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Saturday, June 07, 2014

Helmet Pillow

“
 Helmet for My Pillow is the personal narrative written by World War II United States Marine Corps veteran, author and military historian Robert Leckie. First published in 1957, the story begins with Leckie enlisting in the United States Marines shortly after the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor.

The 2010 HBO mini-series The Pacific was adapted in large part from Helmet for My Pillow, along with Eugene Sledge's With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa and the personal story of Medal of Honor recipient Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone.



Another downloaded (audio) library book.  I'd never heard of the author, nor the HBO series that portrayed some of the book, but I do recommend it to men. Unlike One Man's War, which I thought had some womanly appeal, Pillow is manly-man all the way.  I had a bit of a problem with the reader, whom I found too slow.  Fortunately I was able to play it at a 25% faster speed, and that was that. 

You can read pages at Amazon, or listen to selected audio.  Here is 6-7 minutes that I recorded, having to do with his stay at a Navy hospital.  I think this book might be better read than listened to (but I found it good walking entertainment). 


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6 comments:

  1. Anonymous6/7/14, 9:28 PM

    Read Robert Lecky's other book. He was great. I read Helmet for my Pillow at age 12...
    RAK

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6/7/14, 11:51 PM

    Both this and Sledge's book are great reads.
    wildbill

    ReplyDelete
  3. Leonard Jones6/8/14, 11:58 AM

    A fantastic book, as is With The Old Breed. I have them
    and many more on the Pacific theater alone. Just been
    inspired to pull out The Pacific and watch it again.

    Imagine sliding down a muddy hill in the rain and crashing
    into a bloated corpse, which bursts and spills maggots all
    over you. Something to think about when you think you are
    having a bad day!

    It is hard to imagine the Hell these men went through.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous6/8/14, 10:39 PM

    Jeez Rodger, Leckie is a famous Marine, and a famous historian. He's written many other works.

    Casca

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous6/8/14, 11:53 PM

    It's amazing the shit you remember, I read this book several times in fourth grade from the monthly reader club we got in class. Remember that America? My Mom let me get two books a month and I almost failed because I read God Is My Copilot by Robert Lee Scott four times inside my text book. Any hoo, Len, I hoped that "The Pacific" had the balls to include this scene from the Tenauru river. As the japs body exploded he thought to himself "damn, this guy really ate a lot of rice before he died. Oh, its moving, thats not rice. Helmet is one of the top five of all time. -Anymouse

    Semper Fi

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rodger the Real King of France6/9/14, 7:19 AM

    Casca - what can I say? As a kid I was reading Ernie Pyle's Brave Men every night, opened at random pages. I have a p*Phd in history, and still this was all new to me. Don't look at me; I'm hideous.

    ReplyDelete

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