By Dammit, We're Marines! : Veterans' stories of Heroism, Horror, and Humor in World War II on the Pacific Front

by CHATFIELD GAIL

• ISBN13: 9780977903948
• ISBN10: 097790394X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-09-01
• Publisher: Partners Pub Group

Summary

Culled from interviews with 52 'greatest generation' veterans, By Dammit, We're Marines! offers eye-witness accounts of combat on the Pacific Front during World War II. Facing an embedded, well-equipped enemy, flesh shredding coral reefs, malarial and dengue fever-ridden jungles, mosquito and crocodile-infested swamps and a noxious moonscape sulfur island, these invincible American teenagers destroyed the powerful Japanese war machine. Told in their own words, their recollections offer a foxhole view of ordinary young men in battle-raw and uncensored with all the innocence, fear, loneliness, bravado, humor, death, and patriotism that is the universal human experience of combat. Chaplains, corpsmen, sailors and aviators who served with the Marines also share their personal accounts.Readers will learn information not always shared in history books such as The Special Officer Candidate School where for the first and only time in Marine Corps history, officers were trained outside Quantico due to the urgent need for junior officers. The "Second Pearl Harbor" on May 24, 1944.

Author Biography

Gail Chatfield is a native of Southern California and received her Bachelor's Degree from San Diego State University courtesy of the G.I. Bill. A degree in Anthropology, the study of man and the role that culture exerts on individuals or groups, thoroughly prepared her for working in the exotic, fertile fields of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles with positions at AFTRA, the William Morris Agency and for nearly a decade as the personal assistant to Farrah Fawcett. Her interest in military history comes from her father who was a Marine on Bougainville, Guam and Iwo Jima.Chatfield is a freelance writer and opinion columnist for the North County Times. She is a member of the Military Writer's Society of America, the American Historical Association, the Southern California Writers Association, and an associate member of the Third Marine Division Association.