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Friday, May 10, 2024

The Old Breed and the Costs of War | Eugene B. Sledge (1994)

"It has been said that the combat veteran has to live through the experience and then, if he survives, he has to live with it the rest of his life. How you handle yourself and what you make of yourself depends a great deal on your upbringing, your discipline, and things of this sort." 

Recorded at the Mises Institute's "Costs of War" conference in May 1994 in Auburn, Alabama.

Eugene Sledge (1923-2001) is best known for his books chronicling his experiences in the Pacific Theater during World War II: With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa and *China Marine: An Infantryman's Life after World War II*.

AUDIO ONLY  (38:04 minutes)
-Randy

9 comments:

  1. An excellent read. If you haven't yet, get to it.

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  2. I have a copy of With The Old Breed, it's an excellent book. If you watch The Pacific mini-series he is one of the three marines whose experiences are chronicled.
    Al_in_Ottawa

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  3. This is a great book. One of my favorites

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  4. I read With the old breed. That's a book that will haunt you.

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  5. Definitely a must read. Of all the excellent things Sledgehammer wrote, his time in china struck me the most. He said something to the point of 'that country is being set up to be the manufacturer for the world', or something similar. IN 1945-6!!! Perceptive Mr. Sledge most certainly was.

    Fjb and approximately 535 others.

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  6. https://oceanofpdf.com/?s=With+the+Old+Breed+Book+by+Eugene+Sledge

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  7. Read "With the Old Breed", watched "The Pacific", rode to Mobile Alabama one summer talked with Colonel Glen Frazier and visited Eugene Sledge's grave...

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  8. Have his book, try to find a copy of "Twenty-Five Yards of War" for nightmares. Dad invaded the Philippines with MacArthur in '45. Never talked about it to us kids but occasionally when a few contemporaries would visit a little of "I was there doing that" would come out. Was most proud of his CIB. A rare breed indeed.

    Spin

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  9. "With the Old Breed" is a helluva book. I don't think I'd have the balls to live through what those Marines did. Truly the Greatest Generation. My uncle Lee Durham was in the pacific theatre in the Navy and NEVER spoke a word about it to ANYONE.

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