This book should be required reading in all high schools in America. RIP, Devil Dog.
The New York Times hates the military and ignores the passing of people like Dr. Sledge.
Sledge was interviewed on the recent cable program on the Pacific War (on TLC?) and was truly a gentleman.
That was a horrific war and Fussel was right: thank God for the atom bombs. The Japs would have fought even more fanatically on their home islands and ... we may have not won. Little remembered were riots by American troops in Europe (yes, the greatest generation) who were fed up with waiting for the trip home. With the Soviet Union no longer threatened by Germany their agents would have turned their attention to the USA, undermining our war effort as they did in the UK when Stalin and Hitler were allies.
Another soldier reminded us: There is never a good war or a bad peace
Soldiers know these things. The PC who sing of peace and love, the PC who want a clean war from the air and ignore the dead and dying, those who glamourize war and preach of holy wars forget this. The main shame is that so few of our "elite" nowadays ever fought in a war, so they could put things into perspective.
Reagan wanted to go fight, but he was extremely nearsighted (he wore contact lenses most of the time) and was not classified for combat. As a result, he was assigned to do training films (not propaganda) for the War Department.
I saw him this Christmas Eve and told him I'd heard that the USS Peleliu was in the fray in the Middle East and that I'd thought of him.
Here's my notes of some of what he told me a week or so ago...
Any errors are mine...
"We had such long times of boredom that when we finally got into the fight it was like a drug and you wanted it even though it scared you beyond fear ... the only time I really lost control of myself with the fear was the time swimming."
"..We were coming in to the beach and we ran out of fuel, and the Marines were pinned down by the Japanese up on these ridges. The Marines had fuel, so they started rolling the drums into the water and they were coming our way but they were drifting away also. "
"So they asked for a couple strong swimmers which I was. With the Japs shooting at full barrels of diesel fuel I went swimming out there with a rope that was going to loop around the barrels. Well, when I got out there I got the rope around a couple of barrels and then I felt really tired and the current was pulling me away from the island... "
"So I tied the rope and started swimming back but I was being swept out to sea! I was sure it was all over for me so I took a breath and I went under and grabbed the coral and hung on til the undertow stopped, then I came up and swam like hell! Then I went under again and waited. It saved my life! I finally made it to the beach and was dragged ashore with them shooting at me the whole time. My hands were so cut up and raw, and my lips were a mess from the salt and sun, but I was alive."
"And I never understood the Silver Star. There were these marines who made their way up to the ridge and all these Japs in caves shooting at us and ducking back inside. So the marines would rapell down the face with a sachel charge and a length of wire and they'd toss the sachel in and scramble up the wall. And the guy up top would blast it with a turn crank! Sometimes they just used a fuse, lighted the charge and tossed the dynamite in the cave. Imagine trying to light a match while swinging with a bag of dynamite and those Japs shooting at your feet! Alot of the guys smoked so the cigarettes probably saved them... I remember they had this strong opposition from some of these bunkers and the marines would go up there and pour gas in a vent and toss in a grenade. Boom! That was hell!"
"But the officers-- they all got the stars because they sat there watching and wrote each others commendations! None of the guys who did it got the stars!"
"When we finally took Peleliu I had alot of down time which I spent writing to my mother and my wife. I didn't have any paper of course, so I went looking ... and in this bunker there's a stack of rice paper so I took that, and then I went back and found a Japanese pencil. How many guys wrote home on rice paper? And when my wife died I went through all her things and there were those letters after all those years. So i read them and then I took them out and burned them and that was the end of that. It was between her and me- no one else."
"I remember too how they called me up and the sarge said, Norm, you're going to Okinawa and I knew it was going to be a hell of a fight but i just wanted to do something... and I got my gear and went to the airfield and he sees me and says, go back Norm, someone jumped in in front of you. and of course now i'm glad but that day I was so damn mad. But I don't know what happened to the guy who went instead of me"
"When it was all done on that island I don't think I saw more than 4 dead Japs, and it looked like they were sleeping. Maybe i just overlooked them. You kind of were in a kind of shock from all the fear."
I would like to recommend another great book: "Flags of our Fathers" by Bradley
Well, he's half right - for Churchill it was a source of dread.