Inside With the Old Breed — A Conversation With Eugene Sledge’s Son

With the Old Breed is widely considered one of the greatest war memoirs ever written. Penned by Eugene Sledge, a Marine who fought with the 1st Division — the old breed — in the Pacific campaigns of Peleliu and Okinawa, the book is unflinching, deeply human, and so vividly written that you can practically feel the heat, mud, exhaustion, and terror coming off the page.But Sledge wasn't a professional writer. He was a biology professor who started jotting notes on scraps of paper tucked inside the New Testament he carried in his breast pocket. He wrote the book decades later, partly to process his own trauma, partly to leave a record for his sons.One of those sons is my guest today. Henry Sledge has spent years carrying his father's legacy forward, and he's written his own book — The Old Breed: The Complete Story Revealed — that pairs his father's combat experience with previously unpublished material and his own perspective as Eugene's son. Today on the show, Henry and I talk about why his dad wrote With the Old Breed, what made fighting in the Pacific uniquely hellish, and how Eugene managed to come home and live a full, honorable life despite carrying the war with him for the rest of his days.Resources Related to the PodcastChina Marine: An Infantryman's Life After World War II by E.B. SledgeHBO series The PacificKen Burns' The WarAoM Article: Eugene B. Sledge Puts Your Problems Into PerspectiveAoM Article: Are You Missing the Forbidden City?Connect With Henry SledgeHenry on IGHenry on FBThanks to This Week's Sponsor!Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code MANLINESS at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/MANLINESS0:00 - Introduction0:41 - About With the Old Breed: Eugene Sledge's War Memoir1:15 - Why Eugene Wrote the Book3:07 - How He Kept Notes in Combat4:20 - Writing & Publishing the Book6:03 - Eugene's Writing Style9:44 - Why Eugene Enlisted as a Private16:03 - Boot Camp Training21:35 - Why Peleliu Is the "Forgotten Battle"27:49 - What Made Fighting on Peleliu Hell31:40 - The Japanese as an Enemy43:10 - Life After the War: Coming Home50:00 - Lessons from With the Old Breed See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.