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Bringing Mulligan Home: The Other Side of the Good War
Sgt. Steve Maharidge, like many of his generation, hardly ever talked about the war. The only sign he'd served in it was a single black and white photograph of himself and another soldier tacked to the wall of his basement workshop. After Steve Maharidge's death, his son Dale, now an adult, began a twelve-year quest to understand his father's preoccupation with the photo. What had happened during the battle for Okinawa, and why had his father remained silent about his experiences and the man in the picture, Herman Mulligan? In his search for answers, Maharidge sought out the survivors of Love Company, many of whom had never before spoken so openly and emotionally about what they saw and experienced on Okinawa. In Bringing Mulligan Home, Maharidge delivers an affecting narrative of war and its aftermath, of fathers and sons, with lessons for the children whose parents are returning from war today.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published March 12, 2013
22 people are currently reading
1506 people want to read
About the author
Dale Maharidge
24 books120 followersI'm a professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. I've published ten books, including And Their Children After Them, which won the 1990 non-fiction Pulitzer Prize. The most recent is Bringing Mulligan Home/The Other Side of the Good War (PublicAffairs). Before that I released the paperback edition of Someplace Like America/ Tales from the New Great Depression(University of California Press), with a foreword by Bruce Springsteen.
My books are all thematically connected, I believe, rooted in my curiosity about America and who we are as a people. I've documented the economic crisis since the 1980s. For working people, there is no other way to describe it. If you want, check out the afterword I wrote for the paperback of Someplace Like America--I reported in Detroit for it and I found some very interesting things there that raises questions about where we are going as a country.
I spent the first 15 years of my career as a newspaperman, working in Cleveland and Sacramento. I also taught at Stanford University for 10 years, in the Department of Communication.
My books are all thematically connected, I believe, rooted in my curiosity about America and who we are as a people. I've documented the economic crisis since the 1980s. For working people, there is no other way to describe it. If you want, check out the afterword I wrote for the paperback of Someplace Like America--I reported in Detroit for it and I found some very interesting things there that raises questions about where we are going as a country.
I spent the first 15 years of my career as a newspaperman, working in Cleveland and Sacramento. I also taught at Stanford University for 10 years, in the Department of Communication.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
September 1, 2016
One might argue that this is among the finest books to treat of the combat experience. I think that it is up there with Paul Fussell. But I'd leave that to those who have seen combat to say. Only they can really judge.
It conveys the horror, and the disjointed experiences of those who are reduced to an essentially atomistic effort to survive in a hellish situation where dumb luck or inches can spell the difference between life and death. The fog of war comes through we'll. My own father was a year younger as I reckon it than Steve Maharidge (the authors father who was evidently haunted by something done or undone vid a vid Mulligan), grew up poor and enlisted although he did not see combat. I could relate to much of Dale's upbringing, right down to learning to use a compass and being taught to strip and reassemble, and shoot, a variety of firearms since it was assumed that war would come again and I could be thrown, ill-prepared into the breach. So I readily bought Maharidge's thesis, if you will, that combat experience and perhaps military experience generally can deeply affect and shape the next generation as the effects of war persist among the participants.
It was a gripping, if distressing read that I literally did not put down after I obtained it as an advance reader's copy.
Congratulations on a great work. Let us all hope it gives some of our leaders and voters pause, so that we all consider and appreciate the need to care well for returning veterans, lest the sins of the fathers be visited upon a new generation.
It conveys the horror, and the disjointed experiences of those who are reduced to an essentially atomistic effort to survive in a hellish situation where dumb luck or inches can spell the difference between life and death. The fog of war comes through we'll. My own father was a year younger as I reckon it than Steve Maharidge (the authors father who was evidently haunted by something done or undone vid a vid Mulligan), grew up poor and enlisted although he did not see combat. I could relate to much of Dale's upbringing, right down to learning to use a compass and being taught to strip and reassemble, and shoot, a variety of firearms since it was assumed that war would come again and I could be thrown, ill-prepared into the breach. So I readily bought Maharidge's thesis, if you will, that combat experience and perhaps military experience generally can deeply affect and shape the next generation as the effects of war persist among the participants.
It was a gripping, if distressing read that I literally did not put down after I obtained it as an advance reader's copy.
Congratulations on a great work. Let us all hope it gives some of our leaders and voters pause, so that we all consider and appreciate the need to care well for returning veterans, lest the sins of the fathers be visited upon a new generation.
October 23, 2019
I picked this book up at the library for my real-life book club, not sure if I was truly going to read it or not. The subject matter is certainly outside my normal areas of interest, since I’m not much interested in military history, despite the fact that I catalogued books for a Military Museum Library for a number of years. Actually maybe because I had that job!
I was pleasantly surprised by this combination biography/memoir/history. I’ve been experiencing insomnia lately and I started this book expecting it to put me to sleep. Imagine my surprise when I found myself much more interested and engaged than I expected! I think what won me over was the author’s exploration of his relationship with his father and his striving to understand his father’s life. Anyone who wishes they had asked their father more questions will identify with his quest, although not all of them will travel to Japan to pursue these questions.
I was also pleasantly surprised by his willingness to track down and record the remembrances of men who served in the US Marines alongside his father and to go to Okinawa, where they fought, to get the Japanese perspective on the story.
I have fond memories of my own trip to Okinawa in 2013, in pursuit of the Okinawa Rail, among other birds. I was charmed by the local people, the beautiful environment, and, of course, the bird life.
I was pleasantly surprised by this combination biography/memoir/history. I’ve been experiencing insomnia lately and I started this book expecting it to put me to sleep. Imagine my surprise when I found myself much more interested and engaged than I expected! I think what won me over was the author’s exploration of his relationship with his father and his striving to understand his father’s life. Anyone who wishes they had asked their father more questions will identify with his quest, although not all of them will travel to Japan to pursue these questions.
I was also pleasantly surprised by his willingness to track down and record the remembrances of men who served in the US Marines alongside his father and to go to Okinawa, where they fought, to get the Japanese perspective on the story.
I have fond memories of my own trip to Okinawa in 2013, in pursuit of the Okinawa Rail, among other birds. I was charmed by the local people, the beautiful environment, and, of course, the bird life.
February 2, 2013
This is one man's journey to honor his father's memory and that of his father's friend lost on a battlefield in the Pacific. At the same time the author is attempting to find the reasons for his father's periods of rage and his inability to communicate with his family, what he had witnessed on those war ravaged islands. If you know a veteran who has returned from war, any war, and refuses to talk about his experiences, you should read this book. If you have any illusions about war being good, or honorable, or just, you should read this book. If you think of the cost of war only in terms of dollars and cents or material items, you should read this book. If you think war ends when when a piece of paper is signed or the last bullets stop whizzing over the battlefield, you should read this book. The cost of war is not only measured by the casualties lying on the battlefield. It continues to be measured by countless veterans and their families who must deal with the trauma and destruction forced upon their lives by senseless and often unimaginable violence. Be prepared for some raw language and descriptions of war in it's stark and brutal reality. The descriptions of the violence, by men who stood toe to toe with the horror of it, is not a pretty thing. The necessity for these men to relieve themselves of the burdens they have carried from the battlefields is real and needed. This is a deeply moving book that cuts to the bone. Book provided for review by the well read folks at Library Thing and the publisher, Public Affairs.
December 10, 2012
This book should not be missed by anyone who knows anyone at war or who has been to war, who has parents of a certain age, who lived through the last half of the twentieth century, or who has ever even heard of WWII.
Besides being an affecting story of a veteran's family, it contains a mystery and follows some painstaking research and specific, yet just enough, detail on the war in the Pacific, often overlooked in WWII literature.
Unlike with many wartime memoirs, the author is a professional writer, apparently the kind with not only a gift for words and organizing a story, but capable of dogged research.
Author Dale Maharidge was haunted emotionally by the collateral damage of his father's experiences on Okinawa and by the physical presence of a photo which hung at his father's workbench throughout his childhood -- his whole life, really. Just when it was almost too late, when the men in his father's company were either dead, in dementia, or simply very old, he set out to find out what happened to Mulligan, the man--the boy--beside his father in the picture. In his interviews trying to solve long-buried events, the men who were there flesh out their stories with individual memories, but all present the waste and sorrow of "the good war" and all subsequent ones.
I cannot recommend it highly enough. I finished it in tears the day before Pearl Harbor day.
Besides being an affecting story of a veteran's family, it contains a mystery and follows some painstaking research and specific, yet just enough, detail on the war in the Pacific, often overlooked in WWII literature.
Unlike with many wartime memoirs, the author is a professional writer, apparently the kind with not only a gift for words and organizing a story, but capable of dogged research.
Author Dale Maharidge was haunted emotionally by the collateral damage of his father's experiences on Okinawa and by the physical presence of a photo which hung at his father's workbench throughout his childhood -- his whole life, really. Just when it was almost too late, when the men in his father's company were either dead, in dementia, or simply very old, he set out to find out what happened to Mulligan, the man--the boy--beside his father in the picture. In his interviews trying to solve long-buried events, the men who were there flesh out their stories with individual memories, but all present the waste and sorrow of "the good war" and all subsequent ones.
I cannot recommend it highly enough. I finished it in tears the day before Pearl Harbor day.
December 13, 2012
To be frank, I am a WW2 nut. I watch any tv program or movie concerning it. When I received this book in the mail for winning a Goodreads sweepstakes, I was thrilled. It's a collection of Love Company veterans memories of the battle of Sugar Loaf Hill, on Okinawa. The author researched it and wrote the book to better understand his father who had fought in the battle and had come home a changed man. I found the book thoroughly enjoyable and meticulously researched. And it pulls no punches with who did what to who and why. It's an eye opener in more ways than one and is heartily recommended.
November 12, 2018
Absolutely would not recommend to anyone because of hugely graphic content and bucketloads of bad language.
April 17, 2018
We've all seen references in books about WW2 of servicemen who were said to have had a "good war". The term seems to imply those soldiers - mostly officers - who spent their war years in either London or Washington, staying out of the line-of-fire and having a good time while doing so. Those are not the men who returned to their families carrying horrific images of friends being blown to pieces on beaches, the cold-blooded murder of civilians - including women and children - and bearing other traumas of war duty. These men, who suffered from what we later called "PTSD", were sent home with little or no psychological help. These are the men - and families - who Dale Maharidge looks at in his new book, "Bringing Mulligan Home: The Other Side of the Good War".
In examining these soldiers, Maharidge begins with his own father. Steve Maharidge, from an immigrant Russian family living in Cleveland, joined the Marines at 19 and after training at Parris Island, was sent to fight in the Pacific Theater. Specifically, on Guam, Guadalcanal, and, most importantly, Okinawa. He was one of the Marines sent in the invasion force on the Japanese island in the late Spring of 1945. Once on the island, as a part of "Love Company", Maharidge and his men were sent to move north on the long, skinny island, fighting Japanese soldiers for every mile. And along the battle lines were native Okinawans, civilians who were forced to leave their homes and hide in caves and hills, often being fatally displaced by Japanese soldiers. The plan was to use Okinawa as a "staging area" for the Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands, scheduled to begin on November 1, 1945.
Steve Maharidge was injured by a blast in a local tomb building. He was badly concussed - sustaining Traumatic Brain Injuries - and the effects were to change his life forever. Maharidge returned from his war-time duty a changed man. He married and had three children and spent most of his life beset by emotional rages, scaring his wife and family. He had not had these rages before he went away for training. It was the war-time "silent" wounds that affected his mind, forever.
Along with the wartime injuries, Steve Maharidge returned with war-time souvenirs, including pictures and documents seemingly taken off Japanese soldiers. And he brought home a picture of himself and a Marine buddy. His name was Herman Walter Mulligan and he was a young Marine from North Carolina. Mulligan was killed at about the same time Maharidge was injured and Steve Maharidge appeared to his son to feel accountable in some way for Mulligan's death. But since Steve Maharidge rarely talked about his war-time experiences, son Dale could only guess at his father's feelings about Mulligan. After Steve Maharidge died, Dale set out to investigate both his father's war and Herman Mulligan's death and burial on Okinawa.
Dale Maharidge spent ten or so years tracking down and interviewing the still-living members of "Love Company". He spoke - often repeatedly - to about 30 retired Marines, but chose to include only ten or so in the book. From these men - present on Okinawa - Maharidge was able to piece-together the details of the horrors these soldiers went through in Spring and Summer 1945, as they edged closer to the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands. After interviewing his father's fellow Marines, he traveled to Okinawa to see where his father had fought. Though the island is much different than it was in 1945, enough remained that Dale was able to piece together bits of his father's service. He visited the place his father was concussed. He also found Okinawan civilians who had lived in the area. With both the American Marines and the Okinawan civilians, he asked how they felt now - 65 years later - about the war and the "other side". The answers were often surprising and always moving. Dale Maharidge also writes briefly about the wisdom of the American Naval war planners in the PTO. He comes to some interesting conclusions about Douglas MacArthur and Chester Nimitz and their prosecution of the Pacific war.
Dale Maharidge has not written a conventional memoir about his father. Instead, it is a look at all those soldiers who, like his father, were damaged by their wartime service. And the families who were wounded along with them. An excellent book. (Oh, and he has used the term "Good War" in a different way than I did, but both are applicable to the story.)
In examining these soldiers, Maharidge begins with his own father. Steve Maharidge, from an immigrant Russian family living in Cleveland, joined the Marines at 19 and after training at Parris Island, was sent to fight in the Pacific Theater. Specifically, on Guam, Guadalcanal, and, most importantly, Okinawa. He was one of the Marines sent in the invasion force on the Japanese island in the late Spring of 1945. Once on the island, as a part of "Love Company", Maharidge and his men were sent to move north on the long, skinny island, fighting Japanese soldiers for every mile. And along the battle lines were native Okinawans, civilians who were forced to leave their homes and hide in caves and hills, often being fatally displaced by Japanese soldiers. The plan was to use Okinawa as a "staging area" for the Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands, scheduled to begin on November 1, 1945.
Steve Maharidge was injured by a blast in a local tomb building. He was badly concussed - sustaining Traumatic Brain Injuries - and the effects were to change his life forever. Maharidge returned from his war-time duty a changed man. He married and had three children and spent most of his life beset by emotional rages, scaring his wife and family. He had not had these rages before he went away for training. It was the war-time "silent" wounds that affected his mind, forever.
Along with the wartime injuries, Steve Maharidge returned with war-time souvenirs, including pictures and documents seemingly taken off Japanese soldiers. And he brought home a picture of himself and a Marine buddy. His name was Herman Walter Mulligan and he was a young Marine from North Carolina. Mulligan was killed at about the same time Maharidge was injured and Steve Maharidge appeared to his son to feel accountable in some way for Mulligan's death. But since Steve Maharidge rarely talked about his war-time experiences, son Dale could only guess at his father's feelings about Mulligan. After Steve Maharidge died, Dale set out to investigate both his father's war and Herman Mulligan's death and burial on Okinawa.
Dale Maharidge spent ten or so years tracking down and interviewing the still-living members of "Love Company". He spoke - often repeatedly - to about 30 retired Marines, but chose to include only ten or so in the book. From these men - present on Okinawa - Maharidge was able to piece-together the details of the horrors these soldiers went through in Spring and Summer 1945, as they edged closer to the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands. After interviewing his father's fellow Marines, he traveled to Okinawa to see where his father had fought. Though the island is much different than it was in 1945, enough remained that Dale was able to piece together bits of his father's service. He visited the place his father was concussed. He also found Okinawan civilians who had lived in the area. With both the American Marines and the Okinawan civilians, he asked how they felt now - 65 years later - about the war and the "other side". The answers were often surprising and always moving. Dale Maharidge also writes briefly about the wisdom of the American Naval war planners in the PTO. He comes to some interesting conclusions about Douglas MacArthur and Chester Nimitz and their prosecution of the Pacific war.
Dale Maharidge has not written a conventional memoir about his father. Instead, it is a look at all those soldiers who, like his father, were damaged by their wartime service. And the families who were wounded along with them. An excellent book. (Oh, and he has used the term "Good War" in a different way than I did, but both are applicable to the story.)
October 31, 2015
This book rang a major chord with me. I think it would be for any person of the Boomer generation who had a father or mother that was in combat during WWII. This man's father came home with a brain injury from massive concussion and major PTSD which was not really recognized in those day. My father came home from the war also with PTSD. The childhood this man describes mirrors my own and probable tens of thousands of other Boomer kids. The drinking, the sudden rages, the nightmares, survivor guilt, the inability to describe or discuss their experiences until they were very close to the end of their lives. It is all there to be seen by those of us who experienced it. I would be very interested to read a study of how their fathers' and mothers' wartime experience particularly those that were in the midst of the battles effected the lives of their children and how they lived their lives. Of particular note is how
all of the survivors he managed to interview all deplored the war going on right now in the middle east and wondered how the men and women who are fighting there would come home emotionally and possible physically damaged. So tragic and unnecessary.
all of the survivors he managed to interview all deplored the war going on right now in the middle east and wondered how the men and women who are fighting there would come home emotionally and possible physically damaged. So tragic and unnecessary.
January 1, 2013
A great read! This book thoughtfully and realistically portrays the human component of the post world war two world. The narratives from Love Company's members are a definite highlight and not to be missed when trying to understand war from a first hand perspective.
Overall, I think this book would be enjoyed by anyone with interests in biography, history, psychology, human consequences of war, family stories, etc.
Well worth the read!
Overall, I think this book would be enjoyed by anyone with interests in biography, history, psychology, human consequences of war, family stories, etc.
Well worth the read!
June 2, 2013
What a book! Easy to read, very well written, which is sometimes unusual for a person in the educational arena.
Thank you for a wonderful heart-rending book.
Couldn't put it down.
I highly recommend it!
Thank you for a wonderful heart-rending book.
Couldn't put it down.
I highly recommend it!
March 19, 2013
In a word: outstanding. It’s sad that this is probably one of the last books of its kind; as more and more of the WWII generation passes each day, more stories like this are lost to history forever. In fact, many of the veterans that Maharidge interviewed for this memoir have already passed away.
Unlike so many memoirs written by the sons and daughters of WWII veterans (notably OUR FATHER’S WAR by Tom Mathews, MY FATHER’S WAR: A SON’S JOURNEY by Peter Richmond, and THE SOUVENIR: A DAUGHTER DISCOVERS HER FATHER’S WAR by Louise Steinman), Maharidge does not explain his father’s experiences through how they impacted him. Maybe because Maharidge was born in 1956, he was too young to become as self absorbed as so many of the baby boomers born in the immediate aftermath of the war. As a result, there’s no “poor me, the war made my daddy too tough on me.” Instead, Maharidge relates his father’s struggle with PTSD without judgment. It’s very refreshing.
Still, this is a deeply personal story. The incredible core of the book is the in-depth interviews with 12 Marines who fought with Maharidge’s father on Guam and Okinawa. Again, Maharidge lets these men tell their stories without imposing his own personal narrative on the events. His painstakingly slow process of locating these Marines is a story in and of itself – the interviews and research in the book took 12 years. Nearly every possible WWII combat experience in combat and post war experience is represented here, and it’s amazing that there’s such a cross section of experiences within the one unit that Marahridge was researching. Wounded, unscratched, Rich, poor, Well adjusted, and irrevocably scarred by their wartime experiences … they’re all here. These stories alone make this book a treasure.
Some elements of the book rubbed me the wrong way. I disliked Maharidge’s continually implying that there was some element of moral equivalence between the Japan and the US in the war. At one point he says that the conflict as, and I’m paraphrasing, “boiled down to a fight between one imperial power that murdered civilians and didn’t belong there and another imperial power that murdered civilians and didn’t belong there.” Sorry, Dale … that’s a gross over simplification. Imperial Japan was a brutal and tyrannical aggressor state. The US may have had imperial ambitions, but it’s a little absurd to conclude that the US Army’s two-year campaign against the Moro guerillas in the Philippines was the same as Japan’s 10+ year genocidal rape-fest in China and the Pacific.
I was also a little confused by the book’s subtitle: “The Other Side of the Good War.” Did Maharidge believe that the veterans’ stories related in his book were some how painted a new, and never-before-seen dark side of the American combat soldier? Yes, there are incidents of rape, prisoner executions, and the collecting of gold teeth and ears – but most of these have been well documented in many veterans memoirs that have long been in print (WITH THE OLD BREED by EB Sledge comes to mind). While Maharidge clearly researched the Pacific War, it made me wonder if he was making the same mistake made in so many other memoirs by WWII veterans’ sons and daughters: treating facts that they have just discovered as newly discovered facts. One “other side” that Maharidge does admirably explore is the impact of PTSD on WWII veterans – for years, PTSD has been absurdly considered the unique domain of veterans of Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan.
I would also argue with some of Maharidge’s military conclusions. While he says that many of his conclusions “aren’t 20/20 hindsight,” they certainly seem to be just that. He lambasts the US Navy and Army Air Force for killing too many civilians with “indiscriminate” bombing, which seems a bit ridiculous given the nature of combat in World War II. He contends that the Japanese really wanted to surrender, but only fought so hard toward the end of the war because the US had stopped taking prisoners – this is an extreme stretch and re-jiggering of the facts to fit his “all sides were equally bad” narrative. And finally, his anti-Nimitz rant toward the end of the book. Maharidge states he has a “personal issue” with Nimitz and the Navy’s “frontal assault” ideology, arguing that many of the brutal late war island campaigns such as Iwo Jima and Okinawa “did not need to happen.” Instead, he lauds MacArthur for bypassing islands full of Japanese, leaving them isolated and starved out. This is all well and good, but Maharidge declines to point out that most historians would argue that one of MacArthur’s biggest “triumphs” – the retaking of the Philippines – was also a battle that need not have been fought. MacArthur lobbied furiously to re-take the Philippines only to satisfy his own vainglory and his promise to “return.” Meanwhile, both Iwo Jima and Okinawa were necessary steps on the ladder toward the Japanese home islands. They were taken to serve as air fields and staging areas for the final assault on Japan.
While I would love to argue with Maharidge over these points, there’s one point that’s inarguable: Dale Maharidge has written a moving and important book about the American combat experience in the Pacific War. And anyone with a love for history owes him a debt of gratitude for capturing these stories before they disappeared forever.
Unlike so many memoirs written by the sons and daughters of WWII veterans (notably OUR FATHER’S WAR by Tom Mathews, MY FATHER’S WAR: A SON’S JOURNEY by Peter Richmond, and THE SOUVENIR: A DAUGHTER DISCOVERS HER FATHER’S WAR by Louise Steinman), Maharidge does not explain his father’s experiences through how they impacted him. Maybe because Maharidge was born in 1956, he was too young to become as self absorbed as so many of the baby boomers born in the immediate aftermath of the war. As a result, there’s no “poor me, the war made my daddy too tough on me.” Instead, Maharidge relates his father’s struggle with PTSD without judgment. It’s very refreshing.
Still, this is a deeply personal story. The incredible core of the book is the in-depth interviews with 12 Marines who fought with Maharidge’s father on Guam and Okinawa. Again, Maharidge lets these men tell their stories without imposing his own personal narrative on the events. His painstakingly slow process of locating these Marines is a story in and of itself – the interviews and research in the book took 12 years. Nearly every possible WWII combat experience in combat and post war experience is represented here, and it’s amazing that there’s such a cross section of experiences within the one unit that Marahridge was researching. Wounded, unscratched, Rich, poor, Well adjusted, and irrevocably scarred by their wartime experiences … they’re all here. These stories alone make this book a treasure.
Some elements of the book rubbed me the wrong way. I disliked Maharidge’s continually implying that there was some element of moral equivalence between the Japan and the US in the war. At one point he says that the conflict as, and I’m paraphrasing, “boiled down to a fight between one imperial power that murdered civilians and didn’t belong there and another imperial power that murdered civilians and didn’t belong there.” Sorry, Dale … that’s a gross over simplification. Imperial Japan was a brutal and tyrannical aggressor state. The US may have had imperial ambitions, but it’s a little absurd to conclude that the US Army’s two-year campaign against the Moro guerillas in the Philippines was the same as Japan’s 10+ year genocidal rape-fest in China and the Pacific.
I was also a little confused by the book’s subtitle: “The Other Side of the Good War.” Did Maharidge believe that the veterans’ stories related in his book were some how painted a new, and never-before-seen dark side of the American combat soldier? Yes, there are incidents of rape, prisoner executions, and the collecting of gold teeth and ears – but most of these have been well documented in many veterans memoirs that have long been in print (WITH THE OLD BREED by EB Sledge comes to mind). While Maharidge clearly researched the Pacific War, it made me wonder if he was making the same mistake made in so many other memoirs by WWII veterans’ sons and daughters: treating facts that they have just discovered as newly discovered facts. One “other side” that Maharidge does admirably explore is the impact of PTSD on WWII veterans – for years, PTSD has been absurdly considered the unique domain of veterans of Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan.
I would also argue with some of Maharidge’s military conclusions. While he says that many of his conclusions “aren’t 20/20 hindsight,” they certainly seem to be just that. He lambasts the US Navy and Army Air Force for killing too many civilians with “indiscriminate” bombing, which seems a bit ridiculous given the nature of combat in World War II. He contends that the Japanese really wanted to surrender, but only fought so hard toward the end of the war because the US had stopped taking prisoners – this is an extreme stretch and re-jiggering of the facts to fit his “all sides were equally bad” narrative. And finally, his anti-Nimitz rant toward the end of the book. Maharidge states he has a “personal issue” with Nimitz and the Navy’s “frontal assault” ideology, arguing that many of the brutal late war island campaigns such as Iwo Jima and Okinawa “did not need to happen.” Instead, he lauds MacArthur for bypassing islands full of Japanese, leaving them isolated and starved out. This is all well and good, but Maharidge declines to point out that most historians would argue that one of MacArthur’s biggest “triumphs” – the retaking of the Philippines – was also a battle that need not have been fought. MacArthur lobbied furiously to re-take the Philippines only to satisfy his own vainglory and his promise to “return.” Meanwhile, both Iwo Jima and Okinawa were necessary steps on the ladder toward the Japanese home islands. They were taken to serve as air fields and staging areas for the final assault on Japan.
While I would love to argue with Maharidge over these points, there’s one point that’s inarguable: Dale Maharidge has written a moving and important book about the American combat experience in the Pacific War. And anyone with a love for history owes him a debt of gratitude for capturing these stories before they disappeared forever.
December 30, 2012
I won this book as a Goodreads Firstread.
This book has several threads in it. First, it is about a man's search for an understanding of his father and the war that consumed him. Second, it is about the stories of twelve marines who were in the same company as the author's father. Finally, it is about finding out what happened to a member of the company who was killed in Okinawa, including the circumstances around his death and the final disposition of the body.
Let me start by saying that I liked the different parts of the book on their own. I appreciated the author's search for an understanding of his father, what happened to him during the war, and how his experiences shaped him as a man and the family dynamic in which the author grew up. I also enjoyed the stories by the twelve members of Love Company and their experiences on Okinawa, particularly during the Battle of Sugar Loaf Hill. I also appreciated the author's quest to find out what happened to Herman Mulligan, who was killed on Okinawa.
With that said, I don't think the book combined these parts as well as it could have. I felt that the separation into distinctive parts gave the book a disjointed feel that the conclusion never fully brought together. Further, I feel that more context regarding the battle would have helped augment the stories of the twelve marines. While the author obviously had a thorough understanding of the battle, that understanding was not conveyed to the reader. I did not expect a full discussion of the battle, but I was hoping for more discussion and analysis as the operational and strategic levels, not just the tactical levels. Also, the inclusion of more maps of the battle itself and the geography of Okinawa would help to better orient the reader with regards to the marines' stories.
In conclusion, I liked the individual parts, but felt the sum of those parts fell short. I recommend this book as an anecdote to the history of the Pacific Theater in WWII, but would encourage potential readers to read other Pacific Theater histories to get a firm grasp of the Pacific at the strategic and operational levels.
This book has several threads in it. First, it is about a man's search for an understanding of his father and the war that consumed him. Second, it is about the stories of twelve marines who were in the same company as the author's father. Finally, it is about finding out what happened to a member of the company who was killed in Okinawa, including the circumstances around his death and the final disposition of the body.
Let me start by saying that I liked the different parts of the book on their own. I appreciated the author's search for an understanding of his father, what happened to him during the war, and how his experiences shaped him as a man and the family dynamic in which the author grew up. I also enjoyed the stories by the twelve members of Love Company and their experiences on Okinawa, particularly during the Battle of Sugar Loaf Hill. I also appreciated the author's quest to find out what happened to Herman Mulligan, who was killed on Okinawa.
With that said, I don't think the book combined these parts as well as it could have. I felt that the separation into distinctive parts gave the book a disjointed feel that the conclusion never fully brought together. Further, I feel that more context regarding the battle would have helped augment the stories of the twelve marines. While the author obviously had a thorough understanding of the battle, that understanding was not conveyed to the reader. I did not expect a full discussion of the battle, but I was hoping for more discussion and analysis as the operational and strategic levels, not just the tactical levels. Also, the inclusion of more maps of the battle itself and the geography of Okinawa would help to better orient the reader with regards to the marines' stories.
In conclusion, I liked the individual parts, but felt the sum of those parts fell short. I recommend this book as an anecdote to the history of the Pacific Theater in WWII, but would encourage potential readers to read other Pacific Theater histories to get a firm grasp of the Pacific at the strategic and operational levels.
July 14, 2015
To be honest, not really up to date with tech and in discovering a wealth of podcasts I came across an interview with the author about this new book. I have read countless books on everything from World War I, the interwar years with a focus on European fascism and japanese militarism leading up to and including the history of WWII from the perspectives of both sides. I mention the previous because I was instantly pulled into the story of Dale's family. For an author who is not known as a historian, the book has a flow that allows readers of all knowledge to follow the experiences relayed by veterans in context with research and maps that Dale performed. Whatever the date I wrote as started and ended, it doesn't matter - because I found a copy and read it cover to cover in five hours. I could not put it down. The book is an honest testimony not only of the marines who sacrificed so much during the pacific theatre against fierce japanese resistance, but of the price continuously paid by their families in dealing with a war that never really ended for the men who survived. The authors personal journey however, is a warm story of healing himself and his memories now that he can understand the trauma shared by the others who I think participation helped to heal: the survivors and their families. A long review but only because it was moving and truthful about the enduring price of freedom. Read it
April 5, 2013
If you want to read an honest account of what life is like for a soldier returning from combat, this is it. Dale Maharidge dug deep into his father's WWII experiences in the Pacific and discovered why his father was always on edge. His interviews and discussions with his father's squad mates are not just honest but gut wrenchingly emotional. They, as so many veterans, have kept quiet about their war experiences and are very suspicious at first at what the author is trying to "find out" and then come to realize the therapeutic value of finally unloading the burden of long held secrets. Some of these secrets are just the unpleasant realities of what combat soldiers were expected to do, kill before being killed. Some secrets are more sinister - the strange need to collect war souvenirs, (gold teeth, weapons, wallets, family photos, flags, etc.) from dead "Japs", - protecting a fellow soldier who is suspected of raping a young village girl. The author travels to present day Okinawa and discovers modern day high rise buildings and upscale shopping malls on top of what had been battlegrounds. He is also able to correct an assumption he had about his father by speaking with several Okinawan citizens. This book helps to remind us that WWII was not glamorous, especially for the grunt soldiers and that their lives were forever affected.
June 24, 2015
Wow! This book really gave a different perspective to most war stories I've read. In trying to understand his father's WWII experience in Iwo Jima, Guam, and Okinawa, the author takes us on his search, hearing a dozen vets tell their experiences in the same battles. They tell how they survived, how frightening and disgusting it was, how they have fared in life, and what they think of the enemy, and war in general. It's an emotional trip that I will never forget.
I recommend anyone with a loved one who went through combat to read this book as well as anyone who would like to gain an understanding of what war does to one's soul, sanity, and self respect. As a country, or just a human being, we need to better understand the true cost of war before we wage it. Our leaders should not consider sending anyone to battle if they and/or their own family are not also going!
I recommend anyone with a loved one who went through combat to read this book as well as anyone who would like to gain an understanding of what war does to one's soul, sanity, and self respect. As a country, or just a human being, we need to better understand the true cost of war before we wage it. Our leaders should not consider sending anyone to battle if they and/or their own family are not also going!
August 12, 2013
My Dad was an Army Air Corps Crew Chief in England, then Belgium. I had heard most of his stories. My Uncle was a Marine Combat Engineer, Pacific Theatre. Those were stories we did not hear. Reading Dale Mahridge's story of growing up with a father who had been in the same area,and probably seen the same things, made this a must read for me, as it explores some of the previously untold stories, and examines for of the 'darker side' of the good war and the challenges these men, and their families had to live with...
January 19, 2015
For some reason, I find it difficult to review this book except to say that it's probably one of my favorite memoirs of all time. I found it to be very powerful, and Maharidge's interviews/interactions with the veterans were really interesting, and in some cases, chilling (I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers). Anyway, Bringing Mulligan Home is definitely worth reading, whether you're interested in WWII or not. The story goes a lot deeper than that, and overall, I think Maharidge's honesty in facing his father's (and his own) demons in this book was pretty courageous.
January 6, 2014
This is what war looks like from the perspective of the regular people who fought it. Unable to get the answers he desired from his father before the elder Maharidge's death, the author sought out surviving members of his Marine vet dad's Love Company. In doing so, he learned much about the experiences of ordinary Marines. What they went through in war came to influence how they lived afterwards.
June 6, 2013
Striking example of the toll war takes on the men who fight it and their families. Also speaks to the mentality of men from that generation, and I constantly saw glimpses of my Dad in the characterizations even though he saw no action in the war. Excellent book!
September 3, 2023
Steve Maharidge was a U.S. Marine who served in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Dale, his oldest son, grew up both loving and fearing his father, whose sudden rages terrified his children and damaged his marriage. Only after his father's death did Dale begin asking why his father was the way he was.
Over several years, he delved into his father's war record, and tracked down survivors of Love Company. Love Company fought on Guam and on Okinawa, suffering high losses. Dale sought details on stories his father's disturbing remarks and half-told stories, using a box full of strange souvenirs: a flag with scribbled signatures, a gun, a Japanese man's passport, and a single photo of his father with a man named Herman Mulligan.
The stories of these Marines are a record of the real war--the terror, the insane suicidal attacks, the atrocities committed by both sides. This is the war the propaganda machine never allowed into the news reels and newspapers. It is by turns sad, horrifying, and revolting. It is a testament to the waste and pointlessness of war.
This is a salute to all of those who served expecting glory and honor, who came home with nightmares, concussion-damaged brains, physical injuries, and memories of lost friends and images of shattered bodies and scorched islands. It's also a reminder of the civilian casualties who are always victims of modern warfare, and a military mindset in which all deaths are "acceptable losses."
I had an uncle who served with the U.S. Marines. I now have a clearer understanding of how the war changed him, and why his hands always shook. This is a fiercely honest and loving tribute to one man's father, and the friends he left behind.
Over several years, he delved into his father's war record, and tracked down survivors of Love Company. Love Company fought on Guam and on Okinawa, suffering high losses. Dale sought details on stories his father's disturbing remarks and half-told stories, using a box full of strange souvenirs: a flag with scribbled signatures, a gun, a Japanese man's passport, and a single photo of his father with a man named Herman Mulligan.
The stories of these Marines are a record of the real war--the terror, the insane suicidal attacks, the atrocities committed by both sides. This is the war the propaganda machine never allowed into the news reels and newspapers. It is by turns sad, horrifying, and revolting. It is a testament to the waste and pointlessness of war.
This is a salute to all of those who served expecting glory and honor, who came home with nightmares, concussion-damaged brains, physical injuries, and memories of lost friends and images of shattered bodies and scorched islands. It's also a reminder of the civilian casualties who are always victims of modern warfare, and a military mindset in which all deaths are "acceptable losses."
I had an uncle who served with the U.S. Marines. I now have a clearer understanding of how the war changed him, and why his hands always shook. This is a fiercely honest and loving tribute to one man's father, and the friends he left behind.
August 5, 2019
An excellent look at the price paid by WWII veterans, who endured it silently in a world that neither understood the long-term affects of traumatic brain injury or PTSD ("shell shock"), nor had a culture that allowed the men suffering from it to be treated sympathetically when they couldn't just come home again.
Note: Maharidge's quest in this book to find out who Mulligan was, and why his death haunted Mahardige's father for the rest of his life reaches a conclusion, but Mulligan himself remains "lost" at the book's end. However, a few years later, quite suddenly, Maharidge was able to solve the mystery and truly bring Mulligan home. This is narrated in an Audible Original called "The Dead Drink First". it isn't long, and if you read this, I recommend you then listen to that. There is, of necessity, some retread, but you will hear audio interviews with many of the figures in this book, and the entire experience is fresh, powerful and a perfect coda to this book; so much so that, having heard it first, I went back and read this book.
Note: Maharidge's quest in this book to find out who Mulligan was, and why his death haunted Mahardige's father for the rest of his life reaches a conclusion, but Mulligan himself remains "lost" at the book's end. However, a few years later, quite suddenly, Maharidge was able to solve the mystery and truly bring Mulligan home. This is narrated in an Audible Original called "The Dead Drink First". it isn't long, and if you read this, I recommend you then listen to that. There is, of necessity, some retread, but you will hear audio interviews with many of the figures in this book, and the entire experience is fresh, powerful and a perfect coda to this book; so much so that, having heard it first, I went back and read this book.
January 24, 2023
This is a book to read to hear the stories of individual soldiers ( true or false ) who fought on Okinawa. PTSD was called shell shock or battle fatigue, but little was known about how to effectively treat the lingering symptoms. ( Sometimes I wonder if we are doing any better now with our soldiers. ) The author's father was a man with an explosive temper who always kept a picture of his pal Mulligan in view where he worked. Mr. Maharidge sets out to see if he can determine why Mulligan haunted his father. Some of the soldiers interviewed had never spoken about what happened in the Pacific War. Fighting the Japanese was different from combat with Nazis. The Japanese never signed the Geneva Convention. Approximately 3 times as many POW's died in the Asian prison camps than in those in Europe ( per capita calculations ). Recommend. Kristi & Abby Tabby
June 27, 2020
The premise of this story is intriguing and important, a son's search for the man in the WWII photo so important to his father. A man about whom his father never talked...a mystery. For family, if only for family history, finding love ones who languish as unknown brings peace. I should not try to talk about this book. Honestly, my book has 100 pages I did not read. Maharidge sought out as many marines who were with his father in the war as he could find. Their stories of the violence and the bloodiness of war were more than I could read. Still, there are those for whom this book will resonant.
April 3, 2018
This is a really intriguing book. It started off kind of slow with a son wanting to learn about his father. On a side note, it made me kind of wonder what secrets my own father has. Dale did a deep dive into the history of Love Company and documented the battle for Okinawa. It was an epic campaign filled with hardship. It made me think that the horrific events in a war can affect many people long after the battlefields are silent. This was a really great read and I learned a lot about battle for Okinawa.
July 26, 2019
I am rating this book a 4 but I will caveat that with a warning. This book delves into the life history of 12 marines in addition to the main characters. It has a little of the Greatest Generation feel to it. I like to hear peoples stories especially from the WWII era. I realize that some may find this tedious. My father was in the pacific in 1945 and the family grew up in North Royalton, OH which is not far from where I did. So there, now you are aware of all of my biases. I really enjoyed this book and have decided to look into other work by the author.
October 14, 2019
This is the book that preceded the audio documentary called The Dead Drink First that I recently listened to. As I read, I wondered if it would have been better or worse to consume these things in their proper order. I concluded that all that matters is that one consumes both, because one perspective enriches the other.
The audio features actual voices, while the book supplies images and fuller quotations and thoughts.
Dale Maharidge's works have been hugely helpful and encouraging - theraputic, even - for me as I also struggle to piece together the mysteries of a father who was the product of wartime horror (albeit Korean War, not WWII). And for anyone without background into war or having grown up with somebody who lived through or died from one, and with zero aspirations to research or write on these topics, this is an education about humanity and the greater generations that preceded us.
The audio features actual voices, while the book supplies images and fuller quotations and thoughts.
Dale Maharidge's works have been hugely helpful and encouraging - theraputic, even - for me as I also struggle to piece together the mysteries of a father who was the product of wartime horror (albeit Korean War, not WWII). And for anyone without background into war or having grown up with somebody who lived through or died from one, and with zero aspirations to research or write on these topics, this is an education about humanity and the greater generations that preceded us.
August 22, 2025
“I look at myself, a person obsessed with the past and what I could not heal.”
as much as this book is a incredibly well done history of a section of the battle of okinawa at the end of the war, i think it is more importantly a profoundly impactful story of the authors own personal journey of discovery. his emotional investment in the process of researching, interviewing, and writing lended a much appreciated weight and gravity to the story of him and his fathers lives, what his father (and many other marines), and okinawans went through and survived during that time in their lives.
as much as this book is a incredibly well done history of a section of the battle of okinawa at the end of the war, i think it is more importantly a profoundly impactful story of the authors own personal journey of discovery. his emotional investment in the process of researching, interviewing, and writing lended a much appreciated weight and gravity to the story of him and his fathers lives, what his father (and many other marines), and okinawans went through and survived during that time in their lives.
March 19, 2024
I liked this book and will read it again. It gives perspective to the ugliness of war and what humans are willing to do to one another under the circumstances. Also gives insight as to the challenges of being reared in a home with a war-damaged veteran who can't get beyond what he saw and lived through. Admirable, and I think a book likely under-valued.
February 21, 2023
An excellent book about WW II in Okinawa and Guam written by the son of a soldier who suffered all his life from posttraumatic stress disorder because of his war experiences. This book gives excellent eye witness descriptions of the fighting in the Pacific.
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