Helmet for My Pillow: WWII Marine Memoir - From Parris Island to the Pacific Battles | War History Book & Military Gift Idea

Those of you that are my GR friends or simply follow my reviews know that I have a fondness for those histories that recount the experiences of the common man that lives through the great events that history memorializes. I especially enjoy reading about the exploits of the common frontline soldier in any history of any battle or war. When I found this book I gladly placed it on my TBR shelf expecting it to add to my knowledge of the ordeal that was WWII in the Pacific. Several years ago I read Adam Makos' book, "Voices of the Pacific" and was quite moved by it. I expected this book to do the same and it did but it was also a different perspective of the same experiences and the same events."Helmet For My Pillow" is an autobiographical tale about a journalist that volunteers for the Marine Corps shortly after Pearl Harbor. "Voices of the Pacific" is a collection of the stories of several Marines and biographical and anecdotal in scope and far more graphic and, at times, horrific. "Helmet" is very different even though both books detail much of the same experiences and events. You would expect any book written by a Marine veteran about his war time experiences would be written in coarse graphic detail and peppered with profanity but that is not the case with this book and that is one of the things that surprised me about the book and its author. The author's prose is astonishing at times. Parts of this book read like an epic poem and in other portions the author lapses into thoughtful reflections about life and death, war, heroes, victims, and the worth of it all. This is a combat Marine veteran and his words are frequently haunting. I can only speculate that these thoughts and words are the result of Mr. Leckie's experiences and the memories he has of those men with whom he lived those experiences and especially the men that didn't return. This is a very moving book and for reasons I did not expect. If you would like to know what it was like for a civilian to enter the Marines at the beginning of WWII and go through Boot Camp then further training only to then be shipped off to the Pacific to endure a combat experience never before known then this book is something you should pick up and read. Probably the most unsettling difference between the Army's war in Europe and the Marine's war in the Pacific was that in the Pacific there was no safe rear area. In Europe troops could be regularly rotated to the rear for R&R while in the Pacific that wasn't possible. The Marines were on the line and in jeopardy for months at a time without rest and their war was truly a hell on earth ordeal. This book will help the reader understand what we owe those men.