"E.B. Sledge was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1923. He dropped out of college in 1942 to join the Marine Corps. He then served as a front line infantryman with the fabled First Marine Division on Peleliu, Okinawa and North China occupation. After the war, Sledge earned a PhD in zoology from the University of Florida. He taught at the University of Montevallo for twenty-eight years, specializing in ornithology. In 1981, Presidio Press published Sledge's war memoir, With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa. Author Paul Fussell has referred to this book as "one of the finest memoirs to emerge from any war," and John Keegan called it "one of the most important personal accounts of the war that I have read." " Center for Study of War and Society, Celebrate Freedom 2000 Biographies
This is letter from Eugene "Sledgehammer" Sledge to former K Company member and Hudson Falls resident Daniel Lawler. Both are pictured below on Okinawa. This photograph is in the collection of Daniel Lawler.
The men in it are identified by Sledge.
Listen to Studs Terkel's interview with Sledge