With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa

As a society, America needs from time to time to question the conduct of its foreign relations. WITH THE OLD BREED, by Eugene B. Sledge, provides the ultimate "reality check" by serving as a graphic reminder of the horrors America has periodically required its young men to endure for the higher cause of defending freedom. The battles of Peleliu (1944) and Okinawa (1945) were particularly appalling. Sledge's unassuming account of experiences in those two campaigns gives an unblinking description of all the waste, filth, and savagery of close combat.