Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific Author: Visit Amazon's Robert Leckie Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0553593315 | Format: PDF
Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific Description
Review
“
Helmet for My Pillow is a grand and epic prose poem. Robert Leckie’s theme is the purely human experience of war in the Pacific, written in the graceful imagery of a human being who—somehow—survived.”—Tom Hanks
“One hell of a book! The real stuff that proves the U.S. Marines are the greatest fighting men on earth!”—Leon Uris, author of
Battle CryAbout the Author
Robert Leckie was the author of more than thirty works of military history as well as
Marines, a collection of short stories, and
Lord, What a Family!, a memoir.
Raised in
Rutherford, New Jersey, he started writing professionally at age sixteen,
covering sports for
The Bergen Evening Recordof Hackensack. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on the day following the attack on Pearl Harbor, going on to serve as a machine gunner
and as an intelligence scout and participating in all 1st Marine Division campaigns except
Okinawa. Leckie was awarded five battle stars, the Naval Commendation
Medal with Combat V, and the Purple Heart.
Helmet for My Pillow (Random House, 1957) was his first book; it received the Marine Corps
Combat Correspondents Association award upon publication.
See all Editorial Reviews
- Paperback: 305 pages
- Publisher: Bantam Books (February 2, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0553593315
- ISBN-13: 978-0553593310
- Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
- Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
First, I must admit a particular regard for this book as the granddaughter of Bill Smith (whom Leckie refers to as 'Hoosier'), who served with Leckie in How Company. Leckie offers nuanced insight into the ways in which he and his friends understood national military service, the `enemy', and the war more generally, and how these perspectives or ideas evolved among the men from North Carolina to Guadalcanal, Australia, and New Britain. Leckie steers clear from prototypes or cliches; there is no enblematic enlisted man or officer. Rather, these men are treated as real people coping (or not) with the profound uncertainty of their situation.
Perhaps this appreciation says more about my own lack of experience with combat/warfare. Thinking of Guadalcanal from a macro or military history perspective, it is easy to take for granted that marines' objectives - and the most efficacious means to pursue them - were always apparent to those involved. In this context, Leckie's account of warfare as a learning process was deep, reflexive, and fascinating. For example, he describes: 1) the marines' first reactions to air battle and subsequent adjustment to air battle as a simple process of attrition; and 2) the uncertainty confronted by officers at various stages, against the backdrop of the US' limited military experience in the Pacific or in jungles more generally. In this way, Leckie also makes apparent the need - and efficacy - of severe hierarchy. For this reason, I think that reviewers' arguments positing a lack of regard for officers deserve qualification.
***UPDATE/REFLECTIONS***
Hoosier was wounded and evacuated early in the Battle of Peleliu; I believe that Chuckler and Runner were wounded later and evacuated with Leckie.
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