Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific Book

The Pacific Theatre in World War II is not as well known to armchair historians for a number of reasons, among them the much larger collection of works about the war in Europe. Toss in the non-linear aspect of campaigns, which hopped from obscure island to island. On top of that, the brutality of the fighting and the racial/racist dynamic of fighting the Japanese versus Germans who looked just like Uncle Joe make the Pacific War a dark, dark topic.

I came across Leckie's book by virtue of watching HBO's The Pacific series a couple of years back. Leckie is played by the brooding James Badge Dale, if you watched that production. Much of the HBO storyline comes from this book, which is Leckie's story of his life from induction through boot camp at Parris Island and then on to fighting in the Pacific. Leckie is unusual, an intellectual and writer who volunteers for the front-line job of a Marine scout and machine gunner. His book is easy to read yet deeply profound about life as a young marine, struggling among other young men, trying to make sense of the military, of life, and of the hellish jungles of Guadalcanal and Peleliu. It's a war book about killing and patrols and campaigns, but also one about being thrown in the brig, sybaritic shore leave in Australia, and the thievery and corner cutting required to keep the First marines in food and comfort, such as could be had in those awful places.

Leckie had respect for his enemy, and some of the most effective anti-war statements I've ever read are passages in this book where he recalls the cold-stone sadness of dead bodies sprawled about, a man's hand, severed, no longer a divine spark.

This book will allow you to taste, smell, and feel what it was like for the brave young men who beat back the Japanese Empire, fighting atoll to island, far from the hoopla. Bless Robert Leckie, who could have served honorably in the rear echelon, but chose to fight up front: "Keep it up, America, keep telling your youth that mud and danger are only fit for intellectual pigs. Keep saying that only the stupid are fit to sacrifice, that America must be defended by the low-brow and enjoyed by the high-brow. Keep vaunting head over heart, and soon the head will arrive at the complete folly of any kind of fight and meekly surrender the treasure to the first bandit with enough heart to demand it."