Semper Four: 4 Marines: An Oral History

by Aaron Elson

"What was your rank?" oral historian Aaron Elson asked Nick Paciullo, a Marine Corps veteran who fought on Iwo Jima, Saipan, Kwajalein and Roi-Namur."I was a private ... a Pfc ... a corporal ... a private ... a Pfc ... a corporal," says Paciullo, who notes that he always seemed to be in trouble. "I was with two gentlemen -- two Marines, I should say," he says, named Pudlow and McDowell. A short time later, still thinking about his buddies, he says, "Pudlow was killed on Iwo, McDowell lost a leg on Saipan and I almost lost an eye right after that." A fourth member of the group that always seemed to be getting in trouble, Richard Anderson, was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously after throwing himself on a grenade on Kwajalein. These four interviews by Aaron Elson, one of America's premier oral historians of the Greatest Generation, offer a roller coaster ride through the highs and lows of World War II in the Pacific.

110 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 2013

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think that it was a worthwhile task actually getting the memories of four US Marine veterans down on paper, as these are the people who were actually there. Bearing in mind that these Gentlemen were in their 70s when the author interviewed them, it is not really surprising that their stories are a little bit disjointed. This made the book as a whole quite difficult to read as there was no real continuity.