I’m reading a book from around 1980 by the WWII U.S Marine named William Manchester. It called “Goodbye, Darkness” and it’s a memoir of his time in the Pacific theater and return to the Pacific in the late 1970s to handle what they now call PTSD, all the while as he weaves a narrative of the Marines at war. Manchester’s first exposure to combat was on Guadalcanal and his last on Okinawa. He was badly wounded on Saipan but recovered and returned to his unit for Okinawa. We know from school and maybe reading about it how bloody some of the WWII battles were, including those in Europe, but the difference in the Pacific was that the Japanese rarely surrendered. Thus, the battles in the Pacific were often a fight to the death. Most of the WWII veterans are now gone so their war continues to fade from the public consciousness. But we need to remember their stories less we find war, especially modern, more remote war, too comfortable.

Manchester starts the chapter of his wounding on Saipan with an intro about the increasing violence of the last 22 months of the Pacific war and how the Marines doggedness to finish “the job” was tested. He writes (when states things such as “the 26th Marines” he’s referring to that Marine regiment):

Their elan helped shape the character of the war and determined the course of Nimitz’s great drive across the central Pacific. It is, for example, a military maxim, repeated down the ages, that casualties of 30 percent are usually the most a fighting unit can endure without losing combative spirit. Tarawa, where over 40 percent fell, proved that wasn’t true of the Marine Corps. And as we approached Japan, the casualty rates of our rifle regiments rose higher and higher. On Peleliu the First Marines lost 56 percent of its men; on Iwo Jima the Twenty-sixth Marines lost 76 percent; on Okinawa the Twenty-ninth Marines lost 81 percent. Thus they seized islands whose defenders would have flung other invaders back into the surf. Whether the gains were worth the price is another matter; what cannot be disputed is the boldness and audacity of young Marines in the early 1940s.

Hopefully, such audacity in paying the price will never be needed again. Maybe our politicians, the governmental bureaucrats, people who make money off of the government, and us as citizens need to read that paragraph again and think about it. Think very hard about it and not forget…

Losses on Peleliu were completely preventable. They didn't even need to take that island. With the Old Breed by Eugene Sledge, and Helmet for My Pillow by Bob Leckie are two other excellent reads. We had a Tarawa survivor speak at our Marine Corps ball one year. Japanese were running up and down the beach bayonneting wounded Marines and beheading them. He said they never took a Japanese prisoner after that. A good friend's dad was at Tarawa and my friend said memories of that and the rest of his campaigns caused both his dad and his uncle to drink themselves to death.

My great uncle was a Marine on Guadalcanal and Tarawa. Like others he never talked about the war.

If that price is needed today we as a nation could not afford it. Soft n weak we are.

My grandfather was in a submarine in the pacific in WWll he told me a few stories but I was to little to remember them. Just remember him telling them to me I miss him alot.

I think there are certainly young people who could be, in the end, be as determined as the Marines were in WWII but the reservoir of that stock is probably far, far less than it was in 1942 through 1945. And I don't think we could, as a society, take such specific losses. They would blow the collective psyche of early 21st century America...

Manchester's other works are good reading. I recommend The Arms of Krupp, and American Caesar about Douglas MacArthur.

Dad was USMC in that theater. Talked very little about it. " All hands - on fighting." He said it was (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) on earth. Did what needed doing and came home. Tut

A veteran I knew also said to kill all of them, he had seen young girls they had gang raped.

To many cry babies in today.

Well I guess I’ll disagree with the “crybabies” of today. If anything it’s the upper command who are weak. We still, as a nation, produce some of the best warfighters there are. I know a few still in and they are some of the bravest and baddest men I know. There’s still some “break glass” in time of war fighters out there as well.
If the time came, I believe the USA would prevail. The easiest way to win a war is leave politics out of it. ROEs are only followed by the American/NATO troops…so away with ROE and we could go in and add Ukraine as our 51st state…and have Russia rebuild it.

USS INTREPID - My dad was on this ship when these pics were taken - in the battle of Leyte Gulf when this Kamikaze hit. Pics in wrong order. I dont think many US citizens of today can even imagine - in their worst nightmare - what military of the past went through. I saw an interview with a old marine who was at Chosin Reservoir in Korea - talking about it being so cold the actions on their rifles were freezing up - as were those on the chinese. He talked about one day attacking with their service shovels since because their rifles would not fire - he said “we were not warriors, we were savages”.

Very interesting.My Dad was in the 6th Marines in the Pacific.He hit many of the Islands.He came home with two Purple Hearts.He was shot in the arm on Bouganville,,and got a leg full of shrapnell fighting in the Battle of Sugar Loaf Hill on Okinawa.He never brought up the topic,,but if you asked,he had no problem answering any questions you wanted answered.I can tell you that he said they were not happy that they never got to put boots on Mainland Japan.Their goal was to take all the Islands and then hit the Mainland.He was 19 years old when he went in.He was actualy exempt from the draft,,because he was already in the Merchant Marines,when he quit that to join the fight.They don't make em like that anymore.I miss him.

Helmet for my pillow and With the old breed are 2 of my favorite books. They tell it like it was.

My grandfather was at peleliu, they rolled him off a cliff to save his life, he always said he was lucky he came home alive, and only left his knee there.

One of the Marines that helped raise the flag on Iwo Jima, Harold “Pie” Keller was from my hometown of Brooklyn IA.

He never told anyone- even his wife or his children- that he helped raise that flag. A true testament to selflessness exhibited by that generation.

Thanks for all the comments. One never knows how they are going to react in combat or to its aftermath. I suspect that many WWII veterans could compartmentalize it and function "just fine" the rest of their lives. Others need to come to terms with it sooner or later, such as Manchester does with his Pacific tour 30+ years later. Others turn to the bottle or other numbing agents.

One of my uncles was in Patton's army in late 1944 and end up winning Bronze Star w/ Valor by taking out a couple of German machine gun nests. I never knew the story until my older brother came back from Iraq and my uncle probably knew his time was short and so told my brother. My uncle's biggest disturbing thoughts about that combat was that he could have been killing his long removed cousins.

One of the young guys that went with my paratroop kid on their deployment to northeast Syria in 2020 is a son of "legend" within the light infantry type of outfit these guys belong to from that base. The dad had been on numerous deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Something obviously started to boil up later, with incidents where the dad would get up in say a public restaurant and go scream at the corner of the walls-- I guess it happened several times. Then, this guy ended up getting much more peaceful and soon there after decided to become a woman. He had been an outdoor type of guy but after becoming a "woman", he wouldn't even put a worm on his fishing line hook. You just never know the final outcome of things...

Many of the islands could have been avoided, but MaCarther needed to grandstand to make his staged appearance returning to the Philippines at Leyte. My father , USN Gunners mate, was there at the battle of Leyte Gulf