because his writing was really kind of hard to read, to be honest. And she told me, she said, Henry, I really didn't want to do it.

And she said, but he told me, well, Shug, if you don't do it, I'm going to have to pay somebody to do it. So I started doing it, you know. And she was the one that originally said after she started typing it, like, hey, this isn't just a memoir for the kid. kids. Right. You should publish this thing.

My mother was a very wise and prescient lady. And again, as I have said, my mother inspired me to write that, my book. She inspired my, my dad was always going to write with the old breed. That book was in him and was going to be told. But she inspired him to get it published. Fast forward a little bit. I thought this was just awesome. I recently saw a copy of a letter that he had written to two of his Marine buddies in 1980.

At that point, the book was on the verge of being released. In that letter, he said he had spent the last several years obsessing about the most unpleasant years of his life, recalling events, names and details of the most horrific things that had ever happened to him and his fellow Marines because he felt driven to tell the world what they experienced. The book was written. He said in this letter, and he was ready to lay down his pen and get on with his life. And this is what you were just talking about, to focus on his family, his career. Since he had it all down on paper, he felt he had done what he'd set out to do, divested himself of those things that were bottled up and trying to get out. Now we could forget about it and move on. In the fall of 2021 while preparing for a podcast episode, I found an old letter tucked inside

the pages of the old breed, a history of the first Marine division in World War II by George McMillan. McMillan. Dated June 21st, 1982, this letter was apparently a response to the copy of my father's new book with the old breed that he had sent to McMillan for his review. short and concise it read. So just to set that up again, this book,

the old breed is the, I think it's like an authorized history of the first Marine Division in World War II. Correct. That's what this is. And it's an epic book. It's got pictures. It's got photographs.

It's got drawings and paintings. It is an epic book. And it's almost the kind of book that, you know, you would think would sit at the top of the hierarchy of book. about this situation and he gets so your dad gets this letter it says dear Jean you've written a good book it reeks with humility it reeks with the humility of a good

infantry man one who has seen the worst of the battle it is honest and it is true the photo of you on the dust jacket is great made me nearly weep with nostalgia made me think of all the days I sat like that on my cot at Pavuvu something makes me think that the book is going to carve out a place for itself in World War II literature. You haven't heard the last of it. Let me know well in advance of the Bantam publication date. Maybe I can hit some kind of lick then. I'm honored you used old breed in your title and grateful for the dedication.

Now write us another good book, Semperfy, George. So he appreciated that. that he had used the old breed in the title. I mean, that's just an epic statement from McMillan. So here's a bit of trivia, and Dave, you being a marine aviator. Have you ever heard of a book called History of USMC Aviation of World War II by Robert Sherrod? I definitely know that book. I can't tell you that you did.

I mean, it's 100%. It is Robert Sherrod is who suggested to him. Wow. Okay, I remember my dad tell it because, you know, Navy. Robert Sherrod has suggested to use the name with the old breed? to my dad will use something the old breed in in the title i believe my dad told me that robert sherrod is the one who suggested to him that he do that and that that book i mean because war war two airplanes war two aviation marine aviators i mean you will god we're just i'm jumping

a head all in there too yeah and your dad your dad got rejected uh you know you're talking here about you know he got the rejection letter and your dad said that's that And then he heard from the third publisher, Presidio Press, the book was to be published. Need to cut it down to 300 pages, which we already talked about. And that's what got published from the original manuscript. You say this, my father's nightmare now rarely, my father's nightmares now rarely occurred. Visions of dead Marines rising out of their rain-filled foxholes in the shell-torn mud fields of Okinawa, forlornly, silent moving about in their lurid, irid, greenish light of shell stars, of star-shells.

swaying from their parachutes, the descriptions of which still moved me to tears seemed laid to rest. So your dad, you saw healing from your dad after the book came out. Is that accurate statement? I think that's accurate. And, you know, I talk about that, God, that is so powerful that, well, to stick to your question, I did see healing. I think when With Hilberry got published, he hadn't been in touch. prior to writing it with his former Marine buddies. And I think I hear that from other veterans in their interviews

that a lot of those guys came home and just got on with their lives. You know, and my dad had not corresponded with Jay DeLoe or Bill Layden or Snafu, you know, or Stumpy Stanley until he started writing with the old breed. And he reached out to them because he wanted them to see what he was doing to make sure he did it right. and he would be the first guy to say, look, you know, I was a 60-millimeter mortman. You know, the riflemen were the tip of the spear. We were right behind them.

And as I found out from going through the unpublished material, you know, there were a lot of times that the mortorman were pulled into duty as riflemen. It happened on Okinawa quite a bit. But my dad being the kind of guy that he was, as he pointed out in his book, you know, the riflemen were the brunt of it. We were maybe 20 yards behind him or sometimes more. But to your question, Jocko, I mean, yeah, I did see healing. I mean, when with the old breed was published and began to garner attention, he began to get those phone calls, you know, from fellow K company Marines. And that was, it was funny to watch that because my dad did not like to talk on the phone.

but we'd be at the dinner table and the phone would ring and he hated the phone anyway but he'd you know one of us would get it hey dad it's for you and he's like oh god damn you know and you know or it'd be one of his buddies bill laden or somebody and and he'd go in the other room and close the door and just being there for three hours and you'd hear him guff on and you know reliving the good stuff and i mean that was cool to see that um so we kind of talked about how you how you move forward with this and and let's get into the book now itself um pearl harbor happens your dad was a freshman at marion military institute and on december 3rd nineteen 42 and listed in the united states marine corps and there's the whole there's the whole uh back story of his dad having been

in the medical corps in world war one and really not want your dad to go but at least become an officer. Right. And, and just classic, you say, life as a college boy Marine, though easy, though easy, rapidly became intolerable. Half of the 180 man detachment, my father among them, deliberately flunked out so they could go into the Marine Corps as enlisted men. Soon enough, he was headed to Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego, California.

It was there. He would meet his drill instructor. Corporal Darity. Darity. Darity. Darity. And become part of platoon, 984. Just incredible.

You had all these guys, what was it, 180, 180 people, and half of them fail out so they can go into war immediately. Yeah. That, well, and the whole, so my grandfather having been, and my grandfather was not overseas. He stayed stateside during World War I. But he, you know, back then they called him shell shock victims. And my grandfather dealt with a lot of shell shock victims. And, of course, the guy played who, I think brook. plays my grandfather in the Pacific.

And he says, Eugene, the worst thing about treating those victims from the Great War was not that they'd had that flesh torn, but their soul was torn out. You know, that is exactly the kind of thing, as we understood the kind of man, my grandfather was that he would have said. And I thought that scene was beautifully filmed and beautifully played by that actor. But my dad's older brother, my uncle Edward, had gone to the Citadel and graduated and was an Army tank platoon commander on Sherman tanks. So as my father put it, and I think he wrote this one with the old breed,

and I quoted him saying it in my book, they said life would be more beautiful as an officer, so just don't enlist, you know, but he was an impetuous youngster, as they all were. Yes, indeed. Yeah, and then you had Sid Phillips, who was writing him back saying, Hey, don't even join the Girl Scouts.

Don't join anything. Don't volunteer for anything. Don't volunteer for anything. You know, it's funny. I had, when he had Dean Ladd on, who was going into Tarwa, and I was asking him, he's got a book, Faithful Warrior. And I'm, you know, we're reading the book, and we're getting, he's getting ready to go into Tarawa.

And, you know, they're expecting crazy 80% casualties or something. And I said, you know, were you worried about getting wounded? And he just, without missing the beat goes, no, that always happens to the other guy. Which is, and that stuck with me because that's what we all think. You know, that's what we all think for, for at least some amount of time. Sure. You think it ain't happening to me. And especially when you're 18, 17, 18.

Sid, with Sid Phillips, what, 17? 17, 18, turned 18 on the Guadalcanal. Yeah. All right. So your dad takes off eight grueling weeks of intensive training, graduated from Reen Corps boot camp. And here's a quote from your dad. At this period, there's a great deal of talk and speculation. to where do we go from here?

Scuttlebutt was rampant. One man heard that we would be in the Pacific jungles within two weeks. The rumor mill going. Right. Fast forward a little bit. And look, I'm obviously not going to read this whole, but there's an audiobook coming? Actually, I believe there is. Are you going to do the, you've already thrown out some good, some good accents today.

You better be reading this audio book. Actually, no. I think they, well, my publisher, he and I talked. And he, I mean, he said, you know, Andrew, I don't know that I want to do an audio book. You know, I love my publisher's great. He's from New York. You know, so talking to him. It's really cool.

See, even that was pretty good. You got the New York thing going. Because, you know, and I said, well, honestly, Anthony, I think we want a voice actor to do it. Because just, I've done some voice work and I enjoy it. But, and I mean, really. So you haven't recorded. Has anyone recorded this yet? I think it's being done, Jocco.

Actually, I think it is happening. If it's not happening, you should 100% do this. Well, if somebody would say, okay, Henry, we'll pay you to do it and you can retire from your day job, then I'd be happy to take it on, but I haven't seen anybody step up to do that yet. No one's going to pay you to that. Yeah, some of the accents in there, man. I mean, I just, I mean, I can even hear my dad say things the way he said it, you know, because he had a really distinctive way of talking. How did you like the actor that played your dad? I thought Joe did a good job.

Yeah. You know, I thought he captured the assets of the character. And, I mean, look, I've been on some podcasts with some of the actors from the And I'm friends with some of those guys. And, you know, I thought Joe did a fine job. Yeah, I thought he was fantastic, you know. Yeah, he captured the essence of the man. Yeah.

There's a, I guess the closest comparison I have to that, there's a movie called American Sniper where there's a guy named Bradley. Bradley Cooper, Bradley Cooper, I believe is the actor that portrays Chris Kyle. and you know it's a situation where you know you actually knew your dad so you can compare the real guy to the actor and I actually knew Chris Kyle so I compare the real guy sure to the actor and dude Bradley Cooper did a pretty impressive job and you'd sometimes I'd hear it I'd go wow that he did a really good job it's a little strange because the the movie itself Trays Chris as a character who is very serious and very foreboding. And Chris was actually like a wise ass and really funny. And if they would have brought that in, it would have been even more like Chris Kyle. But, you know, just watching interviews with your dad and seeing the actor play your dad, I thought he captured it. And I will say the nuances of fear.

and you know like Dave and I are saying oh yeah we didn't we didn't experience what your dad went through or anything close to that but I know what it's like to roll out down the down the road when there's a there's a chance that you're going to get blown up like I definitely know that feeling and so if I take that feeling and multiply it by a lot and I look at the actor playing your dad and I go yeah that that's probably pretty close and I've seen that look on some guys before they're they're scared and it sucks right So yeah, I thought, I thought he did a great job. Yeah, I mean, I thought his portrayal was really good. And, I mean, look, yeah, I felt really good about it. And I know he took it very seriously. And it was an important role for him to play. Yeah. A role of a lifetime.

Fast forward a little. My father reflected on the most recent Marine Corps campaign and saw that the second division suffered terrible losses, 3,381 dead and wounded. Its Marines killed all but 17 of the 4,386 Japanese defenders of the tiny atoll. There was loud and severe criticism of the Marine Corps by the American public and some members of the military because of the number of casualties. This was just heating up in the press when I got to Camp Elliott. We were all interested in what had happened and questioned. to our instructors about it.

Everyone agreed that there can be no element of surprise in attacking a tiny island in mid-ocean. Losses would be high, but adequate numbers of amphibious tractors could get troops successfully across the reefs that surrounded most of the islands into Central Pacific. We hope numerous Amtraks would be available

when we got overseas. That is crazy. And, you know, recently there's a movie that just came out called Warfare. Have you heard of this movie? I have heard of it. Okay. Not intimately familiar.

So the movie, is about some seals that deployed to Ramadi and they're actually the seals that took my guy, me and me, my guy's place. So we left October 21st. That whole movie is about one mission that happened November 19th. Two guys got really severely wounded and it was a really bad day and a couple of Iraqi soldiers got killed. But we talked about it. They were, I had a couple of guys got wounded, Joe Hildebrandt and Elliot Miller on the podcast. And we were talking about, you know, My troop, my task unit being in Ramadi, we had the first seal killed in Iraq.

We had the second seal killed in Iraq. We had guys get severely wounded. And their mentality, what it was like for them, you know, they're going to my guys' funerals here. And then they're getting ready to go on deployment and take our place. And now we're talking about your reading that there's 3,381 dead and wounded.

Like, it is just a totally different story. that your dad and those Marines are getting into at this point. Well, yeah, I mean, when you look at Tarawa, so small and yet such an intensely concentrated loss of life, I mean, and I mean, there's a great book about Tarla called Uptmost Savagery written by Joseph Alexander, and my son is named after Joe Alexander. Joe was a personal friend of mine. We went to Pelaloo together in 1999. Just a great guy.

And my wife adored him. he adored my I was dating my wife at the time and we're sitting down on one of the beaches at Pellowlough after a day of exploring in the jungle and this is really I hope not going too far off course but you can't go too far off course here well if you've heard of Joe Alexander I mean yeah just a wonderful family friend and he my wife is the one who inspired me to go to Pellaloo on that trip and like I said she was my girlfriend at the time but you know he he and I were talking about that he goes oh what the hell are you waiting on Henry why don't you marry this girl She sounds like a good catch, you know, but, but yeah, Joe wrote utmost savagery,

which is a stunning work on Tarla or Tarawa, if you prefer to pronounce it that way. And then another great book, which I quote from, Storm Landings. And, you know, the thing about Tarulahua was it was a storm landing. It was an amphibious assault into the teeth of prepared defenses that were very concentrated, interlocking fields of fire by a fanatical enemy who knew how. to exploit the topography to the nth degree and knew you were coming. You know, Guadalcanal was a vicious battle and went on and on and on for months and encompassed air, sea, land, everything, all the elements.

But Guadalcanal was a very large island. And it really was an entire ecosphere into itself. You know, something like Tarawa, something like Pelaloo or Iwo Jima later, they know you're coming. And so I think Tarawa was just that enormous loss of life that, you know, and it didn't help that they didn't have enough LVTs and then experience the neat tide and, you know, things that have been disseminated and analyzed and ensuing years that we know about now, but at the time they didn't. Fast forward a little bit on February 28, 1944. They lined up to board a troop ship in the San Diego

Harbor. Quote, I had seen many ocean-going vessels in Mobile Harbor, but the President Polk appeared to be, appeared to me to be about the largest pastureship I'd ever seen, end quote. This was interesting to me. And again, these are like these little details. The threat of patrolling enemy submarines was ever present, and a fully loaded troop ship presented a very desirable target. It was for this reason that the men were strictly forbidden to throw over any type of trash

and anyone who disobeyed would suffer severe punishment. Quote, we were warned that even a cigarette butt, match or candy wrapper might be seen on the ocean by patrolling submarine. Naturally, everyone was very cooperative concerning trash disposal. I guess this hit me because in the Navy,

they just throw the garbage. Like, I've done a bunch of shipboard deployments and they just take the trash and throw it overboard. And here they were not even thrown over a cigarette butt, a totally different time frame. Yeah. came across that little like that, you know, that was obviously edited out of with the old breed and not being critical of the way that was handled and edited because obviously it's

a classic for good reason. But when I saw that, I thought, man, that's a pretty minute piece of information that's really kind of informative and interesting. Absolutely. Again, get the book. I'm fast forward and stuff. There's that little detail. There's just detail after detail. Just, it's fascinating to read. Fast forward a little bit. They arrive on Pavu. Around 0,900 the next morning, June 3rd, 1944, my father made his way down the gangplank with his sea bag containing all his personal gear. He headed toward a line of awaiting trucks and saw some men, very tanned in good spirits, waiting to leave the island. Quote, some had

Japanese weapons as souvenirs. I asked if there was anyone from H Company, second battalion, First Marines, and two men near me said, yes. I asked if Sid Phillips and Beavis and Bill Brown were still on Pavuvu. The first man said he didn't know, but his buddy spoke up and said, you know him. They're an 81 millimeter mortar platoon. Oh, yeah, replied the first. Bill shoved off for the States about a week ago, and Phillips will probably go in a couple of weeks. I couldn't wait to see one of my oldest and closest friends.

Sid had enlisted the Marine Corps right out of high school, gone overseas with the first Marine division as a gunner on an 81 millimeter mortars, had his 18th birthday on Guadalcanal and made it through Cape Gloucester. again it's just hearing these characters that we know and learning more about him and i i didn't realize this i picked it up from the book but the reason your dad and sid were the same age but your dad had to he was sick and missed some school something like that so he's a little behind him in school yeah my dad was a sickly child he had malaria and rheumatic fever as as a kid and so and i actually my mother reminded me of this as i was writing as i was putting all this together she reminded me of this when she was still in pretty good shape before she got sick and passed away.

My dad did his entire fifth grade year from a wheelchair. And so, number one, the fact that he overcame the heart murmur and was able to go into the Marine Corps was extraordinary. And then that he was able to make it through Marine Corps training because he was a sickly child, you know, and entire fifth grade year from a wheelchair. But he obviously did recover from that. But, yeah. Yeah, it's crazy seeing those old pictures of Sid Phillips, man. He looks young.

He looks young over there. It's crazy to think about. Fast forward a little bit. While most of the men were assigned to rifle platoons of K Company, they were asked if they had any special weapons training, meaning mortars or machine guns. My father was in a group of about 15 who had this specialized training. They were taken aside, quote,

the lieutenant asked each of us what weapon we had trained with and if we wanted to be assigned to that type of weapon in the company. Most of the guys said they were interested in doing so. Then he said, I need a volunteer to serve as flamethrower gunner. This is a responsible position. You will command the respect of everyone in your outfit. There are only two flamethrower gunners in each line company. It takes a tough man to carry this weapon, end quote. At this point, the officer looked at my father and asked him his weapon choice, wincing at the thought of carrying seven,

pounds of flammable jellied gasoline on his back for the rest of the war my father answered that he had trained on the 60 millimeter mortar quote the officer looked at the boy next to me and asked him if he would be interested in being a flamethrower gunner he said he would do it and the lieutenant said fine this boy was named steel he was 17 years old lean about six feet tall steel and i were to become close friends poor steel was destined to become one of the men in k company killed on pelaloo he was trying and knock out a Japanese bunker with his flamethrower just after we got off the Amtraks. I doubt if he ever saw a Japanese before he was killed. You know, um, that's one of the things that your dad talks about is the arithmetic of war.

And just like, this is something Dave and I definitely can, can understand, which is, there's just odds. And at some point, if you are out there with the enemy, at some point, there's just a chance that the arithmetic of war is going to catch up with you. And here's a guy, you know, volunteers for this position, probably never even saw a Japanese before he's killed. Yeah. And, you know, when I researched that and came across that part, I was really happy to be able to bring that man's name into my book because that got edited out. You know, that's in bold and bold type. So that got edited out of with the old breed. But I thought, and you know,

the way, I think, and with the old breed, my dad says, you know, the lieutenant asked for volunteers to carry. And I, quote, I tried to appear too small to carry a flamethrows. So, and my dad was not a big guy, 5, 9, 140 pounds, 135 pounds, you know. But it sounds like when I read the unedited material, I mean, it sounds like he was about to get picked, the way I took it. You know, like, hey, what's your training? You know, I was 60 millimeter waters. I mean, that's the way I took that. Which, I mean, there were bigger guys.

The kind of military left figures he'd pick the smaller guy to carry the damn thing. But, you know, they pick a young man named Steele who, and, you know, my dad talks, and I'm sure we'll get to it. You probably remember this. He talked about the night, but when their LST glided to a stop and the water's off Pelaloo. in the sun setting and the guys are smoking and talking quietly looking at the island and they're thinking they're contemplating but we've got to go out there tomorrow

and you know I can just in my own in my head I can picture you probably hear a few shills going over you know and guys on the radio you know stuff in the background guys on squawk boxes or whatever and my dad is he in with the old bridge he says I was talking to a friend and I wondered

if it would be my last sunset well that friend was private steel. That was the guy he was talking to. And I think I do put in there, or from my dad's edited out work or unedited work, that he says, poor steel, it was his last sunset. And you'll edit this out. But am I messing up your flow here, man? Not at all.

Okay. Okay. Fast forward a little bit. Toward the end of July, the training schedule and working parties loading shit. Pips began to pick up intensity showers, screened mess halls, and heads had been built by then, and camp construction was almost completed. Nearly every morning after Revely, the company was put through calisthenics and then double-timed around the regimental area area.

Pavu was too small for training out in wide open spaces, so we ran around the same area to avoid colliding with other units. So again, there's a bunch of detail that your dad goes through about what it was actually like as they're preparing. Fast forward a little bit. My father and his buddies were soon assigned to another type of working party. The significance this would be not realized until later,

but it was one that they would never forget. This is the oil drum thing. Yes. And you and I were talking about this before we hit record. This is one of those things that when you watch the Pacific, they have this great scene of carrying or cleaning out oil drums and you know it's where it's we start to get to know snafu a little bit which is right just incredible character so well played by that actor running mallet just incredible and you see

start to see what that's like and when you read with the old breed you understand what the payoff's going to be right but the payoff doesn't come or it's not the payoff it's like a negative payoff because it's a bad thing that happens this this cleaning of these uh of these drums were what they were going to use to ship water in for the troops to drink on the ground. And so they're doing a decent job. But from a decentralized command and leadership perspective, this is why it's very important that the troops know why they're doing what they're doing. Because I guarantee if they would have known why they were cleaning those drums out,

they absolutely would have done a better job than they did. Because fast forward a few weeks, when they do get water, it comes in those 55-gallon drums, and it tastes like oil. Yeah. I mean, you're hopping up some fucking hill, crying boo-hoo for your mama. Fast forward a little bit. One of the characters my father came to know at this stage was gunnery Sergeant Elmo Haney. I have some early memories about hearing about this eccentric but iconic Marine.

When I was in the second or third grade, I wrote a short story complete with childish illustrations. I wasn't much of an artist. And one of my fictitious characters was named Haney. He was in every sense of the word. The old breed. And this is what your dad has to say. He was absolutely obsessed with the desire to bayonet the enemy. In the afternoons, after returning to the company area,

dog tired and soaked with sweat, I would take off my gear and relax for a bit before taking a shower. Not hainy. He went straight to the tent. Donned his favorite unofficial Pavuvu uniform consisting of cut off khaki trousers, leggings, boondockers,

and have personal bayonet drill against a tow sack filled with palm-fron ribs at the end of the company street near my tent. Many afternoons I sprawled on my sack and watched Haney go through the evolutions of bayonet fighting while men walked past him going to and from the showers. He was oblivious of them and they were careful to stay out of his way. Upon completion of his bayonet drill, Haney returned to his tent, sat on his sack and entered in the ritual of cleaning his weapons. Then he stripped, took up his towel and a huge chunk of caustic GI scrubbing shoep.

soap and his trusty brush and headed for the showers. Once I asked Haney about his bayonet technique, he was absolutely delighted and explained every detail with enthusiasm. I could see that he would have me out there with him every day if I appeared too interested, so I had to slip past him to the showers until he forgot about me. End quote. While he wasn't blind to the eccentric nature of Sergeant Haney, my father also appreciated that Haney was a living manifestation of the legendary old core and a source of historical

knowledge. So again, this is one of those things where when you watch the Pacific, it's a 30 second, maybe even a 20 second clip where you see Haney working with his bayonet. Take that's fucking chap and recover. Yeah.

Beautifully played by Gary Sweet. Yeah, and then you see where it comes from. Like, this is where it comes from. There's real detail behind it. Well, the part that I write about, you know, I remember that goofy little childhood story. I don't even remember what the hell it was about, but I, you know, just remember my dad talking about Haney, you know.

And again, so much of this, Jocko is, and Dave, I'm talking to you too, you know, so much of this guys is just this, this lore of K35, man, it just suffused my childhood. Fast forward a little bit. In World War II, all Marine officers had code names. This was to prevent some over-eager private from yelling, hey, captain, or hey, lieutenant at night or in the middle of a firefight. and thus giving way the identity of officers, who would, of course, then become immediate targets of the Japanese. K Company's commanding officer was Captain Andrew Allison Haldane from Muthin, Massachusetts. Muthoon, Massachusetts, codename, Ackack.

My father's first encounter with Ack-Aldane took place when the company was struggling along the muddy roads during one of Pabuvu's late afternoon thunderstorms after a day of training. In the gloomy twilight, with the rain pouring down, the men were tired. tired, cold, and forlorn. As my father struggled to keep his balance in the muddy ruts made by tank treads and trucks, he saw a big man walking briskly along from the rear of the column. It was Captain Haldane, and he began talking to my father. He exuded charisma and seemed genuinely interested in this young replacement from Mobile, Alabama.

My father remembered that as they talked, the gloom seemed to disappear, and he felt a glow inside. Akak said that it wouldn't rain forever, and soon they could get dry. As Captain Al Dane moved along the column, he struck up similar conversations with wet, tired, wet men. My father remembered ACAC as the finest and most popular officer he ever knew. He always spoke of him with reverential respect. Yeah, this is one of those things where it's one of the, so at our consulting company, Eslawn Front, one of the things that we have to overcome is this stereotypical view of military officers.

that a military leader is going to be standing up and yelling at everyone barking orders. And that's just so clear. And your dad represents Captain Haldane so well. Never raised his voice. Like always common. It's very interesting, too, because Band of Brothers, right? We have Captain Sorbell who's, you know, yelling and screaming, and they hate him. And then you have Major Winters takeover, or I guess it's Lieutenant Winters when he takes over.

But doesn't yell, listen to what people have to say, and that quality of leadership, even with the old breed. That's another thing. You know, I'll get a young veteran military guy. Well, you know, these, like, they're getting soft now, not like they used to be. It's like, oh, talk to Captain Haldane.

Talk to Eugene Sledge about what a good leader was. Good leader wasn't yelling and screaming. Good leader was leading. Right. And your dad dedicated the entire book. He did. To Captain Aldane. I mean, you know, growing up, and as I have said, I mean, these names like

Ackack and Snafu, you know, that was part of my childhood. And to speak to Captain Halding, I mean, I think he says, I think I wrote this in their jaco, I'm not sure. My dad said in that moment, you know, and I could just picture this gloomy, thunderstorm. These kids are still kids at that point. And they're just humping through the mud, you know, and tanks and trucks are rolling by. And they're just trying to get back to their tents and take a what passes for a shower. And he said, you know, ACAC made us feel like we were something other than animals being trained to fight. He made us feel human. And that's the kind of man that he

was. I mean, my father thought he was the finest officer that he ever served under. And I'm told by modern day Marines that, and I mean, this would please my father to know in, that in Marine officer training, they take these guys and they say, read about Captain Haldane. This is the kind of officer you need to aspire to. And, you know, and I think my dad's book is required reading in Marine OCS, but they tell them, this is what you need to aspire to. It's not beating them down and yelling at them and berating them. And there are times when you're going to get somebody that probably needs.

that. But, you know, Captain Hald, I mean, like I said, I mean, when I'm a kid growing up in the 70s and the word, ACAC, is a household word to me. And I'm not talking about any aircraft fire. You know, that says something. And that's part of why I do what I do, because my dad, his, his, the espried decor, that what, those values inculcated him as a Marine, that, that's, effused every part of his character.

And I think it came across in the kind of father that he was. And like I said, guys, I mean, it's part of why I do what I do. I just feel so strongly about it. Dave, required reading? It is on the Commonwealth's reading list. It's done by rank. In my mind, I think as a second lieutenant, it's one of the first ones that you read. I could technically be wrong.

Maybe it's a first lieutenant or a captain or something. but it is absolutely on the list and I was introduced to it at the basic school. So the first time I saw this book was I would probably a second lieutenant for a month. And I had read it then. Just for a little context, the base school might not be the best place

to really absorb those things because a lot of it is just, you think it's like almost an assignment. Sure. But when I volunteered to be a Ford Air Controller, I originally thought I was going to Okinawa, which I did go for a little while, thinking, oh, this, I'm going to go to Okinawa.

I was given the gift by the commanding officer Top Gun with the old breed. He didn't know that I had read it. And I, to be quite frank, I forgot a lot about it. But he's like, hey, you're going to Okinawa. You should read this book. And I thanked him and I read it. And then I read it again. That's when the book, to me, really sunk in.

I was older. I was a more mature officer. I'd been around and had read it second and third time. And the impact of that going to Okinawa, getting to spend time there is when that book really got into my bloodstream. And it was significantly more impactful to me than it was as a lieutenant. But I'll tell you, every lieutenant in the Marine Corps reads this book. Well, that's just such an honor to hear. And it's amazing. And from your perspective, Dave, as an aviator, you know, which is why I love the fact that my

dad talks about the aviators of BMF 114. You know, and that when they hit Ingasibis, which is part of your D-plus-13 on Pelaloo, that's part of the Pelaloo operation. But it's that shore to shore amphibious assault by 3-5 over in Gusebis. VMF 114 is the Marine Fighter Squadron that flies close air support. And that is one of the – I think the first time that the close air support for an amphibious landing was solely by marine aviators. And for me, you know, growing up, loving World War II airplanes, being obsessed with the corsair, you know, which I talk about. My brother, seven years older than me, had built a model of a corsair, and it had a little sliding canopy on it. And, you know, he built it and I took it.

He's like, give me the damn. I'm like, you know, and I'm wanting to play with it and go around with it, you know, because I was obsessed with the corsair because my dad loved corsairs. And being, you know, any father wants to connect with his kids. And he saw that. And he goes, you know, corsairs flew closer support for us home. And they were just, God, we love those things, you know. And so that's just like one more box being checked that I'm going to love corsairs until the day I die.

But for your perspective as an aviator, I mean, I mean, the marriage between that symbiotic relationship between Marine infantrymen and Marine aviators is just unbreakable, I would think. It is. I'm not a military guy. It's the first thing I need to say. I have the experience you guys have, but I've read enough about it that you have you have captured it extremely well.

And you can imagine this too. I mean, first of all, the Corsair is the iconic. It is the iconic airplane. I mean, as a little kid that, you know, the Black Sheep Squad and TV show is the show that we all watched and learned about. I mean, that's the iconic airplane. We all know that, especially if you have any sense of, like, the carrier nature of the Marine Corps, which was always the most intriguing to me.

It wasn't just they were Marines, but they did it from the sea, which was, there was, that's the uniqueness of the Corps. But I will tell you, as a Marine fighter, as a pilot in general, as a Marine fighter pilot, or whatever, the, the people you are trying to earn the respect of as a fighter pilot, is the Marine Infantry Man. That is who you were there for, and that is bred to you from day one. And if you want the highest praise that you can get as a pilot,

it's not how good you are against your peers. It's not how good you dogfight. It's, did you do something to support the Marines on the ground where the Marines recognized the contribution made to them, made their lives? That's the praise that you want. That's the respect that you're trying to earn as a Marine, is the Marine infantryman.

That is really beautifully said because, and I know jumping head is on Okinawomenal. But my dad talks about that may have been stalled right in front of Shiri or just past Shuri, but they are just stalled out in the mud, knee-deep mud, living what he described as hell's own cesspool.

And he talks about, I could not believe this got edited out with the old breed, but the part where a TBM goes flying over pretty low, you know, from right to left, I think it was. And the back canopy opens, or it may be in the front canopy,

because on the TBF, the front canopy slid. The back canopy was like a roll-up thing. But the pilot threw an object out, and it was a note tied to a wrench. And one of the aviators had scribbled, you know, God bless you guys, you're doing a great job. Watch out there's some japs right over that ridge that you can't see. And so, but what I'm trying to get to, Dave,

is, you know, like for muddy infantrymen, seeing rear echeline guys, was something they resented, you know, clean-shaven, nice dungarees, and there's a lot I talk about in there that he wrote. But he says in that passage, it's freaking beautiful, man. He talks about seeing, we could see those guys so clearly, and they were wearing clean flight suits. They were obviously clean-shaven.

He said, that didn't bother us a bit because he said, man, those aviators were risking their lives because it was really bad weather that day. And he said, it just, we love those guys. And we appreciated them so much. So that, I mean, just, yeah. God, it's just beautiful stuff. It is.

I never get tired of talking about this stuff, man. There's no reason to. There's so much here. As the invasion date of the next operation for the division near, discipline and training both picked up in intensity. Unfortunately, much of the discipline bordered on harassment. The modern turn for this would be chicken shit discipline. My father, however, had an aversion to a coarse vulgar language, so in his manuscript, he referred to it as chicken discipline.

And here's what your dad had to say. Quote, it was the type of discipline that men referred to as chicken, seemingly unnecessary orders or changing of orders while we were in the process of carrying them out. For example, clothing inspections became more frequent. Every item of clothing had to be cleaned and unpacked from my C bag folded and displayed on my bunk while nervous NCOs rushed in and out of our tents, checking and rechecking each man's bunk. Any errors resulted in our NCOs being bawled out, and then he bawled out the offender. After they left us with an at-ease carry-on, we repacked all our clothing issue and waited for the next event. During one such inspection, a lieutenant fresh from the states paused at the rear of our tent,

obviously puzzled at the faint gurgling sound that was coming from the ground just behind the tent. The veteran company officer raised his eyebrow, gave a slight smile, and then moved the new officer. along knowing there must be a can of jungle juice working in its hiding place there. Inspections of the troops in full combat gear became also more common. During one of these just before Pelulu, Akak demonstrated his usual compassion by ordering company fallout. Platoon leaders continue inspection within tents as a provovu downpour came up suddenly. After our platoon leader finished inspecting us in our tent and gave us the at ease and left,

We sat on our bunks and watched with disgust as the Marinette, who was the skipper of the company next to us, inspected every man's weapon in gear, his men at rigid attention in their company street in a torrential rain. Thank God for Ackack remarked, one of my tentmates. Amen, we all said. And again, what a beautiful story to show, like, you want to gain respect of your people. How about you treat them like human beings? And when it's pouring rain and say, hey, guys, get in the tent, finish the inspection of the tent. All good. And meanwhile, next door, you can see knucklehead out there with his guys. And he probably thinks he's doing a great job. And like you said already, Henry, like, is there a time for that? Yeah, there's time to do some hard stuff.

And we had a call about this yesterday. What was it? Suck it up, right? And I was, someone who's asking, you know, they have an employee that's doing something and they just need to tell them to suck it up. And I was like, you know, in my 20 years in the military, I don't think I ever looked at one of my people and said,

hey, just suck it up. Like, it just, I know it sounds cool. Sounds like the thing to do. But generally speaking, it's probably not. Here's what comes to my mind on that, Chaco. I mean, I don't have military experiences, as I've said. But we've all, we've all had bosses. Some cases we didn't much care for.

And in some cases, really great bosses. And you think of one who does that. And I'm, I'm, I'm, thinking some I've seen to it in their minds they probably thought they were imparting some degree of great leadership and you know this is what it takes to inspire people like you said it's really it just doesn't come across that way there's just I think there's just better ways to do it sometimes but I'm not a corporate manager so I don't know here's another you know speaking of rear restaurant on and and some of the comparisons and I

I know you mentioned before we were talking about, I have a company called Eschalon Front, and I don't know if you made this connection, but there's a very specific reason why the company is called Eschelon Front. I figured you had a good reason for it, John. It's because we wanted to make everyone know, at least amongst us in the military. This is not rear echelon leadership.

This is not the people in the back with the gear in the rear. This is echelon front. Your dad says this, quote, The living conditions of men in the rear areas looks pretty good to us infantrymen. It all tended to widen the Gulf under the Gulf of understanding between combatants and non-combatants. What they took for the necessities of life, we looked on as luxuries. If we weren't tired, wet, muddy, hot, cold, thirsty, hungry, or under fire, we felt well off.

I griped loudly as, I griped as loudly as any about our living conditions and discipline, end quote. But then you add this. It was only later after surviving the brutal conditions of Pelulu and Okinawa that he realized that these deprivations equipped and prepared them to deal with, quote, psychological and physical shock and stress, end quote, of deadly combat. So all the hard training that they were doing, he basically says, look, we wouldn't have been able to, we would have been ready at all for what we were about to experience if we didn't get some taste of that in our training. right and your dad makes that pretty clear you know that and maybe some of that is why the Marine Corps through the years has embraced with the old breed so much because he he talked a lot about and a lot of great stuff that got edited out that I was able to use I guess it was fortunate you know he talked about the the conditions of deprivation the the harsh training conditions

But whereas some people who did not understand the dynamic of what was going on, I might have thought it was just being, you know, just being sadistic for no reason. You know, he talked about Corporal Dardy, who, Corporal Dorety, after With the Oldbury came out, actually got recognition. And I think he and my dad actually were able to meet because he kind of got a degree. Because I thought my dad did a great job of portraying him. You know, he said, I didn't like him, but I respected him. He wasn't a big guy, you know, 5-9, 5-10, 160 pounds,

but he was pretty damn tough, and none of us were going to mess with him. But he said, I understood, after Pelaloo, coming back to Pavuv, I understood why we had to do the things we did. And, you know, I went to Parris Island here just a few weeks ago with Joey Jones to do the Fox Nation piece. And we drove around with Captain Dubloy, who was the public relations officer.

We toured the base. and we saw some of these guys in training. I've never been through Marine Corps training. I have a world of respect for people who go through any military training. But I guess I just see it through my dad's eyes, and I understand it's got to be extremely unpleasant. It's not summer camp. It's preparing you for what is probably going to be a very tough time in your life. You know, and there's a great piece that got when they, after Pelaloo,

where they dealt with such heat and humidity and lack of clean, drinking water until later in the campaign. And my dad's reading a newspaper from home. And a lady had written a letter to her congressman. Her son was an army infantryman going through Army Basic. And he had complained about being forced to face into the son. And the mother thought this was inhumane and complained to her congressman. And my dad, he talks about maybe something you were going to read.

And I'm just blowing it for you. It's all good. He talks about, I'm reading this. He said, I started guffawing. And people like Sletchhammer, what are you laughing at? And my dad reads this story to them. And they start laughing. And guys in the next tenor, what the hell you're laughing at?

And everybody's repeating the story. And my dad says, guys on down the company street are slapping their legs and guffawing over, oh, the poor Army infantryman whose mother complained about being forced to face into the sun. And I'm not insulting the Army here. That's not the purpose of why I'm saying this. The point of why I'm saying this is my dad said, after being on Pelaloo where we were in our foxholes

having to lie down being pinned down by Namboe fire you know facing into the sun I understood why Corporal Dority did what he did and it may have seemed sadistic at first but coming off of Pelaloo

back to Pavuvu to train for Okinawa things were contextualized a little bit differently and I understood this is why you're having to go through this no doubt about it. There's, you know, in recent history, trying to make training easier, right? And in the SEAL teams and seal training, you go through something called Hell Week,

and it's five and a half days and you don't sleep. And it's, it's, it's, it's, you get injured. Like you are one, you know, you take casualties. You're going to take the beach. You're going to take some casualties. Like, you go through Hellweek. You are going to be injured. You're going to have problems.

You're going to be sick. You're going to be, you're going to have infections. Like, these things are going to happen. And there's some people that started saying, well, you know, why do you really need to do that? Do you really need to do that? And you don't have to take too many steps towards the rear echelon before you say, well, maybe you don't really need to do that. That's when you need to pick up with the old breed and read it and recognize why military training is the way military training is. It has to be hard in order to prepare you for these situations.

And that's all there is to it. You mentioned that you visited. We're going to fast forward to Pelaloo, but you visited Pelaloo in 1999. Yes, correct. And, you know, you got to walk the battlefield. You find artifacts. You get a sense of the terrain. You understand.

You start to see what the Marines were going into. And what that was like. What was it like going to Pelaloo for the first time when you went there? you know, I had wanted to go to Pellaloo since I was a teenager. I remember telling my mom that, you know, one day I want to go to Pellaloo. Because something about the idea of this sparsely populated island, you know, in the fringes of the Pacific, where the detritus of war still lives, you know, bombed out Japanese fighting positions, the rusted remains of amphibious tractors and Japanese zero fighter planes, all this stuff.

I was just captivated by that. Oh, yes, to go in 1999 for the 55th anniversary of the battle. And, you know, like Orange Beach 2, which is the sector where a K-35 went ashore, I mean, to stand there on that stretch of beach, which really the northern beach is White Beach, which is where the first Marines landed. That's where it was the worst. But Fifth Marines went ashore on the Orange Beach 1 and 2 and 3, or 7th Marines went ashore on Orange Beach 3.

the southern beaches it was a little easier but not much you know first marine division had four amphibious landings war war two guala canal gloucla clostor pellaloo and okinawa you know of those pellaloo was the most viciously opposed to walk on that beach and and you know just obviously being as connected to my dad's story as i was then and always have been was just so evocative man i mean it's not just wasn't just the landing beach i mean If you want to jump ahead to D plus one when they attacked across the airfield, which of course is horrifically portrayed in the Pacific miniseries and very well portrayed, you know, I told my buddy Eric Maylander who was my guide on that trip and had been,

that was his seventh trip, just an expert on the battle. I talk about Eric in my book there. And I said, man, when we see that airfield, I want to go across right where K35 went across. And, you know, Colonel Alexander was in our group. group and we get out of the van, you know, the little van that we were riding around in. And, you know, he said, guys, let's just give Henry a few minutes by himself, you know. And I said, yeah, man, I just want to walk around right here. And we haven't even gotten into the issue of the fact that the Marine Corps has revitalized the airfield on Pelaloo.

They're flying supertankers in there now, KC-130s. That's a conversation into itself that now Pelaloo. has been deemed to be strategically relevant in the modern day, in a modern geopolitical context. My father would just be blown away by that. But on that day, it was kind of a hot, still day, gentle breeze blowing. You know, the airstrip was, it was disused at that time, but it was still a very clear, large coral strip out in the jungle. and you know but the jungle growth was creeping in on the side so you know very much a disused strip but you could tell it was an air strip at one time and it was just haunting I mean to be because I'm

walking around in that sector because I've heard so many times I've heard my dad described to me what it was like you know and I even talk in there about in my book about how you know He, like his pistol belt, his web pistol belt, which is now in the Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas. I remember looking at that when I was a kid, and he was talking about, you know, the thick webbing material. And he said, you see how thick that material is? He said, you know, when we were coming across the airfield, I tripped and fell and a piece of, you know, a piece of metal just came right over my head, right when I did it, and it hit snafu in the side. And he went down with a grunt, all of which he wrote it. about it and I talk about it in my book but he said it you know that pistol belt saved his life

because he said you know like of course the shell fire mortar fire and machine gun fire everything was so loud they couldn't hear each other yell so he just could see you know he crawls over to snafu in that moment he could see snafu you know like my dad picked up that metal and he's bouncing it in his hand and he could see snafu motioning you know say put it in my my pack. And so my dad opens his pack, throws it in there, and they get on a cross, which I hope somebody in the Shelton family has that piece of metal. Because that, I mean, I would have that framed. But yeah, I mean, the airfield impellu was just, because it was such, it was such an evocative place. I mean, it was so much happened, you know, and,

because it was, you know, the Japanese had everything zeroed in on that spot because it, it's not like it was going to be some covert operation, they knew the Marines were going to come across. Yeah, and one of the reasons why I was wanting to get your assessment of visiting there is because when you go somewhere, it's not like the pictures. It's like no matter what intel you get, it's not going to be exactly what you thought. And I was thinking about these World War II Marines. I don't even know if they had like photography. I don't know if planes had flown over and taken pictures. They had, but we'll go ahead. No, believe me, the last thing I want to do is interrupt you telling the story.

But I wrote something down and I think it's similar to what you're thinking, Jocko, is I am going with the assumption that you're trying to visualize what your dad's experience was like standing in those places. I, at my one experience was something I similar to that in the iconic world of the Marines in the Pacific is I flew onto Iwo Jima. So I flew a section of F-18s, flew out onto the airfield, walked up Mount Surabachi, which you can hike up there, re-enlisted a young Marine, and had my squadron up there, then got a ride down to jump back in my jet and do a fly-by for the squadron. Like, probably the coolest thing ever did. But what was remarkable, and I really just wanted to hear you talk more about it was everything I'd ever seen about Ivojima was in black and white. All the pictures I ever read and saw, and it's ever been published from that time, there's nothing in color. It's this is very faded, greenish, hueish. And so you get there, what you don't get a sense of, of how blue the water is and how green the, the, the, um, the trees and, and, and the color of that is, is really startling because in the pictures, it has very, even the ones that are colorized are so washed out.

And it was really remarkable to picture like as it stands there and I stood there on, I have sand from you, June. And I picked up like, it is a gorgeous. It is a stunningly beautiful place. And then you have to, in your own mind, transpose the violence and everything that went on there. But the colorized view of that is so different and it's hard to capture, like, how violent a place like that could be.

And you're there probably trying to imagine what your dad was going through. I'm just wondering, like, what that experience was like when you saw it. And it probably looked very different than what's in your mind's eye from the pictures, because as it sits quietly, they're all very beautiful places. They're stunning. And they're in the middle.

They're islands in the Pacific. and then you have this incredible contrast. Yeah, well, you know, so pre-invasion photography, and there were a lot of photographs, but the thing was that jungle canopy was so thick that it obscured the true nature of the terrain and the true nature of the terrain that was enormously topographically complex

because you had like five parallel ridges with interconnected ravines and box canyons and all that. I mean, the failures of pre-invasion intelligence appellate we could go on and on about, Dave, to speak more in a visceral way to what you're talking about. I had watched, it was a Lou Rita production on the Bloody Hills of Pelaloo. And I had watched that. It came out.

My dad was interviewed for it extensively. And before I went to Pelaloo, I wore the videotape of that thing out, just watched it again. My wife really gets, because the guy who narrated it just has this fun. He's like a classic stage actor, Paul Sparer, I think, is the name. I just noticed it because the dude's got a freaking awesome voice. But just I'll be sitting there to, we'll be talking about Pelham and I'll start going to the bloody hills of Pelaloo. You know, and my wife's just like, God, stop it, Henry. You know, but I mean, yes, it was to see it and be there. I mean, Pelaloo is a beautiful place now.

You know, but to my father, it represents. in a tragic waste and death that on so many levels really was unnecessary. And again, we're not even getting into the geostrategic reasons from taking Palo while they could have briba. That's, I mean, ink has been spelled on that. You know, we're staying visceral in the moment here. My father was asked, would you ever want to go back there? And he absolutely did not want to.

Now, Okinawa, you know, he actually, and I didn't know this until we're reading through some letters researching for the book, he said that he would be interesting going to Okinawa. But I think he saw Okinawa as, I mean, it was a beautiful island, not so much after they'd been there a while. But, you know, he keenly felt the suffer and the sorrowing that the indigenous population was having to go through, you know, but Pelaloo, whatever civilians had been there, of course, had been taken off and sent north, you know, and, you know, and, you know, to the northern Palau Islands. And so Pellulahoo to him just represented tragic loss of life because so many of his buddies

didn't make it through. But for me to be there and to hear the jungle birds, you know, softly calling to each other and see the sun dappled jungle canopy floor, you know, as we're walking around exploring these fighting positions, you know, like one of my last days there, we go up into some coral ridges and we found a 30 caliber water cool machine gun still in its emplacement with an ammo belt, the remains of an ammo built. At that point, it was down to like five rounds that hadn't rotted off. And it was still in its fighting position.

And I've got a picture of me kneeling by it. And my buddy Eric Maylander had been, he had seen the same position because he knew the island intimately well. He'd seen the same position in one of his previous trips a few years. years before and he said last time I saw this there was like 10 or 15 rounds still left of that belt well when I saw it it had you know mother nature was reclaiming it very slowly and it had just decayed and rotted to where there was just a few rounds sticking out of the breach but to look at this machine gun with the remains of a belt still in the in the breach and you hear the jungle birds calling to each other I mean it it was really a haunting moment you know

And my dad was still alive and in pretty good health at that point. And I remember telling him about that, showing him the picture of it, true to his nature, you know, what interested him most was the jungle birds. He wanted me to try to describe that because he was an ornithologist. He was a biologist. That was, you know, that was his passion. Well, speaking of pre-invasion intelligence, I kind of have to. I'm obligated to read this part. Sure.

This is a quote from your dad. The submarine USS Seawolf in late June 1944 had obtained photographs that gave some information about the island. In July, the submarine USS Burfish attempted to send in small underwater demolition teams by rubber boats at night. And then you add underwater demolition teams or UDTs were the precursor to modern Navy SEALs. There you go. And then your dad says, because of bright moonlit nights, Japanese radar and constant air and sea patrols, the sub had to remain submerged in the area for two weeks. One dark night, a five-man team paddled ashore on one of the beaches to be used in our assault.

These incredibly brave men obtained valuable information. However, data on the depth of the water type of shoal and bottom was not gained until UDTs examined the area under protection of naval gunfire just prior to the landing. So I had to throw that in there. Of course. You know, kind of obligated in. By the way, it's like Tarwa. Tarwa had taken place. There was no UDTs.

That's one of the tragedies was they didn't understand what the coral was like, what the reef was like, what the sand was like. And that's one of the reasons that the UDTs started doing this stuff. And here they were making it happen. And that stuff that they said there, this is like one of those evolutions that happened where the UDTs originally were going in at night because we're stealthy. But they weren't really getting the information that they needed. And eventually they had to go in the daytime. And they'd go under the naval gunfire and take their chances. You give a little bit of information on the order of battle here.

Total first Marine division strength when they departed Pavuvu was 16,459 officers and men not counting the reinforcements. Of these, only about 9,000 were combat infantrymen. The division's three infantry regiments were the first Marines, fifth Marines, and seventh Marines. The artillery regiment was the 11th Marines. And then fast forward a little bit. The Japanese, the commander of the Japanese forces on Pelulu was Colonel Nuneo. Kunio Nakagawa. Yeah, you're going to have to just re-pronounce every foreign language that I have because I'm really bad at foreign languages.

His forces consisted of approximately 10,000 troops of the 14th Division, hardened and experienced veterans from the fighting in Manchuria. And this is your dad's assessment. Quote, in addition, there were elements of the 53rd independent mixed brigade who also saw, and also Japanese Navy Guard forces, Navy Guard Force units and some service and labor troops. Many of Nakagawa's men were seasoned combat veterans of fighting in North China and Manchuria. They were indoctrinated with strict Bushido code of the warrior and took pride in their fighting ability without regard to personal safety. Some of the non-combatant naval forces and Korean labor troops were less fanatical, but the combat troops effectively forced them to resist us aggressively. and few succeeding and few succeeded in surrendering.

So that's what we've got. That's what the, that's the situation on the ground. Fanatical troops indoctrinated with the Beshito code, which had been manipulated and bent to the point where, you know, this is where you're getting suicide, kamikazis and whatnot.

Fast forward a little bit. D-Day, September 15th, 1944. before dawn and NCO came into their compartment and barked okay guys hit the deck the men got up and pulled on their dungry trousers and jackets and their boondockers they shaved and headed a chow this consistent of steak and eggs a tradition learned from the australians your dad quote just as i started to leave the galley and go to topside it was announced that tokyo rose had sent a radio message saying something like hello to american boys all over the pacific i want to announce that the first marine division the brave conquerors of guadalcanal and cape gloucester is preparing for to invade Palauulu Island. The heroic troops of the Imperial Japanese Army, however, have a big surprise for the Marines. So there you go. Tokyo Rose putting out some intel, some propaganda. Yeah.

All right. Let's get to the landing here, going to the book. As the preceding two waves got close to the reef, close shells, close shell hits began dropping in and raising massive geysers of water. and here's your dad. I saw a large shell explode off the port quarter of a patrol craft to our front. As the geyser of water leaped up, the Navy gun crew of the 81mm mortar on the port side hit the deck as one man, but immediately got back on their feet firing away. And this is you.

When the first shell hit, my father told me, I realized my place was back at home with my mother. The island, as he described it, seemed, quote, marked by a continued. sheet of flame from left to right for the entire length of the beach backed by a thick wall of smoke, end quote. And then you say it wasn't white smoke like what rises over a campfire, but angry black smoke, the kind that comes from exploding shells and burning vehicles and structures and maybe from things hit and burning that weren't meant to burn. I remember thinking, my God, he said, none of us will ever get out of that place alive.

Back to your dad. The lieutenant motioned for us to get our heads down as the Japanese shells began to hit closer. There was a violent jolt as the Amtrak lurched upward and out of the water. We were thrown violently against each other and the sides of the Amtrak. The treads crunched and scraped against the rough coral as we moved out of deep water and onto the reef. The gunner on our tractor started firing his 50-cow machine gun, but I could hardly hear it. I felt detached and forlorn as I watched the empty shell cases fall on the steel floor. Something rattled above the din of the bombardment and I hoped it was the falling brass cases. I looked up at the gunner, but he was ducking down and away from the Japanese machine bullets which were rattling and pinging against our Amtrak's armor. We moved off the coral into an area of deep water and the tractor floated again. My father looked toward, end quote. My father looked toward the front of the Amtrak from his position near the rear and saw their lieutenant reaching for something. It was a half-plane whiskey bottle. It all seemed unreal.

But it was real, and it was happening to this compassionate young man from Mobile, Alabama, who loved riding his horse back home, his family, and his dogs, and going on hunting trips with his father. The lieutenant held the bottle out to my father, but he refused it. I know I heard you talking about, or we were talking earlier about, this quote that you pulled a continuous sheet of flame from left to right the entire length of the beach, backed by a thick wall of smoke. What a horrific image.

Yeah, when you know, when you read that, I actually remember my dad saying that in an interview. And it was the, you know, it was one that I'd watched and listened to obsessively before I went to Pelaloo in 1999. And when I hear those words, you know, and I remember the day I sat down and wrote that, that part, it, I'm hearing my dad say it the way he talked. And I'm hearing him go, you know, I just saw the beach and it was just from one end

of the other, it was just this continuous sheet of flame backed by a thick wall of smoke. And I remember thinking, my God, none of us will ever get out of that place alive. And that's kind of. Okay, I'm going to go ahead. Whatever I said about you, maybe not doing the audio book, you should 100% do the audio book. Like I said, I mean, if somebody wants to be. to make it where I can retire and do nothing but that, I would happily do it. But probably not going to happen.

But no, I just remember, you know, my dad, the way he talked. And he had a really distinctive mobile accent, which is not your typical southern accent. And I remember we told Joe Mazzello when we met him before they started filming, we said, you know, don't try to do the southern accent because Hollywood always gets it wrong. You know, they always screw it up. Just talk normally, you know. where was his accent from? Well, Joe, my dad was from Mobile.

No, no, no, no, Joe. I mean, I think he's from somewhere in California. I'm not completely sure, but the way he did it was fine. You know, like when he tells his dog Deakin, which I remember, we got pictures of D. I think I've got a picture of Deacon in there. Deacon, you stay. You know, that was fine. I thought Joe did fine with that.

But there are southern accents and then their accents from Mobile, Alabama. It's just a distinctive, it's a distinctive accent. You know, and I just, I can just hear my dad describe that, you know, like they were, if I can hit you with another one. Yeah. They were, he was talking about advancing inland and he saw that Japanese, like the nose of a bomb that had been buried. He says, you know, the Japanese would take 500 pound bombs and bury them as de facto landmines. And he said, as we started inland.

I looked down in my right foot missed by no more than six inches a Japanese 500-pound bomb that had been buried as a mine. And a little way down the beach, I saw a boy step on one, and it just atomized him. He just disappeared. That is me quoting him directly because I remember, because I watched that and listen to it over and over and over again. You know, because when I walked on that beach,

I wanted that in my head. You know, because he was still alive in 1999 when I. I went to Pillowloof. So, you know, just it was an iconic thing for me to be able to do. Fast forward a little bit. An NCO yelled the inevitable hit the beach. We piled out over the sides as fast as we could. Now I don't want to read any of this.

I want you to read it all. We piled out over the sides as fast as we could. My father said, Snapu went over first. And I was right behind him. I planted both feet on the left side of the Amtrak to leap out. And just as I did, I remember this line of white tracer fire. The Japs used white tracers came right past my face. At eye level, it almost grazed my face.

He continued, well, I jerked down my head like a turtle, and then I fell down onto the beach. When I fell off the side of the tractor, I just fell onto the sand in a heap. Mortar, ammo bag, canteens, carbine, Kbar. It was certainly not the way John Wayne hit the beaches. Yeah. Yes, I can hear him say that because, you know, yeah, he laughed about, you know. You know, one thing I noticed about, I was watching the Pacific getting ready for this podcast. And when's the last time you watched the Pacific, Dave?

I've, it's probably a couple of years. I've rewatched it several times. When you rewatch it and I didn't notice until I was watching the end, I was like, there was something that seemed a little bit off. And I'll have to rewatch it because now I don't know whether I made it up in my mind. but when you fire, when you shoot tracers, right, at night, they, you see the, you see the tracers, but then you see ricochets and the,

it lets you know how crazy bullets are because ricochets fly all over the place. And I have to rewatch it again and see if they, because the couple scenes where I, when I finally noticed it, I was like, oh, the ricochets aren't going anywhere because it makes tracer fire look even crazier at night when you see ricochays hitting, and it would be, it's different in different areas,

but when you have concrete bunkers and stuff like that, tracers would be crazy going off those things. And I don't think they, I don't think they, I don't think they have them in the Pacific. I think you're right. And I think like the tracers hit and they just die. But tracers in real life are crazy.

And that's the reason I thought of that was when I'm thinking about these white tracers and how in the movie you're going, you're like, oh, wow, and in the miniseries you're going, oh, wow, those tracers are crazy. But then when you think about what it really looks like when those tracers then hit and ricochet

all the places they're flying, it just looks nuts. It looks totally out of control. You know, when you say that, and this is jumping ahead, forgive me. But he talks about on Okinawa at night when the battleships offshore were firing fire missions with their 16 and 14-inch guns. And, you know, he talked about glowing just about the size of your thumb, you'd see those 16 or 14-inch shells depending on which vessel fired them. Like glowing red coals would go over. And you'd hear him just, you know, it sounded like it sounded like.

like locomotives going over and he said we would see them inland they would hit and then we would see a 16 inch shell go rumbling up into the sky and you'd see this red arc as it would hit and go rumbling up into the rainy sky you know after it ricocheted off whatever i mean i can man to to have been able to be there and see that just indescribable you know um here's another one from your dad that you grabbed a quote here in his words All up and down the beach, shells were going off, amtraks were getting hit on the beach before they could get the guys out. You could see guys falling all along the beach because the extremely heavy small arms fire, artillery and mortar fire. He saw bodies being blown into the air.

Out on the reef, he saw some Marines trying to get out of a smoking amtrak. The Japanese had the range on them and bracketed them mercilessly with machine guns and mortars. Some of them men were getting hit and falling into the water. My father told me how helpless he felt seeing his buddies trying to trying in vain to help them in need deep water Fast forward a little bit this is your dad Finally the company moved forward the rifleman moved ahead as skirmishers And my mortar squad moved along in dispersed formation behind them ready to set up and give mortar fire When called upon and again, I'm just you got to get the book there's I'm not gonna read the whole book

Hopefully you'll read the whole book at some point audio But fast forward a little bit. Visibility was limited to a few feet. We lost contact with I Company 3.5 on our left and with 3.7 on our right. It was equally hard to keep in contact with the platoons of our own company. There were no landmarks in the scrub that we could use to get oriented. Japanese snipers kept up constant harassing fire. The crack of their rifles and whine of their rockets, of the ricochets off the hard coral and trees were unnerving.

An occasional shell fell by nearby in the scrub. Fortunately, most of the communications men were able to wait ashore and join the battalion in the afternoon. My squad moved slowly through the dust covered thick growth. The men keeping about a five-paced interval at such times you feel terribly lonely. And there was a strong temptation to sidle up beside your buddy so you could watch out for snipers together and exchange a few comforting remarks. Don't bunch up. Keep your five-paced interval. The NCOs kept saying.

As a buddy sardonically summed it up to me sledgehammer, where there are two or three gathered together that are always Jap mortar shells. And this is one of those weird instincts that guys get to get to bunch up. It's like absolutely a real human thing. When things are unsafe, people, they gather up. And then you become a better target for the enemy.

So despite all that, these guys continue to push. eventually they get to the airfield that we talked about. And when they get to the airfield, and this is where I opened the podcast with, right, there are no water, no food, low on ammo. What do they have at this point? They have fear and anticipation.

That's what they have. And duty, essentially. That's all it is. As they get into this situation where they're going to finally stage And again, fast forward, these guys are staged. Looking at a flat airfield that you're going to have to cross, looking at any open space,

when you're going across the street in Ramadi, when you're going like, what is it, 40 feet across the street, that doesn't feel good. And by the way, no rounds going. I'm talking to just a normal day. You're going to go from this side, this corner to that corner, the hair of the back of your neck stands up. You go, you take a little, you crouch your shoulders down, you crotch your neck down,

you bring your shoulders up, you try and make yourself look as small as you possibly can, and you go. So here these guys get to anticipate that all night long that they're going to go across not 40 feet, not 100 feet, but a massive amount of wide open terrain where the enemy you know has completely dialed in like, you're a morgue man. You know exactly what you'd be doing if you are on the other side. You have your machine gun teams.

You know exactly what they'd be doing on the other side. And that's what these guys are getting ready to do. No water, no food. A night of anticipation waiting for this to happen. After lying prone on the hot quarrel for what must have seemed like an attorney, an officer shouted, let's go.

Four battalions from left to right, 2-1, 15, 25, and 3-5, moved out in dispersed formation. And this is where you went up there and you actually did the walk that your dad did. Run. Sprint. Shuffle.

Zigzag. Your dad did everything probably but walk. But you walked across it. And what you say here is my dad said both to me and in his many interviews that crossing that airfield was the worst experience of the war. And that's saying a lot coming from your death. Yeah, he said that many times. You know, he described as he did in his book, you know,

tracer fire coming by, snapping by at chairrail height. You know, none of it was easy for those guys. But the airfield was just compressed. I guess it was so bad because the Japanese knew they were coming across. The Marines were out in the open, you know, They had to get across. There was no choice. And, of course, there was even less jungle growth for them, because so much of it had been denuded by pre-invasion artillery and then ongoing shell fire once the fighting started.

I mean, it really, they were just exposed the entire time. It's a nightmare. Speaking of the Japanese here, this is an interesting point that you make. You say, quote, my fascination with World War II was not living. into the Pacific Theater. My father and I also had many conversations through the years about the European theater during which he compared various tactics used by the Japanese and with which he obviously had experienced firsthand to the tactics used by the Germans, which he read about extensively. The Germans were fine soldiers, he said, and I wouldn't have wanted to fight them. But at the end

of the day, they would bed down and get their rest. The damn Japanese were moving around all night and all the time they never let us get any rest. They get across the airfield. I'm going to fast forward a little bit and again get the book so you can read about all the details of that. They get across the airfield

back to the book. They were dug in next to First Lieutenant Edward Hillbilly Jones K Company's machine gun platoon leader and Sergeant John A. Tescovich. Am I saying that? Tescovich. These two K-companies.

Tescovich. These two K-companies. men were very familiar to me growing up as my father spoke of them often. I will remember my parents discussing their twilight foxhole conversations in the in the later years. As darkness fell, things were quiet in the area except for outgoing artillery fire. Hillbilly and Sergeant Tescovich known as the mad Russian crept over and sat on the edge of their gun pit. Hilly Billy, Hillie was second only to ACAC in popularity and was highly respected. Perhaps, and this is your dad, quote, perhaps it was because he'd come from the

ranks and not from officer candidate school as a 90-day wonder that we thought so highly of him end quote in the quiet reassuring words of hillbilly asking my father about his family and mobile and expressing optimism that they would prevail in the coming weeks of hardship on pelulu my father found a sense of peace and solace i told him i felt ashamed of how scared i was he described to me and i remember hail billy said to me don't worry about it sledgehammer everybody else is just as scared as you it's just as you it's just that you don't mind admitting it. Sergeant Tescovich was a different kind of character than Hillbilly, but he was equally respected. Quote, he was from the industrial northeast and had an accent so hard as hard as nails. He was not a large man, but was muscular and had obviously spent his youth in hard work. He was a capable NCO, loved the Marine Corps, and did his job well. He told us some of his previous life and talked about how he thought the war would progress,

end quote. As I remember my father telling it, it had gotten quiet. And suddenly I heard in a voice as clear as me talking to you right now, a voice say, you will survive the war. And I looked at Hillbilly and Tuscovich. And they looked at me and I said, did you guys hear that? And they looked at me and said, hear what? I hear a machine gun off to the left. And I said, you guys didn't hear somebody say something? And they said, no, we didn't hear anything like that. In that moment, as the twilight turned to the, darkness on Pelaloo, my father felt that the voice he heard was a sign from God that he would make it through. He was very skeptical of people seeing visions and hearing voices, and he said so many times throughout his life, but he also didn't doubt what he experienced right then. Hillbilly and Tescovic were both later killed on Pelaloo. Powerful moment for your dad. Yeah, that iconic twilight conversation, you know, my mom and I were able to talk about that. when I got to this point in my manuscript.

And if you knew, if you had known my dad, you know, religion was something that was very private to him. I know what he believed, but he didn't talk about that very much. It was just something he held very close. But my mother and I had this conversation about the voice, you know, you will survive the war. And I remember my father talking about that. And she said, you know, I think your dad just,

felt like that that gave him comfort in what was such a tough time in his life. But, I mean, really, yeah, I mean, to hear you read it and for me to go back and read it in his book and to think about when I depicted that, because I'm adding in context about Hillbilly and Sartre Tesscovich, I mean, that was an extraordinary thing for my dad to talk about because, like I said, you just, him talking about visions and hearing voices, that, he just, he just, wasn't that kind of guy. So he obviously heard something. And I don't, I mean, look, guys, when I talk about my dad, I don't speak.

I'm going to use the term hyperbole, you know. I've never sat here. Oh, my dad was a great hero. I've never said that. He was a hero to me personally, just like your father was to you and your father was to you, you know what I mean? But would I elevate him over another veteran? No.

He was a 60 millimeter mortarman who did his job. You know, I've heard men he served with that I was able to meet and talk to. He was a damn good Marine. But, and maybe I'm straying a little bit here. But I just, for him to write that and talk about that, that was, that was an iconic moment for him. And of course, you have those iconic moments and the war goes on. Fast forward a little bit. that this is quote from your dad,

then the nightly routine commenced, the password, starshells, artillery whistling over, Japanese raids and infiltrators, bursts of small arms fire, Corman at the bang of grenades, calls for mortar flares,

an H.E on the company front, heavy artillery fire on and on until dawn. Again, you read these books or you, you watch, you know, when you watch the Pacific, you know,

there's 12 straight minutes, and I'm making this number up, but there's 12 straight minutes or nine straight minutes of machine guns and chaos. And sitting on my couch in my air-conditioned house, I'm getting unnerved after 12 minutes. Now imagine it's not 12 minutes. It's not 12 hours. It's not 12 days.

It is weeks and weeks and weeks of this. Continuing on with the book. This was the third night on the island. And certain realities of the infantry men's life were becoming painfully obvious. My father expressed it to me about as eloquently as he could. One of the things that a frontline infantry man faced was filth. Filth and fear went right together. By the third day, either you were, either you or your foxhole buddy told each other that

that he stunk. And of course, you both stank. From the terrible heat, the sweat, absolutely no way to get yourself cleaned up. So that's what they're doing. And it's just day after day after day. Isn't it strange? Like I'll, uh, I'll train Jiu-Jitsu or something. I, you know, I need to take a shower within 15 minutes, you know?

Sure. So spoiled, pathetic human. And I trained Jiu-Jitsu and I got to take a shower. I work out in the morning. I take a shower. And here are these guys in the mud, filth, piss, shit. Just. And blood and guts.

And they're just, uh, day after day after. day after day. I'm going to fast forward a little bit. There's more fighting. There's more details. At the end, this is your dad. At the end of the first week,

our entire division had suffered nearly 4,000 casualties. About 1,000 more than the second Marine division lost in Tarawa. During this time, first Marine regiment had lost 1,672 men or 56% of that regiment's strength. The division's heavy losses troubled the third amphibious group, third amphibious corps commander. On September 21st, General Roy Geiger visited the CP of the first Marines to get a clearer picture of the situation. He concluded the first Marines were finished and said that the regiment should be relieved and replaced by an army regiment. General Geiger was not inclined to impose his will on General Rupertus, but he finally felt it necessary.

He realized the first Marines were shot to pieces, and the 5th and 7th Marines who had suffered heavily would need help. Let me just inject really quick. So General Geiger, the first Marine aviator, I believe. Am I right, Dave? Correct. There's Airfield's named after him, like Geiger Field. He's a historically prominent guy.

And he didn't want to say, hey, you've got to take some help, but eventually he's like, you need some help. Yeah. that that's a that whole dynamic is um you know the the the army and i actually wrote an article for a war war two magazine that it was fall 2022 issue where i spoke about marine and army interservice cooperation um because my father obviously fiercely proud to be a marine you know very marine-centric in his philosophy and views of everything and sense of his free decor.

But I thought he did a really good job with the old breed of stepping away from that, stepping back from that and saying, okay, a situation like Pelaloo, we needed all the help we could have. You know, at that point, you need all of your assets when you're facing an existential threat that is grinding your people down. It's not about, well, Marines are tougher than soldiers. Let the Marines get it done. I don't want to go too far into the whole General Repertis question.

I think the Marines who are there, my father being one of them, had some pretty definite ideas on his lack of willingness to bring in the 81st division. Dave and I were, we got to see firsthand all the inter-service rivalry just disappear because the battle of Vermont, the enemy didn't care if you were wearing a Marine Corps uniform, an Army uniform, a Navy uniform. They were trying to kill you. And we needed to work together to kill them first. Right. And just a really powerful unifying factor that comes. to play when things get bad enough.

Sure. So, fast forward a little bit. The date was September 25th, D plus 10, although the first Marines were now out of the fight, 20 more grueling days would pass before the 5th Marines were relieved.

They would be just as depleted from their time in the ridges. When they board, and again, I'm saying some things right now that if you, it's like, what am I talking about, ridges? Get the book so you understand what that is.

When they boarded the trucks, they headed south along the east, road, then northward toward the west road, as they drove past the airfield, they were amazed at the terrain's transition from a combat zone to an American airbase. Clean-shaven rear echelon personnel eyed, filthy, bearded, and bedraggled infantrymen curiously as they drove by on the trucks. My father described it as being animals observed in a circus parade. Fast forward a little bit. As my father and his fellow Marines passed through the army lines, they could hear the chatter of Japanese machine guns and see bluish white tracers passing high above them the men up on the ridge were pinned down

The witty likable and this is your dad quote the witty likeable Sargent and this is Tescovich with whom I had a member had the memorable conversation the night he and hillbilly came over to my foxhole Was killed on September 25th while riding on a tank directing his fire he was shot in the abdomen What a waste we all greatly regretted his death fast forward a little bit While Snafoo and I were getting, this is your dad, quote, while Snafu and I were getting the mortar set up, I could hear something behind me in the pillbox. It was Japs in there,

and I could hear them talking to each other and excited voices, but not very loud. I heard metal rattle against the grating in one of the vision ports on the side of the bunker. They were trying to get a rifle barrel through there. I grabbed my carbine and yelled a Bergen. There's nips in that pillbox, end quote. And this is obviously a famous scene in the Pacific.

Bergen at first didn't believe what my father had said. Sledgehammer, you're cracking up. Fortunately for all concerned, however, he took him seriously and moved over to the ventilator port directly behind my father. It was a small square opening about six by eight inches, covered with iron bars about a half an inch apart. There was a Japanese soldier right there, and Bergen shot him point blank with his carbine.

This caused a stir among the other Japanese inside the structure. My father told me, quote, We are all on alert When the shooting started A jab threw a grenade out the entrance to my left And I yelled grenade And dofer covered behind the sand breastwork That protected the entrance

It was L-shaped to protect entrance From our fire The Japs tossed out a few more grenades But they exploded and none of us got hit They were all hugging the deck I remember most of the guys crawled around to the front And were staying low So the Japs inside couldn't see them or shoot at them

John Redifer and Vincent Santos Jumped on top Bergen yelled to me look over that wall and see what's in there, sledgehammer. My father was closest to the entrance at the end of the bunker, as he said to me, quote, I was trained to follow orders without question, so I looked over that wall down into the bunker. It almost cost him his life. No more than five or six feet away was a Japanese machine gunner crouched over his weapon. Quote, I was staring right into the muzzle of his machine gun.

As soon as I saw that, I jerked my head down so fast my helmet almost flew off because my chin strap wasn't buckled. As I did, he fired a quick burst from me. his machine gun, the rounds went right over my head through the sand that was piled up to that protective wall by the door, end quote. In July 2006, I flew to Texas and visited Bergen. He showed me around Lancaster in his red pickup truck. He reminisced about the war, including the action at the bunker. Quote, I told Sledgehammer to look over that wall. The man only had 13 days of combat experience. I should have looked myself. The Jap machine gunner fired a burst and almost took his head off. He ducked. Thank God.

Do you remember him saying anything I asked? Yeah, I heard him saying a kind of hoarse voice. I'm okay. I'm all right. Yeah, the bunker on In Gasevis. I mean, that was so kneeling in that spot, you know, I was able to do that. And we had machetes with us that day because obviously we're hacking our way through overgrown jungle growth to get to that structure.

and I remember my friend Eric Maylander saying, you know, he stood in that spot first. He said, Henry, do you realize if your dad had been a split second slower, you would have never been born? So, you know, I was able to kneel right there and look down into that bunker, which, you know, it was full of pandanus tree roots and water when we were there. But that was quite a moment. I took my machete and actually hacked out. out a chunk of that concrete from the from that little parapet right there which i still have but you know right in front of the thing guys you could see because after they took that bunker he describes us of course in great detail with the old breed they dug their mortar gun pits you know

like just right in front of it and then ended up spending the night there and he talked about how you know the after the m track came up with a flamethrower and all that and uh they knocked it out. It was burning the rest of the night. But to be there and see those gun positions. And we, I actually saw, and this speaks to your question of what was it like to go to Pelaloo. I mean, there were canisters of 60mm rounds still on the edges of these foxholes when I was there. A lot of the ordinance has been picked up in the ensuing year, so that's probably not there anymore, but on that day, to see a gun position, and there were probably two or three of them, and to see canisters of 60 mil rounds.

And I hope some nephew or son or daughter or granddaughter, grandson, whatever, here's this, and this inspires you to go visit the ground where your loved one fought. to see those rounds and look at that and know we're looking at them and Eric and I are saying I mean shit my dad probably had his hands on those rounds you know placing them there and obviously they didn't get used because they were still in the canister you know they were packed four to a canister I think on the 60s

but to know that he probably had his hands on some of them I mean maybe I'm just weird but that that stir something within me you know it was it just really I just felt that visceral connection, man. I mean, I talk about how we which I don't want to skip through the rest of the afternoon at that

structure at that site. But, you know, to be able to call my dad on a sat phone when we got back across to Pelaloo at the storyboard resort where we were staying and it wasn't a resort really. It was a bunch of little cabins in the jungle there.

but to be able to talk to him and say, hey, we found that bunker, you know. And like I said, I write about it in there, and you may have highlighted some of it. Go ahead. Talk to talk to. Yeah, I mean, just to, I don't even know the time difference. You know, it was late in the afternoon that day for us.

It was 4 o'clock the previous morning. I don't even know. But he was asleep. But it woke him up. But I, you know, I think my mom answered. I said, hey, good mom. Is dad? I got to talk to dad.

you know, and he came on the line, you know, and, you know, I said, hey, man, we found the bunker. Like, I knelt in that spot, you know, the spot where the, the Jap Nambu gunner almost took your head off, which actually was not a Nambu, where the Jap machine gunner almost took your head off. He said, yeah, I know the spot. I said, I knelt in that spot, Dad. I said, that, I said, man, I'm just proud to be your son. And he just said, well, I'm proud of you too, big shot, you know, but that, that, that, that, That was a seminal moment for me, man.

That was cool. You know, there's an important point that you make after this, after you go through that story, both from your perspective and your dad's perspective. You say I was 16 when with the old breed was published, and I read it when we received the first copies from Presidio Press. Though I knew the story well, I always remember the feeling I had when first reading about

how my father's bullets tore into the man's chest and the look of agony he saw in his face. And this is something that you described earlier when he kills one of the guys coming out of the bar. Right. Over the years, I've asked many people, what is it about his memoir that they find so compelling?

Almost all of them have answered his humanity. I saw that when I read this passage as a teenager, but it was more than that to me. He just killed a man at close range and he was not shy in describing the revulsion he felt at the inhumanity of war. I felt a tremendous sense pride in him not only for doing bravely his duty, but still retaining a semblance of decency

amid the horror of it all. Yeah, I think that's one of the things that makes the book so unique and so powerful and so important, so important for young Marines to read, you know, for young Marines, because it's very easy to dehumanize the enemy, to dehumanize each other. And the fact that your dad maintained that most of the time, you know, like you can definitely, there's, there's frustration for sure, but for him to get through it with his humanity intact is what I think is one of the most moving things about it.

And one of the most important things for young military people to explore and learn about. Fast forward a little bit. The battle on Pelilu had been, raging for two weeks at this point and the men were exhausted physically and emotionally. When my father became emotional, a lieutenant, Duke Ellington from Birmingham, Alabama, offered a few words of much-needed encouragement. This is your dad.

What Duke said was neither dramatic, was neither a dramatic battlefield oration nor a pep talk, but it gave me what I needed and remained exactly in my memory. And then he says, among RK Company killed with Sergeant Rigney. He was a fine man who had insisted that some man with relatives take his place on the list of veterans to be sent home before Pelilu. Rigney had been raised in an orphanage, so he had no family to go home to. A Japanese shot him from a cave as Rigney stood in front of it, firing his Tommy gun into it. He made no effort to be cautious, and it was as though he didn't want to live, as one man said. Fast forward, back in the ridges of northern Pelaloo.

This is from your dad. The following quote from Time Magazine's Robert Martin on October 16th, 1944 described some of the terrible conditions we encountered on Pelaloo. Quote, for sheer brutality and fatigue, I think it surpasses anything yet seen in the Pacific, certainly from the standpoint of number of troops involved and time taken to make the island secure. Your dad goes on to say some of the veterans who had been with the division since Guadalcanal told me they, never saw such constant intense night activity. I saw many of my comrades killed and wounded in these nightmarish episodes. Japanese special close quarter combat units hold up in caves all day long. So when night came, they were well rested and out for our blood. The whole company often stayed awake

nearly all night warding them off. We fired mortar, H.E. and flares through grenades and used other weapons to kill and keep them out of our foxholes. Sometimes they slip past us and we'll get into a previously captured position and snipe on us from the rear. 24 hours a day. That's what's going on. Fast forward around, this is from your dad, around 3 October,

a K company NCO told me that a total of 21 Japanese infiltrators were killed in the company area that morning. It was such a rough night that most of us wouldn't forget. Imagine that, 21, 21 enemy killed in one night in your rear area. That's insane. You say this. By October 5th, the 7th Marines were almost as decimated as the first Marines and the 5th Marines began to relieve them, but the worst was not over. Your dad, quote,

Some of the men of the battered and exhausted 7th Marines were still going to be killed or wounded in actions in some of the draws and valleys in Pelaloo. Also, the Japanese continued to infiltrate back into capture positions and snipe at the airfield in other areas. Finding and destroying these fanatics was euphemistically called mopping up where a Marine could be killed just as dead. as hitting the beach or being hit in a big attack. So some of the things that they're getting told to do now, like, oh, you just go mop it up. Right, right. Japanese bullets don't, they don't have mop it up bullets.

That's right. They just have bullets. That is a, that is a, that's a line. You just said, kill you just as dead is the day you land on the beach. I think, as you said that, that's a powerful way to describe your dad's words of like, It doesn't they don't they don't care when it was or where it happened. It will kill you just as dead.

That's a really powerful line because so much that gets portrayed as you get past the apex of these battles. Right. It's like, oh, the battle was largely over or we had secured the victory and the outcome was was insured. Well, that means nothing to the Marines that had to continue on those cleanup operations or mopping of operations. That's just a really strong line. The way you said that really struck me. the thing that really contributed to all of that was the terrain on pelulu you know it was so convoluted there were so many caves and canyons and ravines and ridges and interlocking fields of fire and which pellaloo was not the first time they'd seen that in the pacific you know every island had

coral and ridges and things like that but pellaloo just you know you curlew you curlew you Nakagawa, who's the Japanese commander on site there, was a tactical genius. I mean, he was able to exploit that terrain to such a frightening degree. Fast forward a little bit. We noticed three Army rear echelon souvenir hunters coming along from the direction of the airfield. They carried no weapons, canteens or other equipment, wore fatigue caps and clean, neatly pressed dungarees. The men were clean, shaven, and appeared relaxed. We gaped open-mouthed them walking jauntly along the road, talking and laughing loudly. They had a spring in their step like it was all a picnic and frequently picked up and pocketed shell fragments and other war debris which littered the area all around.

They didn't see us under the tarp, nor did they notice the half-tracks either. I was thinking some pretty spiteful thoughts about them. Just as they were across the road opposite to us, the Army Mortarman called out fire orders. then they fired and the souvenir hunters panicked at the sound. Combat troops got jitterate the sound of small arms fire and shells, but would have immediately recognized the muffled bump of our 81s firing and probably not flinched. It was only after the war when you got home and began to unwind that you jumped when someone slammed a door or dropped the book. In action, our ears were so acutely tuned to every subtle sound that we reacted only to those that meant danger.

But the clean men didn't know the difference. They started rushing around in a circle, in a circle, each following the other with the arms outstretched and looking wildly about them. Then they started bumping into each other. In their panic, they didn't even know enough to hit the deck. We knew that the airfield had been shelled by Japanese periodically, and some rear echelon troops have been killed and wounded, so they apparently thought this was the end. Finally, they hit the deck as the 81's continued firing. It all happened very quickly, and George Snafu and I roared with laughter and slapped our knees. it was the best laugh we'd had in a long time.

It was the only time during the war that I laughed at someone who was afraid, and I still enjoy the mental picture of that panicky threesome. So there you, you know, you get into the disdain that they had for, and I mean, look, I know it takes guys in the rear. We all get that. And I'm not, as a non-military guy, I'm not going to sit here and insult anybody who may listen to this podcast, whose job is to be, you know,

nothing but respect for your service. We're speaking through the eyes of these guys. They resented rear echelon guys coming up in and just looking for, because my dad would always tell me, he goes, oh man, they just look for Jap Samarana Sabers or Jap flags and try to sell it to somebody or even worse, take it home and show it to somebody and act like they picked it up under a fight. You know, that just the whole concept was very troublesome to him.

But, you know, in that moment, there's that going on. the other cool thing is the fact that, you know, we spoke earlier of inter-service rivalry. You know, he talked, I think he said when the three guys realized that what was happening, and then they started, they were, you know, looking pretty sheepish and each one pointing at the other, and they go walking back down West Road. And he says, I'm sorry those Army Mortarmen didn't get to injure, because they were too busy with their fire mission. You know, and they had 81s in the back of a half-track is what that was. and he said,

I'm sorry that they didn't get to enjoy because they're over there doing their job as Mortimerman, you know, and hear these guys, but they were so busy, they didn't get to see the hilarity of that moment. But, you know, that little anecdote right there, guys,

I mean, I remember my mom, because she was still in pretty good shape at this point when I was writing this project. And she remembered, oh, the clean men. I remember going through and reading that part when it got edited out, you know,

but that amused her. You know, and so I'm glad I was able to get that in there. That's classic. And it's like they're laughing out loud. You know what I mean? I mean, that's so important to remember. And they show some of it in the movie. They show some,

they show some laughter and humor in the movie. But I reckon there's probably even more than they showed in the movie. You know, things are still funny. Even when things suck, they're still funny. Fast forward a little bit in the, this is your dad. In the process of our battalion, moving into the positions of the second battalion, Fifth Marines, Japanese sniper fire was intense and deadly accurate.

They'd been progress while my squad was on our way back to the company from the position near the beach. There were 22 casualties, and one of these was Captain Haldane. And then you say this. In 1999, I got to see many of the areas where my father fought in 1944 on a trip like that. However, it's never impossible to see everything. on your list. I wanted to visit Hill 140, but time and logistics conspired against us, and I was not able to. It was just as well. I knew in my heart that my father felt an enormous sense of pride

that I wanted to travel to the other side of the world and retrace his footsteps. I think it was somehow edifying to him, and even though he didn't want to relive the horror and tragedy of Pelaloo, I do believe he enjoyed seeing the pictures I took and hearing about my adventures. Had I visited Hill 140, however, I would not have shown him pictures or even talk told him about it. Anything that would have evoked the memory of ACAC's loss would have been too much. I felt that sounded almost hyperbolic. I used the order earlier to say that would have been too much.

But I'm just telling you guys, yeah, I would not have even. I mean, Hill 140, there was a lot of action around there that I just really wanted to visit that spot. We just couldn't get there. You know, it just, you know how it is when you go on trips like. this man they're just logistics and everybody wants to see something different and it just couldn't happen but I really wouldn't have even told him if I had you know and that's that just gets to the nature of the kind of guy that my dad was I mean I mean look I'm his son and there's a part of me

that just would have wanted to say dad it was at that point in time 55 years ago you know you've had a good life move on from it but I would not have even broached that subject with him because I just he was just the kind of guy that you couldn't he couldn't just oh yeah that was the day we lost our beloved company commander oh well you know that kind of thing he just couldn't shrug that off it was just too deep for him it's interesting too because when you watch the interviews with sid and your dad and and even sid he's just like you know i was just the guy that i just kind of moved on you know he just that's what he said right and he he he he's just he's just you It seemed like your dad had a harder time.

He did, and I will say this. And look, I grew up calling Sid Phillips Uncle Sid. That's what Sid Phillips meant to me. All right. My mom just passed away a few years ago. All right. The gentleman who presided over her funeral was Sid's son, who was a Baptist preacher. I could not think of a better way to close the loop between our two families.

Well, not closing anything out between her. I don't mean that. that was something that just meant a lot to me that Sid Phillips son presided over my mom's funeral. The Phillipses are dear friends of mine. I love them. Our dads loved each other. Sid's World War II experience, Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, you know, everything in World War II was, every battle was different. You know, your children, each one's different from the other. my dad was not at guadalcanal he was not at cape claustra pelaloo and okinawa were different um

you know sid moved on quicker and easier than my father did but i'm glad actually we're touching on this guys because this gets into a lot of why i do all this why i wrote this book after the war by ken burns you know and you see it in the pacific they delve into my dad's nightmares, certainly not to a huge degree in the Pacific, but they only had so much time to do it in in part 10. But a lot has been said about, well, you know, Sledge really struggled when he came home. Well, you know, I would posit that a lot of those guys did. So we get so much of why I do this, so much of why I wrote this book is to show the world

that, look, if for anybody who just has a passing, like they, okay, they watch the Ken Burns the war. Okay, they watched the Pacific. Oh, that Sledge got, man, he really struggled when he came home. I'm here to tell you he may have struggled, but he won his struggles. You know, he met a wonderful woman, Jeannie, my mom. You know, they got married, had a wonderful marriage. He raised a family.

He had a great career. You know, by all counts, Eugene Sledge won his struggles. And I just feel really strongly, you know, the torch has been passed to me, as has been said to me, I didn't just come up with that. People have said that to me. And when I do what I do to hopefully carry on his legacy to the degree that I humbly can, you know, I, nobody can say it like I can because I have that unique perspective. He won his struggles.

If there is anybody who could effectively and successfully compartmentalize the angst, the PTSD, whatever you want to call it. If there was anybody who could compartmentalize that and keep it from his family, it was Eugene Sledge. You know, I saw instances of, and we can talk about it if you want, you know, of where those struggles really started to creep through the surface, through the veneer, but they were few and far between. And I even say in my writing there that,

despite what the man had been through, he was this classic all-American father. You know, and sorry if that sounds Norman Rockwellian, but not to me that there would be anything wrong with that. But he was. You know, I mean, if there's anything that I remember about my dad, I mean, I can remember being downstairs as a kid and he'd be and my mom would be upstairs. And the way our house was built, it was a split floor plan. So the living room was upstairs.

But I'd be in the den downstairs. And, you know, I could hear him and my mom talk about something. I could hear him just guff on just laughing because he told a joke or something. I mean, he just had this great sense of humor. I mean, he, and you probably picked this up, Jocco, because, I mean, it's freaking beautiful the way you've, like, marked so many places in my book there because you spent time with it. And I tried to illustrate that he wanted to bring happiness and joy. into our home.

You know, we, we, my family has always had dogs. We, we love our dogs, you know. And my dad, when I was a kid, he would say, look, if you come home and you've had a bad day at work, you better not kick the dog. And, you know, as a kid, I'm like, okay, okay, what do you mean by that? And he goes, I'm telling you what I mean is your dog comes up to you, your family comes up to you happy to see you in that moment. If you've had a bad day and somebody, in the he didn't use this word, pissed you off at

work. That's my word. He said, you don't kick the dog. You don't take that out on your family. You compartmentalize that and deal with it yourself. You know, and my father did that more successfully than I do. You know, a real important moment for me. So I think it was before we pressed record today. I was talking about a guy named Tom Fife, who we had on a podcast, World War II, Korea, Vietnam. and Purple Heart World War II, Purple Heart, Korea, Purple Heart Vietnam. He ended up as a battalion commander in Vietnam. And so he's on the podcast and we're going through stuff and we're talking.

And, you know, as we're talking about operations and op tempo and what were the missions like and this. And then I said, and so we're talking about now he's in a battalion commander in Vietnam. And I asked him just almost from a statistical perspective of a, of a of a soldier of a of a combat leader myself from a statistical perspective I asked him something along the lines of like well you know how many casualties did you take in your battalion and at that moment he got choked up and why I say it was an important moment for me is because I realized that when I talk about my guys and I talked about my friends that I lost and I get choked up, I realize he's talking about his battalion that he led 50, 60 years ago,

and this man still gets choked up and still gets emotional. And that's when I realized, and I have explained this to a thousand veterans since then. Right. You know what I've told them? It's okay. It's totally normal. It's absolutely normal that when you talk about your friends or you talk about situations that you were in You talk about people that you lost.

It doesn't matter if it's been five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, it doesn't matter. It will still hit you. And to me, as you're describing this, I don't think of that as a struggle. I think of that as being a human being. And look, do things dissipate somewhat over time? Yeah, they sure, they do. You know, I can talk more about things now, but there's still no game. guarantee that I'm going to get through a situation and not get emotional, there's absolutely no

guarantee whatsoever. And so, yeah, I think when I think about these things, and different people are different, right? And of course, your experiences, you know, we could lose a guy, but he's, you know, I don't know him that well, but you know him really well. That's a totally different thing. It's a totally different thing. And so, yeah, I look at, I look at, you know, these, these struggles that we talk about, And I've told this again, I've told us to many guys like, this, that's normal. It's totally normal. What are you going to go home? And I had this conversation with a Marine recently who had been through a terrible situation, lost a guy in combat.

He didn't feel like he did the best job, you know, because he's rattled and he's in a leadership position. And, you know, and then, you know, he struggled with him. that same thing and I said bro look at what you went through it is not it's not normal it's not normal it's not normal for a 23 year old person to see another 23 year old person die that's not normal then to have it happen again and again and then to voluntarily go into that situation where people are dying and do that over and over again day after day night after night for months on end that is not normal human behavior So the fact that you have to make some adjustments mentally and it takes some time to figure some things out, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

And it's perfectly okay. And this is what we as human beings go through and everyone's a little bit different. And so, yeah, I think that, and this is, again, not to fast forward too much, but at some point your dad's talking about the concussion that he's experiencing. And now we know that never mind having a bomb blow up next to you. Every time you shoot a machine gun, you get little micro concussions, never mind a rocket launcher, never mind a landmine, like all these other things, breaching charges. All those things are impacting you.

And so, yeah, as I look at this and again, to me, that's one of the most powerful things about this book is your dad came home. and went to school, had a family, had a job, educated people, was happy, smiling, smiling, laughing, and carried on with an incredible, for lack of a better world, a normal life, despite all this abnormality of being a 22-year-old kid surrounded by death. that's what this is that's what makes it so powerful to me well this is where i have to you know like when you're talking about what you just talked about i'm not going to see to go yeah right you like like i know like i know what like i know what you're talking about because i don't it's moments

like this that almost don't even feel worthy of sitting here to be honest because i know you have a lot of combat veterans in here and when i and i met a lot of marines man i love marines i love the Marine, I feel a bond with Marine Corps. And when I meet them, you know, I, I mean, the first thing I do is I say, look, I've never humped a pack in a rifle. Okay. I'm not going to sit here and jump up in the middle of you and you guys when you're a remnant.

I'm not going to, I'm not going to breach that because I don't know what you've been through. I can live it vicariously through my dad, who just happens to be a well-known iconic World War II veteran, but I'm not going to try to insert myself into like even pretending to know what you're talking about there, Jocco. And I mean, that's, I just try to always recognize that. Yeah, I think one of the biggest mistakes that we've made as a society with our veterans is when someone is, when someone is sad, when someone is emotional, we, we call that a problem. and it's not a problem. Like, it's normal.

Dave's got something. Yeah, well, listen, I'm, I've been on this podcast a lot, and I spend 90% of my time just listening because it's captivating. I think there's a component to this as I think about it. And I think what Jock was saying is what I feel too. And I remember at the beginning of the podcast, you said, you guys have been through this. And I just, like, started shaking my head. That's why Jocco made the comment, like, try not to compare us to your dad. But I think one of the things that is remarkable about this podcast, and I've shared this with Jaco from the very beginning, is that, and I wrote down the name Steele, I don't know who that is. I know that from you, is it has this unique attribute of bringing back to life names and people that otherwise would vanish.

I think the ultimate, the ultimate story of a man's success in enduring that challenge is what he creates into the world. and you are manifest in that. That is your lack of combat experience, I think in some ways actually makes this story more powerful because your capacity to share with the world what your dad was able to do in a way that ultimately delivered what your contribution is of the world, which is not just this book, but all these things,

is the ultimate, it's the ultimate compliment to Sledge to Eugene Sledge. There is, It might even be diminished had you been a Marine because I think you'd have this sense of like deference to your dad's experience you are the outcome of his success in enduring what happened and I'm sitting here listening to you and I Listen, I don't know if humility is is is is genetic, but clearly you have that humility, which I'm certainly grateful for the way you're saying that, but as I sitting here listening to you talk about What you can't necessarily share firsthand, you're the

byproduct of the ultimate story is did these men come home and what did they make of themselves after this other than just their experience there. You are the living personification of that who has this, I think this burden to try to share this. That comes through so powerfully for me to listen to you talk about this. I don't think, I can't imagine your dad being more part of anything than your ability to reflect to the world what he became in who you are as a human being. So I can't tell you like what that means to me listening to you have this conversation watching this back and forth. That's as is as important as anything that might have ever happened. So I think, and not that you should take pride in that. I think you know that as an adult,

but, but I'm watching that. Like, this is Eugene Sled's legacy that goes far beyond the battlefield in Okinawa is what you are. And that's, that is a remarkable thing for me to look at right now. Well, that's, that's pretty powerful and beautifully said. And I thank you for that. I will tell you a cool story with the HBO guys that ties directly to what you said if I could. When they had finished shooting Part 10, our friend, a friend of my family, Kirk Suddowski, who's pretty high up, is high up still with Playtone, but certainly was back then too. Very key point of contact along with Bruce McKenna with our family. And they came to visit us.

And my mother was still in great shape at that point in time. And my son, who's 16 now, was just, you know, year and a half old, two years old. Just this gurgling, happy little, you know. And we sat there in my mother's living room, and they brought us part 10. And it was really weird to see it because it was kind of a rough cut. Like, just to give you an example, not to go off in the weeds, but to give you behind the scenes. When it showed the scene of the train coming home, when it shows my dad and Snap Food, coming home and Bergen coming home like you saw the train but they hadn't

CGI'd in the background so it was like this half drawn it was really weird so we're watching that in my mother's living room go to the scene and they filmed this scene after we had conversations about it my dad would talk about how he would just sit and stare at the wall and my grandmother it was a very domineering opinionated strong, willed woman, which honestly, a lot of that strength probably passed to my dad that helped him get through what he went through. But she drove him crazy. And he said, you know, Mary Frank was her name. She would come in the room. We called her grand, but she would come in the room. He said she would just come in the room and start berating him. Well, you're just sitting around doing nothing.

What are you going to do? You know, and him sitting under the tree. You know, Eugene, you need a plan for the future, you know. Get a job at the bank. Yeah. And. my grandfather comes out there and I remember us describing this to them before they film out scene and my dad told me this that my grandfather would come out there. Mary Frank, leave that boy alone. You have no idea what men like him have been through. Leave him alone. Because my grandfather got it, you know.

And she would go off just muttering and mumbling. And when we watched that scene in my mother's living room and I'm sitting there with my wife and my son who, like I said, was just a toddler at that, not even a toddler. toddler really and Kurt Siddusky and a couple other of the of the HBO folks and Kurt Siddisky has told this story at some symposiums and my wife just always reminds me of it it really was a pretty cool moment because he said this back to us right then when that scene where oh what is her name uh the actress who plays my grandmother I thought she did a phenomenal job and she says Eugene what's to become of you you need a plan for the future and he's just sitting there

drinking his iced tea, just trying to blot it all out. In that moment right there, we're sitting there, my mom's there, Kirk Sudhuski's over here, and my son just started gurgling and making a fuss. And I'm just like, Jack, be quiet, you know, and I'm trying to hush him up. And Kirk said when we finished watching that, he said, guys, right there, when Henry, when your son started doing that. and the actress says what's to become of you, Eugene. Kirk said that, that right there, that grandchild,

that is what is to become of you. And Kirk told that story. I think it may have been at the 20-year Band of Brothers Actors Symposium. My wife remembers. He told that story. And it's, you know, like my wife just thinks it's one of the coolest things she's ever heard and experienced.

And it really was. But to your point, Dave, I mean, yeah, that, like my grandson, that is, you know, I mean, my son, his grandson, that's the future, you know. And that's really probably getting there, I hope some of the hard asses that listen to this show weren't just like, Jesus Christ, what are we doing here? No, I think the hardest of the hard will recognize what that's all about. No doubt. Well, speaking to Dave Bark, I'm going to go to the book here real quick. Quote, from your dad, our Marine Corsair fighter planes flew many airstrikes against the ridges, firing machine guns, rockets, dropping bombs, napalm, both napalm and high explosives.

The napalm bombs made huge columns of thick black smoke and burned off the vegetation. We delighted to see those beautiful blue, go-wind corsairs come to our support. In some locations, we could see them tanning. Take off from the airfield, circle over, drop their bombs, and return to the airfield. And then you've got a quote in here. Lieutenant Glenn Bud Daniel, one of the Corsair pilots in VMF 114, remembered these messages. VMF1, quote, VFM-114 was settling into the days of relatively short but important combat flights, pinpoint bombing of the caves of Pelilu.

These were very short as time from takeoff to target was as low as 15 seconds. Marine infantry covered the entrances of the caves with a circle of smoke. The center of the circle was the cave's entrance. The outer circle of the smoke signaled the location of friendly Marines. One 500 to 1,000-pound bombs are powerful. Out of necessity, we became very precise. And then the quote from your dad, boy, that'll knock them nips out, exclaimed a buddy of mine as we watched the awesome explosions. But he was wrong.

there were other air strikes in addition to those when thousand pound bombs were dropped on enemy positions prisoners captured later said that the only effect of the bombs was to make a big noise that's scary to think about there you go dave 15 seconds to target amen and eventually and you talk about your dad talks about this or you quote your dad talk about this in the book they eventually had to go up and put like a man with demolitions sure onto the cave because the bombs that they were dropping like They just, they had big, the Japanese had big steel doors that they draw across. Right. Like there was one place and I, maybe I put it in there, but it may have been something.

I had to cut out when I had to trim things down to get to the word length I was shooting for. Well, that's why we'll have, that's why we'll have the old breed, the complete, the rest of the complete story revealed. Book too. Yeah. But no, they actually, they got a 155 millimeter long time. Like straight line fire on one of these positions and still couldn't knock it out. That's crazy. Fast forward.

At long last, it appeared that the Marines would be relieved by Army troops on October 15th. Men of the 3201st Infantry, 81st Infantry Division moved into their area, which meant that the Marines would move to a defense zone on the northern part of Pelaloo. with filth, waste, rotted rations, dead and bloated bodies of the enemy lying everywhere on the island, the fly population had exploded. My father described to me, quote, I would literally have to keep one hand free to swipe away those huge flies. They were so huge because they had so much to feed on between the dead and all the other filth on Pelulu. And I remember trying to drink a canteen cup with coffee and those flies would just be all over the rim of it. And sometimes they would fall off into our coffee. This is something they needed more CGI.

I think they, in the movie, in this mini series, like, they show flies. Sure. But the way your dad describes them is crazy amount of flies. Yeah. Another quote from your dad, fast forward. Toward the last day of October, the word was passed to police up the area. All right, you guys pick up all the brush, trash wood and busted coral rocks smaller than your fist and pitched across the road into the swamp. we started complaining, of course,

and the NCO yelled some army outfit is going to take over this area, and we're leaving it cleaner than it was when we got here. Marines don't ever leave a fouled up Bivouac area, knock off your biching. Well, there's one thing for sure, said an old salt. Said an old salt, we're leaving this island.

There's no doubt about it. How do you know, I asked? It's easy. When they start them crap details, like cleaning the brush and certain sizes of rocks off the battlefield, you can be sure the fighting's over. No officer or NCO,

was going to give an order like that to guys he's going to have to move up on the lines with. We are headed to the, we are headed back to Pavuvu. I bet you. He was right. We moved to another area of the island. I do not remember whether it was via trucks or on foot.

As it turned out, this was the last time they moved before they left Pelulu for good. So. And here we get to an important part. You say, my father was finally able to use the writing paper and ink. He had been carrying around in his combat pack. He wrote the first letter home to my grandparents in over a month.

I still have this letter. And on the envelope worn, faded, and duly stamped by all the proper postal authorities and the censor, my grandmother wrote first letter off island after invasion, 32 days in the same close. The letter itself written on U.S. Marine Corps Stationery is dated October 18th, 1944, and it reads, Dear Mother and Pop, well, I came through without a scratch. God certainly watched over me and cared for me. It was your and my prayers and I am really thankful and say so in my daily prayers. I have gotten a lot of mail from you both and Sid too. He really boosted my morale. Your letters I read over and over also got the pictures and thanks. We have our hammocks and are camped along the beach in a palm grove. It is one of the few places on the island not ripped apart by shells. The flies here run you insane. In middle of every word, I stopped to brush them off. Today I bathed, shaved, and put on clean clothes for the first time in 32 days.

It will take much scrubbing to remove the dirt. My beard was about one inch and red. I shaved it off with only minor lacerations. Give thanks to God for protecting me. I'll write whenever I can, your devoted, Jean. Excuse dirty envelope, but I've carried it 32 days just to write this last. letter, I'm okay. You still have that letter? I do. I actually do. And in fact, in that Fox Nation piece that I told you guys about, they just dropped, they show that letter. And I mean,

just, yeah, to see that, to read it, to, to, you know, have an understanding like I have of, his experience and to, I mean, there's just a lot of things to come to my mind when you, when you read that, You know, and it's, you talk about like he describes the flies and all that. Just the depravity, the filth, the garbage dump-like conditions. I mean, he harped on those things because, and there's tons of it on Okinawa that we could talk about. You know, he felt like books that had been written or movies, certainly the movies. You know, my father didn't have a lot of respect for movies of the day. that they glossed over that stuff.

And he said, you know, the experience of an infantryman is filth, deprivation, and fear. And of course, tension, shock, fatigue, you know, but really, and it gets into it heavy on Okinawa, down near Half Moon Hill. Just one, just these like World War I trench-like conditions. He talks about how this stuff didn't get public. which I mean God love with the old breed. I'm not judging that, but I'm grateful I had the opportunity to bring some of this stuff to life. He talks about, you know, and I've already quoted, you know, they had dug in around

Half Moon Hill, which is the stalemate before Shuri. And of course, to contextualize it geographically, everybody's heard of Sugarloaf Hill. Well, the Shuri line on Okinawa, and Dave, you probably know this better than I do. you've got the western terminus is sugarloaf hill that was a six marine division battle that everybody's heard of half moon is just i believe just to the east of that and the first division was at half moon or the fifth marines were and if i'm getting a unit name or number wrong then i'm sure somebody will sort that out but i'm pretty sure but i know that sugarloaf and half moon were the western anchors of the shirry line on Okinawa.

But the conditions for them around Half Moon were just, he said, it was like being flung into Hellzone Suss Pool. And the way he writes and describes, you know, like he and Snafu or it may even George Surrett, establish a gun position. And he said, like I would always do, after digging in, getting the gun sided,

I'd kind of look, just look around and assess the terrain to just be familiar with what was around for various reasons. I mean, as a mortarman, as any kind of management, you need to know that. You need to know your surroundings, obviously, but also, you said it was really important to know where everything was before it got dark, because when it got dark and the star shells came up, the Japanese infiltrators would freeze and try to hunker down in the midst of that eerie, greenish light. And if you saw something out of place, you needed to.

to be aware of that because when that star show flickered out then they would move again so a lot of things like that but he talked about how when they would bring up new replacements which on okinawa was just a daily thing and the guys would come the k company guys would come into this and they would bring them in and here you know imagine the foulest garbage dump you could imagine except it's not garbage it's dead bodies and human waste and all of these disgusting things that you things. And he said the look of utter despair on these guys' faces, because these are fresh from the state's replacements. And he said, it was, we had the same look, but we had been through Pellowloo. We at least were acclimated. He said, these poor guys would just, he said, I will never,

and I don't think this, I believe it's in bold, because I don't think it made it in with the old. He said, to see these fresh-faced replacements look around with this utterly, utter look of despair. Like they could not imagine anything being that stacks of bodies that hadn't been buried. You know, certainly the Japanese bodies hadn't been buried because they never were. To see dead Marines that hadn't been withdrawn

from the lines was shocking to another Marine because Marines always took their dead. When they were stalemated in front of shuri, it got so bad. There was so much counter-battery fire. They didn't have a chance to get the dead Marines out. So you had lines of rotting marine corpses and it's horrible to even contemplate. But my dad talks about, talked about how, you know, these new guys would see this and just have this

just look of amazed, disgusted despair. Like they couldn't even imagine anything would be that bad, you know. You know, the inhumanity of it all is just, but to him, I mean, to somebody maybe who wants to read a cool war book and they think what the old breed is going to be that or coming into mind they may think it's going to be that and then they may be disgusted by that well you know how these these are just awful things well you got to get in my dad's head because he felt like that's the kind of thing people need to know you know the home front wanted to hear about dashing bravado and tales of daring do and there was certainly that but he said said the daily existence was fear and filth and constant tension and shock.

And, you know, he described, and I think some of this was in his book, but some of it got edited out, and I was able to use it contextually. You know, in the rain and mist, he'd look out over this field and he sees all these foxholes with those camo-covered ponchos and the cloth-covered helmets. And all this, they're just all hunkered down. time a shell outgoing or incoming would go over. He said it was just like on cue and the rain and the mist and the horrible stench. You'd just see a head go down. Everybody would hunker down. And then they'd come back up when the show got past. And another would come over and you see all

those heads just. And he said it was just you just seeing these, his buddies like, it was this feeling of forlorn, you know, hopelessness of just, are we ever going to get through this? because he was on the front lines at Okinawa, 82 days, I think. And it's interesting if you compare and contrast Pelulu and Okinawa, because Pelaloo was more compressed. You know, he was on the front lines 30 or 32 days. It was shorter, but it was constant, all the bad stuff, just this constant, unrelenting pace.

Okinawa, they did at least get off the front lines a time or two, but it was more prolonged. And of course, the rain in the mud on Okinawa was certainly not present on Pelaloo. But I don't think any of it was an easy experience for a young man to go through. Yeah, I mean, the section here that you pull a quote from your dad, and it says, I look back with nostalgia and cherish their comradeship, but time has not deceived me about the fighting on Pelaloo. The field of glory and other fine phrases used in past wars do not apply to Pelaloo because it was waste, shock, agony, and terror from beginning to end.

Polulu was the hardest of them all. Of course, it ain't over. You get done with Pelaloo and you go right back into training. They go back to Pavuvu. They start training and, you know, you document some of that. I mean, you document a lot of that and what they're doing, what they're feeling. And then it's, we're getting ready for Okinawa. You say, here, their officers briefed on what to expect in Okinawa,

and they were not encouraged by the news that casualties on the beach during the landing were expected to be 80 to 85%. That's just crazy. I mean, you start taking 80 to 85% casualties. Um, that's, it's, it's, it's hard to even consider from a leadership position, like that's an intelligent thing to tell the troops. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm, like, uh, all about transparency. That's a rough one though. 80 to 85% casualties is what we're predicting. Well, you know, they're, they're extrapolating that based on a crude experience through.

the Pacific War to that point. Happily, it turned out, as he described his greatest, his happiest surprise of the war. And he was ninth wave of shore to Knoll. But when, of course, so ninth wave of shore, not being in an assault wave, they did not come out of an LVT or not an LST in the amphibious tractors, like the first three assault waves,

they came down the cargo net, something from a troop ship. And so they get in the Higgins boat off the cargo net, then go out to a rendezvous, going to meet the incoming or yeah the the amphibious tractors that were coming back from the beach they ended up being ninth way of the shore at okinawa and he talks about how the amtrak driver is like the landing's unopposed it was just this moment of joy you know um and nobody believed it but happily you know that was the case of okinawa because yes i mean they were predicting horrendous

casualties on the beach Yeah, you've gotten the book a quote from your dad. As the boat and the ant track came together, the coxswit his engine and the Marine yelled, the landing is unopposed. We looked at him in amazement as we picked up our gear and climbed on the Higgins boat back to the Amtrak. We couldn't believe it. That's about as good as you could possibly hope for. And then that kind of continued.

Like there's a time where there's, you know, a little bit of low in the combat. And you say here, April's lack of action had begun to low even the hardened, veterans into a false sense of security, but things were about to change. Fast forward a little bit. This is for Dave Burke. We looked up just as eight Japanese zero fighters and about as many Marine corsairs broke their respective formations and tangled in a swirling dog fight. I've been told many times about dog fights by the Guadalcanal veterans, but as we had

aerial superiority at Pelaloo, I'd never seen any. We watched in awe as the planes climbed, turned, and doves. at each other with thudding gunfire and winding, straining engines. This lasted probably about 15 minutes. The Marine pilots shot down all eight zeros, one right after the other. Each time of zero went down, we Marines cheered. There you go, Dave. That's for you.

That right there. Okay. Now, I told you guys, my dad was really good at connecting. He knew my love of airplane. He told me that story more than once. and it's one of my favorite stories. Yeah. Because I just remember like I, when I had picked up my brother's model of the corsair and, you know, yeah, I remember one day we were on Okinaw, we saw a dog fight between eight Japsiros and, and, you know.

Yeah. I tell you what, Leif Babin and I, towards the end of deployment, I think you might have left. You might have gone home. We're sitting on the roof of Camp Ramadi. Camp Mark Lee would be now been renamed Camp Markley We're sitting up Overlooking the city And there's a crazy gunfight going on And there's tracers and we're sitting up there watching it

And I don't know what got called in But a fast mover came in And I don't know if he just dropped Flares show of force I couldn't really tell I think that's all it was Would that make sense an F18 coming down dropping Flares show of force? Certainly but we were slave babin and i are sitting up there watching this whole thing go down and that's

probably the closest i've ever had to that but you know we're both like hell yeah let's go awesome but yeah imagine seeing eight japanese zeros shot down especially when you know what those zeros are there to do to your ass right well and the funny thing which i had never heard this part from him extracting it from the unpublished material right before that happened there was an okay Knoan family with a couple little kids. And it was in that moment, it was a bit of a quiet, they were in a patrol. So it was kind of a quiet area. And my dad writes about how the little, like the Marines love to interact with the little kids.

They give them rations. And so these cute little children, like he was talking to him, they were teaching him to count to 10 in Japanese. And then he was teaching them to count to 10 in English. And then that had they hear the thudding gunfire and the roaring engines as they look up, oh, there's this dog fight. And my dad talks, he writes about how,

I'm so happy I was able to bring this to light. He started, every time a zero went down, he started counting in Japanese for the Okinawans. And here you see that things weren't always as black and white because he said, apparently based on their reaction, they weren't real happy about the Japanese zeros being shot down.

Yeah, yeah, he pointed out, it wasn't quite as obvious that they were on board with the Americans being there. Um, fast forward a little bit. The entire first Marine division was to relieve the 27th Infantry Division. And this is from your dad. At least this meant our division would fight as a unit and not as a battalion put into the army line here or there. And quote.

And then you, the first Marine Division marched in to relieve the beleaguered 27th on the right or west of the American lines. Just north of the Machito airfield around May 1st, the stay of execution was over. It drew us into the abyss. Fast forward. Upon entering the frightful abyss, our feelings of dread were shared throughout the division. That's from your dad. It was a jolting shock for my father to dive back into that maelstrom, but the feeling of being totally overwhelmed as he had been at first at Palo-Lu six months earlier was now gone. Terrified though he was, my father knew because of his experience that he could control his fear.

And then from your dad, quote, I reacted differently to it than any shelling I had endured. on Pelulu. I found that I could immediately identify almost every type of Japanese shell by their whining and roaring as they came in and by the sound of their explosions when they struck the deck. One of the new men digging in near me began asking me the same kinds of questions about the shelling that I had asked Snafu on the first day at Pelu. My answers seemed to help him. It was bad enough for the veterans, but the new men seemed to be even more stunned by it all. incredible accounts here that you put out. Fast forward a little bit.

I saw this is after some serious fighting that you detail in the book, both from your perspective from hearing your dad talk about it and then from quotes from your dad. But then he gets into this. I saw two somber men emerge from the aid station, bring out a stretcher with a poncho covered form and quietly lay it on the deck to our left. Some mother's son would never go home. Jim Dandridge went over and lifted the poncho covering the face of the dead Marine, and I saw him wince.

He came back and told us who the dead Marine was. We had all known him and liked him. There was a concealed light in the aid station tent, so the care of the wounded went on day and night. Before darkness, other stretchers were placed alongside the first, and before we left several days later, there were two or three rows that had grown tragically in length. Many had been good friends and had already survived a lot of combat. I knew we had to defeat the Japanese and the Nazis. We had to fight, although none of us liked it.

I was fiercely proud of my outfit, but I could never accept the death of comrades as anything but tragic, abominable waste. If I could interject something right there that actually I had to go back and trim down and edit out every time they would bring another casualty out and lay them there in that line you know my my father wrote about how jim dandridge every time would go over and identify who it was and come back and tell him who it was and he said i understood why jim was doing that you know because we all knew these guys i mean or had heard the name or something you know and it was always this feeling of just you know desensitized or regret Brett, if I can coin that phrase.

But he said it almost got to where we just wanted Jim to shut up. Like, we get it. Just stop. You know, he didn't say it that way. But reading what he wrote that was edited out of his book, that, you know, and I had to trim because, like I said, I had a lot. I had to cut back out, but still retain the assets of it. But, yeah, that went on like most of that day.

And by the end of it, they were just wishing that he would, just shut up, you know, because there's just one more buddy, you know. Yeah, that's a, you think about the psychological progression that you're making and you get to a point where you don't even want to know the names of the guys that have died. Like, that's a, that's just a whole other level of psychological torture, really. And that, that, that breaches into that area that I can't even try to speak to, you know. Fast forward. On May 9th against Awacha, this was the case,

and K Company suffered heavy losses. The battle in Okinawa became a bloodbath as the Americans fought their way south. And this is from your dad. After the costly attack of May 9th on Awacha, 3-5 moved off the line. Our battalion was assigned to protect the rear of the 7th Marines during its attack on Dukashi Ridge.

Dakeshi Ridge. You may be able to be. mentioned the mud mud contributed greatly to our fatigue and nothing caused us more irritation and exasperation that's from your dad and then you say my my father once told me the story of snafu slipping in the mud one especially wet day he was carrying the 45 pound baseplate of the 60 millimeter mortar although it didn't fall into the mud where he had slipped he was so exhausted and enraged he shouted god damn and he as he threw the head base plate down into the muck as hard as he could it landed with a splat and of course became completely covered in mud

But Snap-food then had to pull it up and clean it thoroughly. The moral of the story, as my father related to me, was to practice self-control and even under trying circumstances, never lose your temper. And, you know, I mean, look, that that was one of those father-son moments because I was a kid. I got mad about something and lost my temper and shown. I don't remember how old I was, you know, eight or nine or something like that. And he told me that story. and I wish I could say that in that moment, right then and there, I learned it and practiced it perfectly from then on, but no, I can't say that. But I very clearly remember him saying, and he told me that and said, you've got to control your temper.

Yeah. And there's so many of those good points that your dad brought up to you as a son in the book. It's amazing. And, you know, I talked about the flies. Now they needed to do a better job with the flies and the CGI during the movie of the Pacific. because it certainly sounds like the way your dad describes and they were way, way, way worse than they make them in the movie. But the mud? Seems like they do a pretty damn good job with the mud. It looks freaking miserable.

Every step that they take is a gut check. Fast forward. Dark, this is your dad. Darkness soon settled on us and we were shelled off and on during the night. Our own artillery kept up heavy barrages on the Japanese positions in the, Wana Draw and on Wana Ridge to our left where the 7th Marines was having a terrible fight, end quote.

And then you say at this point, around May 19th or 20th, Wanda Ridge was to their left and Wanda Draw was in front. Both areas were receiving massive amount of American mortar artillery, naval gunfire, and aerial bombardment. At least 30 tanks, four equipped with flameflowers, blasted and burned the draw. These barrages went on for hours, and there was plenty of Japanese return fire. My father said to me more than once that they had seen plenty of heavy stuff at Pelaloo, but it was nothing compared to what they saw at Okinawa. He said he would get headaches that lasted for days. And this is when I was talking about the TBI, right?

And this is from your dad, quote, A headache was certainly of no consequence with all the suffering and dying going on all around us, but it showed the sheer magnitude of the noise and countless heavy explosions. All of these, all of this massive heavy weapon support was to augment our, infantry on Okinawa and the sheer volume of it for hours on end day after day tended to fray our overtax nerves imagine you're in Okinawa and there's people dying and having their legs blown off and being dismembered but your headache is so freaking bad that you still noted i mean that he says look it's no consequences compared to all this other stuff but that's got to be a

pretty significant headache and that has got to be some some traumatic brain injury for sure conclusive no doubt about it like we we fire something called a gar a carl gustav rocket and the seal teams and prior to that we used something called an AT4 and when i was a young seal you know as a be a range range safety officer and we'd go out with guys training them and you'd shoot i don't know maybe have a platoon of 16 guys everyone would shoot two do AT-4s each. So what's that, 30, and I'd probably do half of them. So maybe I'd, I'd do 16-8-4 rounds.

And by that, by the end of the day, I got a little bit of a headache, you know? Never thought much of it. But that's just 16-8-4s. This is nothing compared to this. And so the amount of, what do you say, fray and taxing onto your nerves, it has to be way worse

than what your dad's describing even. I can't believe that. And his hearing, he had good hearing. His hearing was not damaged. Incredible. You know, and I don't know how that was the case after enduring that for such a prolonged period. I had to just highlight this.

This is a quote from your dad. I never knew a Marine who didn't feel the same admiration I did for the bravery and efficiency of the Navy corpsmen who served alongside us. So shout out to all of our Navy corpsmen that go out there with the Marines. Oh, he loved the Corps. That's a, that's a, special connection between the Marines and their medics. And he talks about a bunch of that. And you give it, you go over it as well. And this is something that we're starting to get into

Half Moon Hill. This is something that you are, you were talking about Half Moon Hill here. Here's a quote from your dad. Off to our right and right front. There were at least 10 or 12 knocked out Sherman tanks and Amtraks. Most had apparently been hit by devastating Japanese artillery fire, particularly high velocity 47 millimeter tank guns, end quote. And then you add in Japanese dead were everywhere, and so was every imaginable item of infantry equipment all discarded in the fury of combat. And then from your dad, the longer we stayed in that terrible place and we stayed there over a week in almost incessant cold rain, our environment congealed more and more into a ghastly

nightmare of mud, murderous shelling, casualties, rotting bodies, and maggots. The place was enough to drive a strong man insane, and some did become a Emotionally shattered because of it. I never saw more pathetic, wounded, and killed than we lost each day here. And then you add in, my father found the only way he could mentally deal with this horrific environment was to look up at the gray overcast sky and watch the low clouds slide over. And then he said, my escapes from reality into cloud watching were never for long. Shelling orders to fire, orders to go up to the ridge through the shelling and O.P.

and observe casualties, ammo carrying parties. It went on and on day and night, until I was dazed with fear and fatigue. And then he says, when people want to hear war stories, they are revolted by accounts of the true reality of infantry life. They want to hear stirring tales of dash and excitement, not the filth, shock, blood, and maggots.

Possibly if they knew more of such things, war would end. And that really captures the essence of how he felt about all of it. And I think I say it in there at some point. He just had so little time for war movies, you know, because they, especially the ones of the 1950s, you know, they had that, I don't know, that jingoistic feel to them, I guess. which you would expect at that time,

but he felt that they glossed over what really was at the heart of the matter, which was that. I mean, it's funny when people, and there were people who said to him that in later years, you know, that, and this speaks to his sense of humor,

that young Marines who told him, you inspired me to go into the Marines. And he would have thought my book would have inspired you to know, not go in the Marines. And saying that with love and devotion is, of course, he had nothing but true devotion for the Marine Corps. Well, I've, I've joked many times that there's these movies, a platoon, right, full metal jacket,

apocalypse now. Am I missing any? Those are big three for me. All anti-war movies. Yeah. That 100% made me join the military. No doubt about it. And, you know, for me, reading.

reading with the old breed now is a much, much different book than when I read it 30 years ago for the first time. I selectively decided what parts I related to and what parts, you know, wouldn't really apply to me. So I think that's just, it's kind of like what Dave was saying. You know, Dave reading that book when he was a first lieutenant was a lot. And I guarantee reading it after we got home from Ramadi, guarantee it's a definitely different book. Totally different book. Yeah. Fast forward a little bit.

As the firing, this is from you. As the firing subsided that muddy Marines were feeling pleased that they had eliminated the threat of a later counterattack or infiltration of these Japanese soldiers. But as the smoke from their weapons dissipated shadow came along the line. and cursing each man because they had not cease firing when he ordered quote from your dad as he passed I could see each man mumbling to his fox home mate and we could well imagine what they were saying about shadows tantrum this is their their officer at the time this unpopular officer this is you talking this is this unpopular officer got to the machine gun position and quickly silenced kathy's exuberance kathies is one of the guys again read the book and you'll know these characters he then cursed my father for firing an m1 when you're supposed to be

observing. My father fought the urge to club shadow with the rifle. And your dad says, insulting or striking an officer carried a severe penalty and effective deterrent to my acting on impulse. You say he may have weighed the consequences of hitting his superior officer and thought better of it, but Shadow's pathetic lack of shelf control caused my father to rashly tell him that they were sent there to kill Japs and what difference did it make, what weapon he used in the process. He lacked any semblance of respect for a leader who would lose his temper and yell or berate his men, men who had to trust his leadership and follow his orders. Growing up, I encountered teachers, coaches, or bosses who would act in a similar manner. My father always brought up this example to show how a good leader would not act.

So once again, the stereotypical military officer yelling and screaming, hey, you might occasionally, you might be able to get. your guys to do what you want to do in that moment, but they're not going to actually truly follow you, ever. Yeah. Fast forward a little bit, a section here from your dad. I lost a close friend around this time. While dug in on half moon, a Japanese 75 millimeter shell exploded near his foxhole. As the stretcher team brought him by on the way to the rear,

several of us went over to wish him good luck. He was tall, but lying on that stretcher, He was a muddy limp form covered with several bloody battle dressings. One leg was completely severed at the ankle. The stump of the lower leg was also covered in bloody bandages. A mud-caked boondocker with the mangled remains of his ankle was resting on the stretcher at a crazy angle beside his uninjured foot. You think I'll lose my leg, sledgehammer, he asked, in a low, dazed voice.

I swallowed hard and managed to tell him he would surely recover before long and be back in those sweet-smelling spruce force that he was, was so fond of back home in the Pacific Northwest. The morphine injected by the Corman was having its merciful effects in easing his pain. But as we watched the stretcher team struggle through the deep mud toward the rear, he died before they even got out of sight through the rain and the mist. His death was a great loss to us all. The memory of our last meeting on that awful battlefield has been one of the most difficult

death scenes I have not been able to forget." I heard my father tell this story in a recorded interview. To this day, it is hard for me to listen to it because right about the part where the man asked him if you'd lose his leg, my father's voice broke. And it was only with great difficulty. He was able to finish describing how his friend died right there in the rain and the mist. Again, in my mind, you know, you're watching your dad recall this story decades later and still emotional about it. that right there. I have actually told that story in conversations at symposia or, you know, World

II discussions, you know, which I love doing that kind of thing. But this goes back to what we were talking about earlier. Sometimes something just hits you, you know. And in fact, as I was speaking to a Society for Military History Group in Mobile, just back in March. And I think it was that story or a similar one. it just hit me in the moment and I became very emotional and it really pissed me off at myself you know that I did but um and like right now we can talk about it and I'm good to go you know but to here it's a 1994 interview I think it's on YouTube no it's not it's just audio it's not

visual but it is hard to hear my dad talk about that you know because again he was a guy who just felt that he had that sensitivity for his buddies, man. I mean, and I, it was just hard for him to relive that moment. And like I said, in some of these instances where I've been out talking about this stuff, something will just hit me a certain way. And, you know, it'll be hard to get through. And it always frustrates me with myself when I do get emotional about it. But I guess, again, it goes back to just,

knowing and just being so organically integrated with all of this, you know, just hearing it from my dad as I was a kid growing up. And I guess that had to be there for me to do that book, you know. Yeah. As far as I'm concerned, that's totally normal. Like, of course, you know, of course your dad's going to get emotional 50 years later, you know. It's one of his buddies that he lost. and you knowing your dad and your dad being your hero, of course,

and knowing how much it hurt him, it's like, of course, that's going to hit you sometimes. That's totally normal. Another thing he talks about, again, it's not, you don't know everyone on the battlefield, and here he discusses that a little, but he says, quote, some new men got hit and were evacuated so quickly

that they never really belonged to the company. One man came up with a group and reported to an NCO who took his name, just as the replacement stepped toward a foxhole, a Japanese rifle shot rang out. We ducked instinctively. He spun around and fell to the deck, a flesh wound in the upper arm.

The corpsman tended to the wound and tagged the man. He left his rifle and cartridge belt and went straight back to the aid station. He wasn't even in K Company for more than five minutes. And that gets back to the arithmetic of chance, which you mentioned earlier. Yeah. Yeah.

Fast forward a little, although the Americans were finally making progress in the Shuri area, the Japanese were still holding out in the center of their line. And your dad says the mud and natural defensive lay of the land were more than advantage, more of the advantage of the Japanese in the center of the line, end quote. The Sixth Marine Division was on the western flank, the Naha area, and the Army divisions on the eastern flank were making rapid progress in the south. This forced the Japanese to withdraw to the south so that their main defenses would not be encircled. This was the situation by May 30th, 1945.

The battle so far had lasted 61 days. Japanese casualties were 62,458 killed, 465 captured. The Americans had lost 5,309 dead and 23,909 wounded. The magnitude of that, 61 days and on an island, you know, It's a fairly sized island, but 62,000 dead people on an island? Enemy alone? All right. Fast forward a little bit.

You're talking about a situation as Twilight began to cloak the rock-strewn ridge. They saw a small group of Marines gathered around a casualty. My father ran up to them. He saw it was Joe Lambert, the big, good-natured cigar-chewing demolitions expert with whom he had been friends since Pelaloo. My father knelt down beside him immediately recognizing that Lambert was hit badly and was going to die from your dad. No one had been able to locate a stretcher within the company having a number of casualties moving up on the ridge so rapidly all the stretchers were in use, end quote. Lambert had an unlit cigar clenched between his teeth as he lay there wincing in pain. My father lamented that he couldn't light it for him because the smoking lamp was out.

He did his best to comfort Lambert, joking with him about flirting with the nurses on the hospital. being able to drink a beer, but it was obvious the man was mortally wounded. Your dad says the jokes made to a buddy with a million dollar wound were much more lighthearted. End quote. As Lambert was carried off down the slope of the ridge on a poncho, my father reflected on the big, beautiful pine trees silhouetted against the darkening sky. The wind blew their scent into his face.

And the contrast between it and the stinking quagmire struck him. He was thankful that Lambert at least had that for his last moments on earth. One day in 2003 or around that time, I don't remember exactly. I got a phone call from a man who said he was Lambert's son. He asked if I was related to the Eugene Sledge who wrote with the old breed. I told him I was his son. The gentleman who described himself as a 58-year-old retired coal miner from West Virginia went on to relate how he had never met his dad because his dad had been killed on Okinawa

toward the end of the war. His dad had had one last liberty, it seems, and had met his mother to spend time with her before he had gone back out to the Pacific and rejoined K Company before they invaded Okinawa. Lambert was then tragically killed, and he never not got to know that he has a son who was born nine months after that liberty in 1945. Lambert's son was very emotional on the phone,

and he told me how those words my father wrote about being with Lambert when he died were the closest he had ever come to knowing his dad. He had always gotten some comfort from knowledge, from the knowledge that when his dad died, he was in a nice place with the setting sun in a gentle breeze and the fresh scent of pine trees and surrounded by his buddies. Receiving that phone call and talking to him,

how was that connecting you to this whole? Yeah, that was, I'll never forget. get that. And that's one of those I've told that story and sometimes I can't get through it, you know. But that was, I mean, oh man, that was powerful. And then actually, and I did not put this in my book, but about a week later, his son, Lambert's grandson, called me. And this was a young man, early 20.

and we talked, and I mentioned talking to his dad. And he said, I will never forget this. And he said, well, my dad, my father and I don't speak. And I said, listen, kid, let me tell you something. I said, I don't know what's going on between you and your dad. That's none of my business, you know, not trying to step over a line. But I said, I can tell you from personal experience. You only have one father.

and when he's gone that's it fast forward a little bit the word came down that the 5th Marines would be relieved on June 4th by the 1st Marines the 5th Marines

went into reserve their main task began became aggressive patrolling and mopping up although this meant that the 5th Marines would be in a better situation than previously even mopping up could be hazardous

as we discussed earlier the Japanese bullets don't care of what your mission was. Like you said, there is no mopping up, bullet. Fast forward, you say, I once asked my father if he'd ever been decorated for bravery. He said that he had not. I asked him if he had never,

if he had ever done anything that perhaps would have justified such a metal. By the way, he wrote an entire book that each page justifies a metal. I asked him if he had ever done anything that would perhaps have justified such a metal. he then told me the story of how on Okinawa toward the end of the battle he and some other marines had gone up into a rocky area and bring down a casualty the marine had been wounded by a Japanese sniper in both feet and was lying helplessly helpless on a rocky ledge my father explained how the casualty was in a direct line of sight of the sniper who was waiting on the man to be rescued the four stretcher bearers my father being one of them huddled just underneath the ledge where the wounded man lay as the rescuers looked at each other with searching glances, my father realized that their comrade was depending on them to help.

Even though he knew he would be exposed to the fire of the sniper, my father made the only decision he could make. I just figured to hell with it, he told me. I jumped up on the ledge beside him, grabbed them under the shoulder, and helped lower him down to the other guys. Somebody had to do it. The man's name was Leonardo Vargo, and they carried him down Karnishi Ridge without further incident. Yeah. That's like one story. Again, your dad wrote an entire book and every page has a clear acts of valor.

Well, you know, here's the thing. I mean, that's cool for you to say that. I would never say that. You know, I just, I try to always be careful to not elevate. you know, him over some other veteran. I mean, you know, I mean, to me, that's like I said, personally, yeah, he was a hero because he was my dad, you know, but I never went around saying that he was a hero. He certainly didn't think that.

And he would have corrected me if he'd heard me say it, you know, but that's just the way I've always seen it. Yeah. Fast forward all the way to a section that starts off with the word endgame. The first divisions fight at Kunishi Ridge lasted from 11 June to 18 June and cost them 1,150 casualties. But it was the end of the organized Japanese resistance on Okinawa. The enemy made it hellishly difficult right up to the end. It was a difficult objective.

And the night attacks had played a crucial role in getting the job done, meaning Marine night attacks. Fast forward as the as the action on Okinawa was winding down a marine 37 millimeter gun crew was attacked just before daylight the gun position was not far from where my father was dug in a corpsman a new kid who hadn't really seen any action heard the call for help after the enemy grenades went off my father grabbed his tommy gun and went after the young corpsman in case he ran into trouble apparently two japanese officers had charged into the 37 millimeter position throwing grenades and swinging their samurai sabers as my father described to me as one of the japanese officers swung his saber down at a marine the marine parried it with his carbine that saber was so sharp that it sliced the stock of the carbine all the way to the metal barrel it also sliced off one of the marines fingers well another marine shot that jap and he fell over backwards down the slope they had just charged up the other japanese officer with him had already been killed and was lying on his back near the wheel of the 37 i'll never forget there was this marine there was a marine standing over him with his M1 rifle in both hands, and he was just driving it up and down into the head of that corpse.

It was just horrible. And this poor Marine, he was just at the end of his rope. He just kept plunging that M1 up and down. I mean, it just made me sick. We gently grabbed him by the arms and tried to restrain him. We got the rifle away from him and got his buddy and got him out of there. I didn't say much. He concluded by saying, anybody who thinks there's glory in warfare, they should have seen that.

Later in the day on June 21st, 1945, the High Command issued the word that the island was secure. My father took out his pipe, lit it, and looked out over the blue sea with the sunlight dancing on the water. He had survived 82 days and nights on Okinawa. Although the Marines experienced immense relief at having survived the meat grinder of combat, yet again, there were still days of uncertainty. The long process of mental convalescence would begin at the tent in northern Okinawa. The photo of my father sitting on his shirt, sitting on his bono, sitting on his bono. shirtless showing off showing the strain of battle as he stares blankly into space with a thousand-yard stairs underweight from the stress of combat that photo was

taken one day at the tent camp the photograph the photo the photographer is unknown it was always my mother's favorite picture of him the haunting look in his eyes I think they heard on August 8th 1945 that the first atomic bomb had been dropped a couple days earlier they knew that if Japan had would have to be invaded and they would be the ones to have to do it. And specifically your dad at this point because you had to do three campaigns and he, for lack of a better way of saying that, he'd only done two. And so he was going to be one of the guys going next into Japan.

We had many conversations about his feelings on atomic bombs. I won't weigh the morality of that issue here. Only his experience. He told me, as he told me, quote, after what I had been through at that point, I knew there was no way I could survive another bomb. battle in Japanese home islands. We knew we would have to kill them all to win. And then he talks about, you know, going to China.

And of course, he wrote this book over here. Sure. China Marine. My father went to Northern China for occupation duty after Okinawa. He remembered his time fondly. And it was there that he began his own healing process after the war was over. He finally returned to Mobile in early 1946. He had made it out of the United.

Abyss of the War. It was very interesting to me to read this chapter 20, which starts off with the words coming home. And, you know, you say my father, he says, or you say my father and I spoke often about what it was like for him to finally come home. When he walked through the front door of Georgia, Georgia College, he told me that captain,

one of the family dogs literally jumped straight into his arms began joyfully licking his face. He was struck by how much his parents had aged. It was little wonder that the emotional strain of having both their sons in heavy combat, one in Europe and one in the Pacific, had taken its toll. Grant and Pop both looked so old. You know, in the movie, they show some of the interaction between your dad and his brother. Right.

What was, can you give us a little more perspective on that? What did your dad say about that? I mean, they both had gone through very different experiences. Right. So my uncle Edward was a graduate of the Citadel, commanded a tank platoon, 741st Tank Battalion. I landed at Vierville to encapsulate three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star. I think he got his Silver Star on D-Day, got his bronze star the first night of the Bulge up on the, he was on the northern shoulder. near Vollershide, and which I actually begin the book by telling the story of seeing his medals in my grandmother's house. And that's kind of where my love of World War II history began to get sparked, you know, because it's cool to read the citations because his bronze star,

so the first night of Battle of the Bulge, without delving too deep into that, obviously things were on a knife edge because the Germans hit hard and fast and we're just driving that wedge through that became the bulge. And up on the northern shoulder, the 741st Tank Battalion was supposed to link up with the second infantry division. Communications were out. A lot of officers weren't sure what was going on. Everybody was on the back foot, so to speak.

And my uncle led his tanks, the way the citation reads, led them through snowy, fireswept roads under enemy fire was able to link up with the second infantry division where the element that they were supposed to hook up with was able to acquaint that officer with the situation and establish control over the immediate area and I mean to read that citation it's as badass as it gets and that was my uncle Edward you know and he had three purple hearts I he passed way in the back in the 1980s. I wish I had known him better. You know, I've got some cousins I'm close to.

My father and my uncle, I think they would have had a very close relationship, but this is where you have to understand my grandmother. And, I mean, I have fond memories of my grandmother, but the reality of it was, and if my dad was sitting right here, he would be the. the first one to tell you she could be Machiavellian in the way she manipulated people and the way she played people off against each other. I mean, it was a very palpable thing. And, you know, there were times when, I mean, I finally, it's in China Marine when my dad

writes about the train coming into Mobile after his occupation duty in China. And this is where the HBO thing took a little artistic license because they show him going. And that's fine. I mean, beautifully shot and all that. I love the way they did it. But he came home from China by himself. Train rolls in a mobile, dark night. You know, my uncle and my Aunt Martha were there to pick him up.

And my dad writes about they, you know, my uncle was so happy to see him. He was wearing his army greens resplendent with all his battle stars. And his ribbons. of all his awards for valor. And, you know, they embraced warmly. He embraced my Aunt Martha. They were happy to see him. And, you know, my uncle Edward said to him,

you came through a Marine Rifle Company in the Pacific without a scratch. I mean, that's probably not a lot of guys could say that. But the sad part is my grandmother could, she could just really play people off against him. each other and I don't I think at times the relationship was not as good as it could have been I wish I had known my uncle better he he was an incredibly brave man and incredibly smart man I had and my cousin Mary Louise she and I have a very close relationship and I had a Nazi building banner that he had torn off you know those

building banners that the Nazis had. 741st tank battalion went through a town in Czechoslovakia, and he tore it off the town hall. It may have been Pilsen, I'm not sure. And he threw it in his tank. And somehow it ended up at our house, you know, because my cousins at the time did not want it. And when my grandmother passed away, things got moved around and we ended up with it. And his tanker's jacket, as I relate in there. And so I had those things.

things because I remember like that jacket, that cotton tanker jacket, you know, nothing special to look at, but I remember my brother and me looking at it and my brother saying, man, Uncle Edward wore that in the Battle of the Bulge, you know. Well, I mean, when you're a kid in the 1970s, man, the Battle of the Bulge, you know, everybody knew what that was. That was a cool thing. But my cousin wanted, she asked if she could have those things. And I said, of course, that's your dad, you know, of course.

I will give them to you. I mean, so she has them now. but I think of my uncle, I, you know, I'm so interested in the Sherman tank in all aspects of World War II history, but I wish I could have had some conversations with him. Because if there's anybody who saw, like I said, I mean, what he went through in Europe was about as heavy

as anything you could go through, and then here's your younger brother, here's my dad going through it in the Pacific, and to be a mom and a dad. Now I'm got my dad hat on here. Both your sons are, you know, at the bitter end of it on opposite ends of the world. And to have them both come home, you know, what a, what a trial for parents, for a family. But if I ever, people have asked me, do you think you'll do another book?

And I say, well, as long as I'm working my dad. day job I want. I've got to get retired from that first. But something that, I wish it was more written about my uncle because I would love to do something focused on him and also my dad and, you know, the Sledge Brothers at War or something like that. I'm actually supposed to speak at the Citadel in November. And I mentioned that when I spoke at the Society for Military History, one of their people was there and he came up, he goes, man, would you come do this at the said it'll. I teach your dad's book. And there was a Marine who I was having the conversation with that in front of our audience, you know, and he's, oh yeah, El Cid, man. A lot of Marines go through

El Cid, you know. So I'm going in November and I'm really looking forward to that. But that gentleman I was talking to and he said, oh man, 741st Tank Battalion, I can point you right to somebody who can help you research that. But I would love to not to compare and contrast, but to do something the Sledge brothers in World War II. I mean, because they both had such an extraordinary experience. I mean, it's such a powerful legacy. I mean, I'd almost, if I could pull up my uncle's citation,

I've got a picture of it. I'd like to read it if I could. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, this is my uncle, Edward. This is his Silver Star citation. First Lieutenant Edward Sledge, 042-8583, infantry 741st tank battalion, United States Army. For gallantry in action during the Allied assault on the coast near Vireville,

Cremere, France, 6 June 1944, 1st Lieutenant Sledge, a platoon leader landed with the initial assault wave under intense enemy machine gun, mortar and artillery fire. In the absence of his company commander, he assumed command of the company. When his radio failed, there was no way to give commands for one tank to another. First Lieutenant Sledge, dismounting from his tank, went along the open beach to four other tanks, giving instructions to the operators. Reentering his own tank, he proceeded down the beach until it was immobilized. While lying in a relatively safe position, First Lieutenant Sledge, seeing a wounded soldier about 25 yards away,

crawled to him and dragged him back to cover where he was given first aid. The courage and determination of First Lieutenant Sledge, enacting with a complete disregard for his personal safety, in order to assist to the utmost of the assault depicts a gallantry that is accredit to itself for the military service, inter-military service from Mobile, Alabama. That is my Uncle Edward Silver Star. Outstanding.

Here is his bronze star. This point, he's a captain. Captain Edward Sledge, the second, 741st Tank Battalion, United States Army for heroic action on the 15th of December, 1944, in Belgium. on the evening of 15 December, 1944, in the vicinity of Wallershide, Germany, the tank company, which Captain Sledge was commanding, was called upon by the infantry for assistance as anti-tank defense after the pillbox area had been taken. Captain Sledge's company of tanks were to move to the area of the infantrymen from an assembly area one mile from their lines.

Unfortunately, one of Captain Sledge's platoon leaders was not familiar with the situation that had developed. fully cognizant of the fact that the situation was extremely critical. Captain Sledge, fearlessly and without regard for his own personal safety, dismounted from his tank and on foot, led his tanks through the dark fire-swept roads and fields in order to keep them clear of mines. He steadfastly refused to take cover when the tanks drew a constant rain of heavy enemy artillery fire. He did not rest or take cover until he had led his tanks to their objective and contacted the commanding officer of the.

infantry unit. The valor devotion to duty and superior leadership displayed by Captain Sledge reflects great credit upon himself and is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service. That is Eugene Sledge's older brother. So yeah, that's a proud legacy. And when you said that he came home and you know your uncle Edward met him at the train and he said well you made it through the Pacific without a scratch

and also without an award of any kind and this is the United States Marine Corps the United States Marine Corps they they do not give away awards at all

Dave commentary on that. Like, to get through, to go to Palilu and Okinawa and not get a Navy achievement medal

with a V on it is crazy. But, you know, it's a different time. And that's a pretty interesting difference between all the services, you know,

just the way that they give out awards and also in time, you know, different times, different theaters. You know, know different theaters of war in certain theaters well some action is is is a good morning and a yellow sticky on the on the on the back of your your folder and some other

theater at a different time that same action you're getting a a high award for valor so but what's nice about it is to have that documentation you know yeah and I can tell you I can guarantee you 100 percent those are two acts of valor that you that you Your uncle committed that they drew out of a hat with a bond. He did 20 of those things. Sure. If not 30 of those things, if not 40 of those things. And that's the way it is.

The awards thing is very strange. Very, very strange indeed. But pretty awesome to have that documentation. And pretty crazy to see pictures of your dad. Did your dad even get a purple heart? I know he didn't get, but like, you know, when you get blown, like nowadays, a guy gets blown up and gets a concussion and knocked out. Like, they're getting a purple heart in many cases.

Well, you know, and he, I was able to bring to light what got added to something, you know, twice, a Japanese 150 millimeter dudd landed in the mud and skid in the line landed right by them. All right. There was one case where it was, it was, oh, man, the Japanese mortars just caused hell for him. I think it was a 90 millimeter. Well, more than one case because it's in there. in my book where one hit and literally knocked him into a hole or out of a hole or, you know, stunned him and, you know, I mean, it's really a miracle that he survived. Yeah. And without a scratch.

I mean, it's hard to imagine. It is indeed. Yeah, well, I was just curious because they don't really, they show a little bit of interaction between your uncle and your dad in the, in the movie. you don't talk about it too much here he doesn't talk about it too much and and so I was just wondering if you had any amplifying they were a pretty big disparity in age too right like seven or eight years or something like that they weren't that it wasn't that much how much was it three or four years okay I thought they were further apart than that yeah yeah interesting and I you know I would think that if there's anyone you could talk to it would be your combat fellow combat veteran but

then your fellow combat veteran, that's also your brother. I figured they must have exchanged some pretty good stories over the years. Yeah, you know, it's like I said, my memories, by the time I began to get older, we weren't going down to Mobile to visit my grandmother as much. So, and she's the like Georgia, kind of the big house where I write about going in and looking at his medals and the interactions with my grandmother, you know, at an early age that, she sold that house in 1975, 76

and so I really, and it was when we would go there that I would see my uncle because he didn't live far from there. Once she sold that house and downsized and moved to an apartment in her final years, I don't really have much memory of ever seeing him. Going back to the book a little bit here, fast forward,

is you talking about your dad. He said he spent a lot of time sitting around and staring at the wall. And you told the story about your, your grandfather saying, Mary Frank, leave that boy alone. Right. You know, you convey that story again that they show in the movie. And he talks about it in China Marine, which is, you know, when he's going in and, you know, to sign up for courses.

And, you know, she says, oh, did they teach you this? Did they teach you that? Did the Marine Corps teach you anything? And of course, he says, and I just stared down at her and said in a voice as loud as thunder. This was different. This is what's interesting. In the movie, he whispers it. He says, I just stared down her and said it as a voice as loud as thunder.

Lady, they taught me how to kill Japs. There was a killing war going on, and I had to do some of the killing. And if that don't fit into an academic course, I'm sorry. Some of us had to do it. And most of my buddies got killed or wounded. Well, the room went dead silent. you could have heard a pin drop and she just looked shock and mumbled something about being sorry and I said it's okay you couldn't have known that was always one of my favorite stories of his

you know um yeah but it is it and I'm not being critical the way they shot that scene in the pacific but it is Joe Mazzello leans forward and says it really quiet but no I mean it was you know did they teach you how to fix electrical things no They didn't teach you. Did they teach you journalism? They know they didn't teach you. They didn't teach you accounting. No.

Did the Marine Corps teach you anything? Lady, they taught me how to kill Japs. You know, I mean, I, that's a, that's a pretty, pretty cool moment to have everybody just stop. You say he earned a bachelor's degree of science and business in 1949. Went out, went back to Mobile and worked in an insurance office. As he told many times, he detested it. And he said, I never, I should have never listened to Mary Frank. That's his mom.

He said, and he would usually end such a conversation with me by saying, big shot. And he, you talk about throughout the book, his nickname for you is big shot. Big shot, you have to do what you want to do. Follow your own path. Don't let someone else make that decision for you, end quote. And what a great piece of advice. And then you say he took his own advice. married your mother in 1952 got a degree in botany in zoology a PhD in zoology in biochemistry

and then you know as we mentioned started teaching biology became a full professor which was his dream what's what he wanted to do um despite his horrific experience as a combat veteran I never felt as though I was living in a house with a disturbed individual as I may have stated as I've stated publicly many times he was the all-American dad he was in my view a paragon of self-control he drank moderately but never to excess he swore frequently but never needlessly and he absolutely skewed the so-called four-letter words like any man he appreciated beautiful women but there was only one who mattered my mother he treated her with absolute respect and devotion and demanded the same of my brother

and me not that that was a hard thing to do he always called her shug chief and sometimes simply Mrs. Sledge. And you go in here, you kind of explained growing up, and you know, you guys have the family time. And back in those days, you know, we'd all sit around and watch the same TV program because there was only two channels. That's right.

And so, you know, you guys would watch, I Love Lucy, which everyone watched back in those days. And you talk about him laughing out loud. And then the year would have been 1970 or 1971 in the Vietnam War was. full swing. I won't attempt to recreate dialogue of such evenings because I honestly don't remember, but I do have a vivid mental image of the grainy news footage flickering across our little black and white RCA television set, Marines and soldiers running and fighting through Southeast Asian jungles

and ubiquitous Huey helicopters, the rotors thumping and the airstream flailing and the palm trees as they landed to take on torn and bloody young men for evacuation. My father, Sledgehammer would sit there with Holly still in his lap watching tensely his jaw clenched in a grim expression on his face now there was no laughing and guffawing like during I love Lucy he would just mutter goddamn under his breath as the voices of Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor droned on solemnly over those flickering images of choppers palm trees and wounded young men my mother and I talked about this not long before she passed away she said he was so discouraged and profoundly disturbed at things like the Vietnam War it made him feel as if what

they did in World War II was for nothing he thought that they had made the world better that all the suffering and dying in places like Pelaloo and Okinawa was so that we would never have to see these things again and again there's so much in this book it's such a fantastic read but I'm gonna close it out with this this section towards the end Sledgehammer fought his battles against the empire of Japan with courage and honor. When the war ended, he made his peace, came home, and got on with his life as best he could. Perhaps it could be said that his war never completely ended, not that it did for any of them, because I know he never forgot his buddies who didn't have, who didn't get to have a life after the war.

Even though he always grieved for them, that grief gave him an enhanced, appreciation of his own life. I heard him say once, quote, the experience was so incredibly intense that after it was all over with, life was never the same, because the sunrise is always more beautiful to me now than it ever was before I started into Pelaloo

on that Amtrak, end quote. But his last battle would be one that he would not win. He was diagnosed with stomach cancer in October of 2000, the prognosis was not good. Watching my father endure his illness helped me understand the true meaning of inner courage and fortitude, as if reading of his war experiences were not enough.

I sat with him many days and nights, and I honestly never heard him complain about the pain he was in. I came to understand the difference between being a tough guy and being a strong man. I never saw my father as a tough guy In the proverbial sense, he exuded gentlemanly forbearance and composure. But he was one hell of a strong man.

That was sledgehammer. That was sledgehammer. Example for all of us. In combat and in life as well, obviously, as a Marine, as a warrior, as a man, as a father. A true example for us all. That's sledgehammer. very well said thank you jaco well thank you for joining us um the book is the book is amazing um what do we need to share about it when's it's it releases june 3rd June 3rd you can preorder

it right now wherever you get books preordered immediately because the publisher is not going to print enough because they don't understand the demand for this kind of thing so if you don't order the pre-order. They're not going to have a copy for you and you're going to have to wait. And you're probably not going to get a first a dish, which makes you a loser in life. If you don't get a first a dish of a book, you can't go back and claim that you were in the game. So order the first a dish. Comes out June 3rd. I'm hoping to twist somebody's arm your publishers first to do an audio book and then your second to get

to read the audio book so that way people can listen to it. And there's, you know, there's things in an audio book that are, and by the way, Joe Mozilla does the audio book of With the Old Breed.

Yes, I am aware of that. And I listened to a sample of it the other day just to kind of get a feel for it. It's good to go. Sounds great. Well, the thing is, I mean, like with mine,

I don't, like I said, My publisher asked me about that. And, you know, I said, well, I'm still working. I'd love to be able to do nothing but this because this is my passion. But I can't keep doing my day job and do, you know, I've done a little voice work, but not on a professional level like that. Well, here's the thing you may or may not know.

You will go in there and you'll take, it takes about twice as long as the book is. So this is about an eight hour. book to read. So it'll probably take you 16 hours to record. You'll mess up and they'll just edit it out. And they just fix it. The sound engineer will do a good job. It'll be great.

It's not, you know, it's not hard labor. It's reading the book. It's reading the book that you wrote. And it would be pretty awesome. Well, I appreciate you saying that job. And to the voice actor that may have already recorded this and the publisher, if that's if you've already done it, cool, all good. I appreciate it.

But if it's not quite done yet, let's give Henry a shot at the title. They could probably do it in a recording studio close to you. Sure. So you don't have to travel anywhere. Might be worth it. When we, one of the HBO interviews,

we sat down and this was actually at my mom's house. And we had to sit there and, you know, like it was my turn. So I get in the chair. They mic me up and the sound guys over there. And he goes, okay, just tell me your name. Let me get dialed in on your voice. And so I did.

He goes, whoa, radio voice, man. I like this. You know. And the guy interviewing me said, man, have you ever done any voice work? And I was just like, what, you mean you can actually get paid to do that? I would love to do that. But I've done a little bit, Jocko. I would, God, I'd love to make my living doing that.

But no, as for this, I mean, it would be cool. I just, I think it's already been done, you know, and I sure don't want to get between anybody's gears. Got it. You know, but, I mean, I know what you're saying. You know, it's so cool to hear you. read what I wrote. But I'm thinking of, you know, a professional narrator. I just, I don't know.

I think, yeah, it would be a cool thing. Well, at least I hope there is an audiobook. The hard copy, for sure. You're going to want to take notes in it. You're going to want the first edition here. You're actually on social media at H. Sledgehammer on Instagram. That's my Instagram.

I really hardly ever post anything on Instagram. I'm on Facebook. William Henry Slidge. William Henry Sledge. Awesome. Awesome. That's where people can find you. And the book will be out June 3rd.

We'll be watching it. Dave Burke, you got any questions? No, no questions. Obviously, it's a huge honor for me to be here. And just shared this last several hours with you. And I want to say thanks. And just getting to contemplate, listening to the conversation and hearing your stories

and hearing Jocko read your stories. I mean, look, who you are and what you've done and what you wrote has guaranteed that the success story that's Eugene Sledge extends far beyond what he did as a Marine. And as a dad, that's my goal. And you are the model of that. So I'm proud to be here and I have shared this with you. So thanks. That's pretty cool, man. Thank you.

It's really an honor for me to. to be here and have you show this interest. No, we're definitely interested. Henry, any closing thoughts from you? Just like I said, thank you so much for taking the time to read it and say the things you said about it. I mean, it's an honor. Well, the honor is all ours. Thanks for us sharing your father's story with us.

And thereby sharing the story of those who fought, sharing the story of those who sacrificed, sharing the story of those who never came home, and thank you for continuing to share the story of the old breed. We will never forget them. Thank you. And with that, Henry Sledge has left the building.

That's what it's all about. That's what we're here to do is remember the warriors that came before us. Dave, thanks for joining us. Echo, you're back in the seat over there. Dave, Marine Corps, history, culture. That's as good as it gets right there for me. That is just the coolest thing.

Yep. Just outstanding. Outstanding to see the threads of history and be able to sit down with the threads of history and interact with them is. amazing. What a great book. What a great man.

What a great family. Just great story. So, thanks everybody. Thanks for listening. Thanks for supporting. If you want to support, you want to support this podcast.

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Plus, you get subscriptions there. You get all kinds. There's just good stuff. So joccofuel.com. Also, we've got stuff available at Walmart at Wawa, vitamin shop,

GNC. I just got a mailer. You know what a mailer is? No. It's like an old school coupon thing. Oh, yeah, yeah, mailers, got you.

But my wife just left me the mailer out from the Marine Corps Exchange. The, what is it, MCX? Is that what it is? It is. MCX and guess who guess who's on the cover of the MCX

thing. Jocko fuel including Jocko. So I'm on there and my wife was like, hey, you also kept. So you get a, if you get a mailer, I guess they know that I'm military somehow. They must have my address in their system. Who? The Marine Corps Exchange people.

That makes sense to me. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So you can get stuff at the Marine Corps Exchange, Navy Exchange, uh, a fees. Hannaford dash stores shop right wakefront HEB down in Texas Meyer out in the Midwest

Wegman's Harris Teeter public's down in Florida been crying hey everyone in Florida they've been thirsty because they're drinking that hydrate they're getting their protein on much appreciated lifetime fitness shields small gyms everywhere you guys can make it happen Just email jf sales at joccofield.com also origin u.s.a.orgia.com We have American made good Goods built by freedom. The freedom was fought for, was sacrificed for. Don't go and buy something made by communists.

Do I need to say that again? Do not buy something made by communists, buy something that's made by freedom. OriginUSA.com. Jeans, boots, t-shirts, hoodies, rash guards, jiu-jitsu geese. By the way, we do Brazilian jiu-jitsu. FYI.

It's true. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I know what you're saying. So do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. We're a ghee, but we're an American ghee. There you go. That's what we're doing. They got belts too, by the way.

Yeah, they got custom belts kind of. Wait, what do you mean? Kind of? Well, I mean, they come into color? I don't know. Yeah, well, they're not really that custom. They're custom to your own rank. Yeah, sure.

There you go. Yeah. Did you get one yet? Do you get that black belt? I'm afraid not. I got that black belt you. No, they'll kill them. It's very black.

My belt, as you know. Right. Not very black. Well, yeah. So check out origin USA.com. Get stuff made by freedom. I have a question.

Yeah. So origin, Pete has been, you know, posting various items on the internet in regards to footwear. I saw some slippers on there, or flip flops on there,

some casual shoes. What's that? Are those in the rotation? Are those coming soon? What are up? They're live. The flip flops, we call them slippers in Hawaii.

Yep. Yep. But the flip-flops are not available yet. They're in testing mode. Yeah, yeah. But you're talking about the cat, the Chelsea boots. Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, I was talking about those.

I'm talking about the whole deal. Yeah, so the Chelsea with that, those are more like the stylish. Yeah, yeah. I gave mine to carry. Yes. Did you know that? Yeah.

Or you were mad about that, weren't you? Well, you know, I saw the gesture. And I was just say I was very happy for you. You know why he got him? Because he's stylish like that. Because he was at my house working. Yeah. Wait, I was at your house working too.

I literally right there watched it happen. Oh, that's right. I forgot about that. It's okay. We're very happy for carry. No, I'm talking about the casual sneakers scenario. We're working on those. Those are conceptual.

Those look good. Yeah, yeah. Actually, the flip-lops look good too, man. American made. We're getting there. Origin USA.com. It's true. Also, Jock historical.

Jocko store. That's the authentic place where you get the Jocco shirts. Not the knockoff. on Amazon. Yeah. Don't you want those. Yeah. Sorry to say.

And hey, look, if you got the knockoffs from Amazon, hey, I get it. You know, you're trying to represent good. And you want that convenience. Good. But those are knockoffs. So that's like double communism, ish. See what I'm saying? So either way, you get it at jocco store.com.

That's where the real stuff. Discipline equals freedom. Mm-hmm. Good. Get after it. What's this no slack shirt that Dave Brooks were? Oh, that was last month or this month's shirt locker shirt. Get a new design.

Okay, so every month. So this one is based on the shotgun that I witnessed in your possession at one point where it said no fucking slack. So I don't want to put the F word on there. You know, keep it appropriate. But you know, see how it's kind of engraved, looks engraved like it is on your shotgun there. Yeah, when I retired from the Navy in 2010, how many years ago was that? 15 years ago almost?

The boys gave me a shotgun and engraved on the shotgun. Yep. where the words no fucking slack. Yeah, which was also featured in a video that I did called Time is Running Out. If you look close, you can see them. But anyway, yeah, that's what. So all these designs, like I said, it's called the shirtlocker. It's on jocco store.com.

Subscribe to that. You get a new design every month. All the designs are based on something. Like, so if you're kind of in the game, you're going to, the more in the game you are, the more you're going to recognize all what it's based on. See what I'm saying? So anyway, people seem to like it. Check it out all at joccoo store.com.

I like it. Also check out primal beef. Got some steak. Check out Colorado craftbeef.com. Get some more steak. We got steak for you. We got steak. Good steak.

I've been doing the Sean Glass methodology. Which one? 33222. That's how long you cook them. In a pan, you're just on your stove. Freaking amazing. And I've been just using salt and pepper. That's it.

But I've been cooking it like a little higher intensity of fire, of flame down there. We call it heat. Yeah, yeah. All good. And dude, it's really good. Yeah, I dig it. So check those out.

Also subscribe to the podcast, also jocco no ground.com. Also, there's books. Okay, so first of all, books, we've got the old breed, the complete story by Henry Sledge. Okay. It is available right now for pre-order. It comes out. June 3rd. Order it now.

His publisher's not going to print enough. And you're going to get a second or a third a dish if you don't get after this thing. So be careful of that. obviously get with the old breed. If you haven't read that 10 times or 12 times already, get that book. And then there's, of course, just the old breed, which is out of print, I believe.

I bought a first-a-dish. Dave Burke bought a first-a-dish. So if you want to get a first-a-dish, you better jump in there because they're not cheap right now. No. And the price will go up. So watch out for that. Also, there's another book you need to get,

or at least you need to pre-order. What's the book called, Dave? The Need to Leave. Yeah. So Dave Burke has a book coming out. It's called The Need to Lead. And it is a book about leadership. Yeah.

And when does it come out? October 21st. You can pre-order now, but it comes out October 21st. So pre-order that bad boy ASAP. So that way you don't have to think about it. And you can get a first dish before they change it. And they do something different to it. when they put New York Times bestseller up on the top.

Is that what's going to happen? See real confident over there. We'll see. I know the people of the listen to this podcast are a book buyer, so I'm counting on it. That is true. That is true. It's good to go. I wrote the forward.

You did. To the book. Yep. years from now, I'm going to show you the first drafts that you sent me, and you're going to be so humiliated because it's just not good. No. And four years from now, when I show you what you sent me, I'm going to show you what Laif and I were sending each other back and forth.

Also not good. But, you know, you wrote, rewrote, wrote, rewrote, and, dude, it's a freaking great books. So order that book as well. And then, of course, I've written a bunch of books. So check those books out. I've written a bunch of kids' books. Kids' books are going to help your kids become better humans.

Wave the Warrior kid, one, two, three, four, and five. Get those now. You don't have to wait until the movie comes out. Movies coming out. We don't know when, but in the meantime, you don't want your kid getting weak, soft, and dumb. No. Because you were waiting for the movie. No.

Like, you know you're not signing up for that, right? Hey, is there anyone in the line that to make my kid weak, soft, and dumb? Mark it. You know what I'm saying? Club. No, there's no one in line for that. No. So don't get in line for that.

Get in the line to make your kid into a warrior kid. That's what we're doing. Also, Eschalonfront. We have a leadership consultancy. We solve problems through leadership. Go to echelonfront.com for details. The next muster is down in Florida. It is going to sell out.

They all sell out if you want to go to it. It's in December. So you got some time. No? Man, I got double it. I thought it was November. It is in the end of the year. Yeah.

So I believe it's December. Dave will be checking my correctness, which is almost guaranteed. Hey, look, am I right all the time? No, but look, are we going to, you want to wager on it, Echo Charles? Do you want to bet against me? No, I'm with you.

I'm betting against Dave Burke. You're betting against Dave Burke. Good move. Solid move. Hey, Ashlandfront.com. We have a bunch of events. We also have a leadership consult. We will come into your business

and help you with your leadership. So if you need any support with that, go to ashlamfront.com. We have the council, which is a it is an event that takes place up in the mountains

in a remote location and is a very small group of people if you want to attend that also. Eschlonfront.com, check it out. When is the muster? December.

Seventh, eighth night. So it sounds like I was right. You were. I'm so glad too because I was like, oh, how was it in November? Check.

All right, so that's Eschlamfront. Also, we have an online training academy for leadership, Extreme Ownership.com. What's the latest course that's come out, Dave? I think you and I just did a couple courses. We have the ladder of alignment. Check.

And then we had the hard conversations. I'm just going to say hard conversations. Check. Awesome. This is how to interact with other human beings, which is what leadership is. So you need skills to do that. You aren't just born to it.

Just like you learn how to operate a 60 millimeter mortar, you learn how to become a leader. So go to Extreme Ownership. dot com. And if you want to help service members active and retired, you want to help their families, Gold Star families. Check out Mark Lee's mom, Mama Lee.

She's got an amazing charity organization. If you want to donate or you want to get involved, go to America's at mighty warriors. org. Also check out heroes and horses. org. Micah Fink up there in Montana helping veterans find their soul. And then we got Jimmy May's organization beyond the brotherhood. Dot org.

Check that one out. And if you want to connect with us, You can check out, well, jocco.com and then on social media. I'm at joccoe Willink. Echoes at Echoes at Echo Charles. And Dave is at David R. Burke. Just be careful the algorithm because it'll get you. Once again, thanks to Henry Sledge for joining us today

and for sharing more of his father's history and more history of the Marine Corps and more history of the old breed. And thanks to all of our military personnel out there with a reverent salute tonight to the United States Marine Corps and those who carry on that tradition of the old breed. And thanks to our police, law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, correctional officers, border patrol, secret service, all other first responders.

Thank you for protecting us on the home front. And everyone else out there, here is a passage from Eugene Sledge's book with the old person. Read, quote, as the sun disappeared below the horizon and its glare no longer reflected off a glassy sea, I thought of how beautiful the sunset always was in the Pacific. They were even more beautiful than over Mobile Bay. Suddenly a thought hit me like a thunderbolt. Would I live to see the sunset tomorrow? End quote.

Tomorrow is not promised people. go out and live and that's all I've got for tonight until next time this is Dave and Echo and Jocko out