E.B. Sledge "Sledgehammer" served with the U.S. Marines in the South Pacific in WWII. If you have any doubts that war is hell, they will be gone by the time you finish this book. Sledgehammer faithfully wrote notes each day on whatever paper he could find, and many years after combat he found partial emotional healing by writing this book. I have no personal memories which allow me to relate to his experiences. All I have is secondhand stories from my friend Winston who also served with the Marines twenty five years later in Vietnam.
Halfway through the book, he makes an interesting comment:
None of us would ever be the same after what we had endured. To some degree that is true, of course, of all human experience. But something died in me at Peleliu. Perhaps it was a childish innocence that accepted as faith the claim that man is basically good. Possibly I lost faith that politicians in high places who do not have to endure war's savagery will ever stop blundering and sending others to endure it.
Have you ever had an experience that changed the way you look at life? If not war, perhaps a debilitating illness, an accident, or the death of someone close?
How did it change you? Was it a positive or a negative change?
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