Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific, A Marine Tells His Story

Helmet for My Pillow, first published in 1957, is Robert Leckie's masterful account of his service in the First Marine Division from basic training on Parris Island, South Carolina, to the hard-fought battles on Guadalcanal, New Britain, and Peleliu, with a brief respite in Australia. Leckie describes the fighting from a first-hand perspective, and interlaces his story with his thoughts about war and fighting. Helmet for My Pillow remains one of the classic accounts of the war in the Pacific and was the basis for the HBO mini-series The Pacific.