Lawrence Kirby

Stories from the Pacific: the Island War 1942-1945 Lawrence Kirby

Inthese personal memoirs Lawrence F. Kirby takes the reader with him as he makesthe transformation from an 18-year-old high school graduate to an infantryscout carrying a submachine gun in the jungles of the Pacific islands. Onlythose who have served in combat can understand what the ordinary infantryMarine had to endure during World War II.¿The author, a three-campaign veteran, describes it by telling of thehuman experience - the personal, individual effect of jungle warfare. This isnot a story of tactics and strategy; it is a series of short stories, anaccount from one Marine's small corner of the world that depicts the terror andthe tedium, the irreverent and the bittersweet of life during wartime. Thereis great humor in many of these stories but the common bedrock of fear andbrotherhood are the main themes. There are stories about training and MarineCorps discipline, the boredom and boyish pranks between battles and the terrorand horror of deep combat. Agifted writer and storyteller, Kirby supplies convincing evidence that it wasnot so much a sense of duty or loyalty to country that kept men going as it wastheir genuine love for one another, and their mutual support and inspiration.