TellSackett

Eugene Sledge - Video Biography - Awesome Stories

Eugene Sledge - Keeping Notes at Peleliu - Awesome Stories

Eugene Sledge - End of Battle at Peleliu - Awesome Stories

Eugene Sledge - Battle of Okinawa - Awesome Stories

Eugene Sledge - Life After the War - Awesome Stories

Sledge is officially my favorite history character of the 20th century. His book changed the way I look at war. What those guys endured in the Pacific is amazing. I look at my 17-year-old brother and wonder what it was like for other 17-year-olds being shipped out in WWII, and how hard it must have been for their families. He's concerned with computer games and cars, the things 17-year-olds should be concerned with; not staying alive as these young boys were.

Nothing beats Sledge's book. It's hard to remember that he was a 17-year-old or 18-year-old at the time, he seems so adult-like.

Lucius

Yep. ......

bunyip

Indeed. My late father was 20 in 1939. He joined the air force and flew reconaissance,as a navigator ,in Lancasters. (England Egypt, India) The war destroyed him.

Worth noting that the average age of the boys who died in WW2 and Vietnam was 19.

In war cynical old men send gormless young men to kill other gormless young men from foreign countries. ("gormless young men" is a redundant phrase)

Tancred

With the Old Breed is a great book. I got to meet Sledge's son recently, he had on display some of his father's uniform and other items. It is amazing to think that the war was fought by so many young men with so much responsibility on their shoulders.

TellSackett

I really would have like to have met Eugene Sledge. He seems like such an interesting character and a nice guy to know. Would have been a lot of fun to talk to for sure.

It's totally amazing to me that men of that age won WWII, one of the largest wars in the history of the US. The good thing about their young age is that they are still alive today and so can share their stories with us more than 65 years later. The bad thing is that the experiences endured by these young men stuck with them for the rest of their lives. The war was the first time these mostly innocent boys were introduced to reality. Because the war took their innocence away, their memories are all the more powerful and unshakable.