About This Episode
<p><a href="https://amzn.to/3PHFNlu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>With the Old Breed</em> </a>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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 — <a href="https://amzn.to/4wyUHes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>The Old Breed: The Complete Story Revealed</em></a> — that pairs his father's combat experience with previously unpublished material and his own perspective as Eugene's son.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 <em>With the Old Breed</em>, 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.</p><p><br /></p><p>Resources Related to the Podcast</p><ul><li><a href="https://amzn.to/4uG3rxq" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>China Marine: An Infantryman's Life After World War II </em>by E.B. Sledge</a></li><li><a href="https://www.hbomax.com/shows/pacific/b930854b-fb6b-43fe-b38b-251b2d290fd0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">HBO series <em>The Pacific</em></a></li><li><a href="https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-war/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ken Burns' <em>The War</em></a></li><li><a href="https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/manly-lessons/on-the-70th-anniversary-of-vj-day-eugene-b-sledge-puts-your-first-world-problems-into-perspective/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AoM Article: Eugene B. Sledge Puts Your Problems Into Perspective</a></li><li><a href="https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/advice/are-you-missing-the-forbidden-city/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AoM Article: Are You Missing the Forbidden City?</a></li></ul><p><strong>Connect With Henry Sledge</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/hsledgehammer/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Henry on IG</a></li><li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/william.h.sledge/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Henry on FB</a></li></ul><p><br /></p><p><strong>Thanks to This Week's Sponsor!</strong></p><p><strong>Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code MANLINESS at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: </strong><a href="https://incogni.com/MANLINESS" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>https://incogni.com/MANLINESS</strong></a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info</a>.</p>