The Writer's Connection, SM
a publication of The Virtual Writing Coach SM


"The Creative Process of Writing is a Liberating and Therapeutic Experience"

www.virtualwritingcoach.com

June, 2010

In This Issue:

1. Preview
2. Publisher's Note
3. E.B. Sledge's Peleliu and Okinawa Sojourn
4. Helpful Hints

1. Preview

The Writer's Connection explores the creative process of writing and the interplay between thoughts, feelings, and actions. We are an interactive community of authors and readers who share ideas to enhance our knowledge, skills, and experiences in writing fiction in any genre, but our emphasis remains mystery and suspense thrillers.

Published monthly, the Newsletter offers writing tips for authors, coaching suggestions, editing, and marketing information.

Topics are presented from the perspective of Keith Barton and represent only his ideas on producing your first manuscript, and are provided to the general public. Because we are an interactive community of writers, other viewpoints are welcomed and may be printed in future monthly newsletters with permission from Keith Barton.

2. Publisher's Note

June, 2010

Dear Writer's Connection Subscriber,

This month features E.B. Sledge's book, With the Old Breed first published in 1981 and considered the best book on WW II fighting in the Pacific theatre.

3. With The Old Breed

What Saving Private Ryan was to the European Theatre in WW II, With The Old Breed by E.B. Sledge was to the Pacific theatre. Tom Hanks’ recent HBO series on The Pacific was based on Sledge’s 1981 book. Sledge, who died in 2001, wrote his firsthand account of his foxhole experiences in the two fiercest battles in the Pacific in 1944 - 45—Peleliu and Okinawa. Of the 95 men who first went ashore in Peleliu on D Day 15 Sep 1944, only 26 remained when the war ended after the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 8/6 and 8/9/45.

Sledge was a 60mm mortar infantry man who functioned as a two - man team with his partner who fired the mortar after sightings by Sledge. Sledge was an undecorated Pfc marine whose 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Division (K/3/5) officers were: Capts. Bishop, Neville, McAuliffe, Crown, and Haldane.

Many in the K/3/5 had served earlier in Guadalcanal and Okinawa was their third campaign. Sledge’s “slow - mo” account of the horrific stench of dead soldiers, maggots, and mud will sicken even the bravest of readers. This is no Hollywood story but a foot soldier’s journey into hell.

Peleliu’s Orange Beach 3 on D Day 15 Sep 44 was the Pacific’s Normandy invasion on an island just six miles long and two miles wide with one airstrip 360 miles southeast of Okinawa. General McArthur refused to listen to his staff who saw little strategic value of securing this tiny island which cost the lives of 5,000 marines and 60,000 Japanese. Peleliu was a series of ridges with enemy four - foot high pill boxes and intricate caves similar to those found in Vietnam years later. Japanese fired from four firing ports with two top vents for air and sand bunkers at each end. Caves extended beneath the pill boxes. Mortars were ineffective against the 75mm machine guns. The K/3/5 infantry had to crawl close enough to drop grenades through the vents and spray the pillboxes with flame throwers to torch and suffocate the Japanese soldiers.

The mayhem and atrocities on both sides are graphically depicted by Sledge from cutting off body parts and inserting them into orifices to extracting gold teeth. Sledge’s unit was ordered to “dig in” during a rainstorm on Okinawa only to find his shovel slicing through a dead enemy soldier’s chest oozing with maggots and flies. Stench and vomit were common in foxholes.

Naval support was minimal with only the USS Idaho’s 150 inch guns providing cover. USMC Corsairs were limited because the US Naval Fleet was 260 miles NE of Peleliu on the western edge of the Caroline Islands. Contrary to the belief that the USMC never left their dead, scores of young 19 and 20 - year olds were left buried in the muddy foxholes because the shelling was so horrific that many marines died in holes that caved in on top of them due to the rains in Okinawa.

Capt. Andy Haldane’s death by a sniper’s bullet was especially demoralizing to the K/3/5 because he was a soldier’s soldier, always respectful of his enlisted men and putting their needs above his own. 1st Lt. Thomas (Stumpy) Stanley succeeded Haldane as CO of K/3/5 only to lose his life to malaria on Okinawa. After Stumpy’s death all five original officers of fK/3/5 were gone and Company K was never the same because all five officers arrived together with their 325 men on 15 Sep 44 on Peleliu.

It’s no surprise that E.B. Sledge’s book has been in print since its debut in 1981. As many of our WW II survivors are dying stateside in great numbers (now in their 80s), the lessons learned from Peleliu and Okinawa are that “war is brutish, inglorious, and a terrible waste. . . the only redeeming factor were my comrades’ incredible bravery and devotion to each other.” (p 315).

Sledge left the war after the China campaign in 1946 and later taught biology at a college in Alabama until his death in 2001. The USMC taught him loyalty and love to fellow brothers in combat—an esprit de corps that lives this day in the tribal villages of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and future ground campaigns over pieces of dirt since time immortal.

Helpful Hints:

1. Compare the ground campaign in Vietnam to that in WW II; why were entire units of soldiers trained and shipped overseas in WW II and what were the advantages?

2. As horrific as Peleliu and Okinawa were, the Battle of the Bulge on the European front was just as brutal. Argue why this was the case in the valleys of the Ardenne region of Belgium.

3. Today’s highly trained special forces units are much smaller and more sophisticated in their telemetry and weaponry. But war still comes down to intelligence and four - man sniper units who have a corpsman as part of their team. For the interested reader, look at Marcus Luttrell's book, Lone Survivor.


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About Keith Barton, Ph.D.

Dr. Barton received his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University of Texas at Austin and has been a practicing therapist for over thirty years. He is currently enrolled in MentorCoach and is accepting new clients. He has been an adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina, consultant to Fortune 500 companies in executive development, founded and managed Texas Community Living Ventures, Inc., in 1986 for providing group home services to persons with mental retardation, and for the past 13 years founded and runs a clinical practice in Northwest Houston. He writes part - time with the goal of completing one novel a year. His desire to coach others derives from his passionate interest in helping others become attuned to their creative powers of storytelling.

Dr. Barton has training in coaching, cognitive and family therapy and health psychology. He has published articles, made presentations and conducted workshops about:

Anxiety and achievement
Stress management
Self - esteem
Communication skills
Marital/relationship enrichment
Wellness issues
The relationship between psychology and spirituality

Copyright by Virtual Writing Coach (SM) and Keith Barton, 2001 - 2008.