Pfc. Lightheart died in Michigan in 2006 at the age of 86.
Pfc. Thursby died in Texas in 1999, at the age of 75, he was a sheetmetal worker and his family said that he never spoke about Peleliu.
“Where liberty dwells, there is my country." –Benjamin Franklin
Islam Delenda Est!
Just spread a rumor that the island is loaded with copper and the pickers will swarm there overnight.
Perhaps saddest of all, the airstrip was never really used as intended after capture. Adm. Halsey didn't even want to take Peleliu. But it was taken, at great cost.
I could never visit that island without the imagery from E.B. Sledge’s book “With The Old Breed” popping into my head. What a bloody mess of battle that place was.
Peleliu nearly wiped out the 1st Marine Division; it was one of the bloodiest in history and was a pointless effort that many of the senior leadership in the pacific wanted to avoid.
I had the opportunity to talk years ago as a Marine private with a SgtMaj who had been a 18 yo private during that campaign. His descriptions of what went on stayed with me and I have since read six different accounts of the campaign. Between the first hand account and the books on the battles I could understand it if there was ordinance of some kind in every square inch of the beaches and the Umurbrogol mountains.
Pfc. Lightheart died in Michigan in 2006 at the age of 86.
Pfc. Thursby died in Texas in 1999, at the age of 75, he was a sheetmetal worker and his family said that he never spoke about Peleliu.