“A soldier’s pack is like a woman’s purse: it is filled with his personality. I have saddened to see the mementos in the packs of dead Japanese. They had strong family ties, these smooth-faced men, and their packs were full of their families.” - Robert Leckie, Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific
Do you realize the shit that we’ve done here, the people we’ve killed? Back in the civilian world, dawg, if we did this, we would go to prison. [Episode 6, Stay Frosty]
There are things men can do to one another that are sobering to the soul. It is one thing to reconcile these things with God, but another to square it with yourself.
“I am the harvest of man’s stupidity. I am the fruit of the holocaust. I prayed like you to survive, but look at me now. It is over for us who are dead, but you must struggle, and will carry the memories all your life. People back home will wonder why you can’t forget.”
― Eugene B. Sledge, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa