First published in 1957, Helmet for My Pillow is the World War Two memoir of Robert Leckie, United States Marine Corps veteran and military historian. Born in 1920, Philadelphia Pennsylvania native Leckie served in the Pacific Theatre with the First Marine Division as a machine gunner and intelligence scout during the Battle of Guadalcanal and later campaigns. One of eight children born into an Irish Catholic family began his writing career, at age 16 as a sports writer for The Bergen Evening Record in New Jersey. In 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Leckie enlisted in the Marines. He was assigned to H Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. He deployed to Guadalcanal, Australia, New Guinea, and Cape Gloucester and participated
In January 1965, Caputo, now an officer, is sent to Okinawa, Japan with men in the Third Marine Division. While waiting for the call to join the war, the young men start getting antsy and discouraged by the long delay of battle. Two months later, on March 7, 1965, Caputo’s company, along with many others, are assigned to a war location, D...
Giving way to the parties and the fun associated with college kids, Caputo failed out of college and realized what he really wanted to be was a Marine. He joined the Marines and went through a lot of officer training until he eventually reached what would be known as his final rank of Lieutenant. Introduced to the Vietnam War in 1965 as a Platoon leader, Caputo walked into the war a little scared but with a lot of determination. Caputo started the war with a lot of field work including jungle expeditions and shooting escapades, and eventually was sent to keep track of the everyday deaths occurring during the war and all the paperwork associated with such a job. Later he was put back in charge of a platoon which eventually lead to his downfall following an unethical order he gave his men that resulted in the killing of a couple Vietnamese pedestrians believed to be part of the Viet Cong.
assault the U.S. Marines conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. They served in all six
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print.
Admiral William Frederick Halsey Jr. (Bull) (American Naval Officer who led vigorous campaigns during World War II, 1882-1959)
He was then drafted into the U.S. Army where he was refused admission to the Officer Candidate School. He fought this until he was finally accepted and graduated as a first lieutenant. He was in the Army from 1941 until 1944 and was stationed in Kansas and Fort Hood, Texas. While stationed in Kansas he worked with a boxer named Joe Louis in order to fight unfair treatment towards African-Americans in the military and when training in Fort Hood, Texas he refused to go to the back of the public bus and was court-martialed for insubordination. Because of this he never made it to Europe with his unit and in 1944 he received an honorable discharge.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, America was at last forced to officially enter World War II. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt officially declared war on the Japanese and in his famous radio address to the American people, he professed that December 7 was a day that would live in infamy. Americans and Japanese alike, still remember Pearl Harbor Day, but how many remember the gallant, fighting Marines who served on a tiny atoll in the Pacific by the name of Wake Island?
William Fredrick Halsey, Jr. was born on October 30, 1882. He was born and practically bred to become a sailor. His father, Captain William Halsey, raised William Halsey, Jr. on stories of his naval career which led to his interest in joining the navy and later attending the United States Naval Academy. In the two years waiting to gain admission to the Naval Academy, Halsey had decided to study medicine at the University of Virginia and try to enter the Navy as a doctor. He finally received admittance in 1900. Halsey was not the strongest in academics as he finished forty-second in a class of sixty-two, but he was athletic and participated in many clubs.(1) During that time in history, the Navy was in need of officers as it was expanding, so the class of 1904 graduated on February 2 instead of in June.(2) Upon graduation he went to serve his mandatory two years of service aboard his first ship the battleship USS Missouri. He was commissioned as an officer on February 2, 1906. (3) In 1907, Halsey was aboard the battleship USS Kansas as the “Great White Fleet” of Theodore Roosevelt set out of Hampton Roads on its expedition across the world. During World War I, Halsey commanded the destroyer USS Benham and earned a Navy Cross for his anti-submarine patrol actions. In 1922 he became ...
	In 1942, Joe enlisted in the Marine Corps even though he was exempt for the draft due to his public position. In his first two years as a lieutenant, he went on many flying missions, broke his leg on a ship during a party and gained a lot of attention from the press along the way. Although later he claimed that his injured leg was caused by ten pounds of sharpnel that he was carrying at the time. There is also a dispute about exactly how many flying mis...
Born in Virginia, to mother Martha Puller and father Matthew Puller, he grew to become a well recognized marine globally (Russell & Cohn, 2012). His father’s dead while he was 10 years did not stop him to achieve a high point career; in fact, his childhood lifestyle of listening to war stories...
February 1943, Murphy left for very extensive in North Africa. After he was done with his training, Murphy division was moved to invade Sicily, Italy. With everything the he was doing Murphy superior officers were very proud of him so they promoted him to Corporal. During one of his battle he ended up getting malaria, but through it all he still proved himself during battle. When Murphy was sent to France for “Operation Dragon”, one of his good friends Tipton was killed by the Germans. Murphy was so outraged that he went and killed a lot of the Germans and then took ...
After graduating, he served in the Blackhawk War. He was assigned to be the post of second-lieutenant of the first infantry. He fought and led the men from 1828-1833. In the Blackhawk war of 1831, they captured Chief Blackhawk and won him over with kindness toward him. In March 1833, he was promoted to be the first lieutenant and continued serving on the battlefield, fighting against Indian tribes. He was under the leadership of Commanding Officer Zachary Taylor, the future president of the United States of America.
A news report found out that many High Schools use old football helmets for their football teams - some as old as 10 years. Each helmet has an 10 year old warranty and should get reconditioned & recertified every year. It doesn’t mean that a 10 year old helmet isn’t up to code. It just means you can’t use it because you can’t get it recertified. Helmets that were recertified have lables inside them showing the last recertification date.
In the early morning of 19 February 1945, United States Marines assigned to the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Division led the initial assault on the Japanese controlled island of Iwo Jima, with the objective of capturing and securing the island. This was the beginning of one of the fiercest and bloodiest; and more decisively, the most strategically important battles fought during World War II. After the dust had settled, and the smoke had cleared, the causalities and losses were astounding. 6,821 U.S. Marines along with 18,844 members of the Imperial Japanese Army had paid the ultimate sacrifice. A decisive US victory on the island of Iwo Jima later played a pivotal role in the overarching defeat of the Japanese Empire and its Armed Forces (Morison, 1945).
Lieutenant General Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller, through dedication to his mission and the welfare of his marines, was a visionary leader even by today’s standards. In his youth, Chesty attempted to join World War I before he had reached the required age. He attended Virginia Military Institute, but dropped out after one year to satisfy his urge to experience combat. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps as a private and remained enlisted for only a year before his commissioning as a lieutenant. Unfortunately, the war ended before he was able to experience combat. When a force reduction ensued after the end of the war, Lt Puller was sent to the reserves and given the ...