Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific

Helmet for My Pillow is a personal memoir of the war in the Southern Pacific by the World War II United States Marine Corps veteran, author, and military historian Robert Leckie. First published in 1957, the story begins with Leckie's enlisting in the United States Marines after the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Deployed to Guadalcanal, New Britain, and New Guinea, where some of the war's fiercest fighting took place, he is finally wounded and evacuated from the island of Peleliu. Recounting his service on the front line and visits to Australia, Leckie paints a realistic portrait of how real warriors are made in a struggle against a deadly enemy.