The title of the book is taken from the last two campaigns that the 41st Infantry Division fought in. This Division was one of the first Army combat units to be sent to the South Pacific at the outset of World War II.
The beginning of the story takes place during the landings and battle operations that were directed by General Douglas MacArthur.
All the American victories in the war were not without terrible bloodshed and loss of life as some recent films have so graphically displayed. This story details some of the horrors and heartbreaks that men experience in wartime. These are the conditions that exist in a rifle company during combat and the story attempts to describe how the men cope with it.
The overriding theme of the book is the bond that is created when men are faced with deadly danger for long periods of time. That bond is strong enough to last a lifetime. This can be attested to by the fact that the men that had served in these units during the War still meet on a regular basis to provide support and assistance to one another just as they did over half a century ago.
This is an extraordinary account of two men that were total strangers, who came together and formed a partnership that sustained them throughout the war - and afterwards.
These men had successfully fought the Imperial Japanese Army and survived, only to come home to fight the Imperial United States Legal System.
In the latter chapters the story deals with the transition from military to civilian life and the problems that confront men who went to war as star struck youths, and came out as hardened and disillusioned men.
All the battles and Island backgrounds described are, for the most part, true historical facts but it is nevertheless, a work of fiction.
This is not an autobiography but many of the battle scenes I write about were actually experienced by me. I was a rifleman in the third platoon of L Co. 162nd Regiment of the 41st Infantry Division during World War 11.
