The Pacific Part 3
I just watched Part 3 of The Pacific. The Pacific is the story of the US Marines in World War II; their service during that war was primarily in the Pacific Theater of the war, and this series tells the stories of that service.
Part 3 is about the visit of the US Marines to Melbourne, Australia after the Battle of Guadalcanal for rest & recreation, refitting and resupplying, and training exercises to get them in shape for the battles to come. They were welcomed as heroes and saviors by the Australians, and well they should have been, because they were able to retake a major Japanese forward base in the Solomon Islands, which would otherwise have made a perfect staging area for a Japanese assault on Australia.
This episode also showed highlights of that time, such as the awarding of the Congressional Medal of Honor to one Marine, a sergeant, who was subsequently sent back to the US to sell war bonds, a major source of funding for the war effort. He didn't want to go; he wanted to stay with his outfit. But need dictated that he go back home, and need prevailed, what with his superior officers backing that need all the way.
Another Marine, Robert, fell in love with an Australian girl who was obviously in love with him. Her parents were immigrants from Greece, and liked him as much as he liked them. But their daughter finally told him not to come back, because if he should be killed in combat it would break her parents' hearts -- and hers, too. In his grief and desolation he ended up drawing his sidearm on his lieutenant, getting brigged for it and reassigned to a different outfit.
(Due to neurological problems, I am lousy at remembering names of anyone or anything I haven't known for some time. So most names and assignments of the characters slip by me, which is why I'm not providing the names of characters here. Please forgive me, as this is something I really can't help.)
Clearly being heroes didn't necessarily make life perfect for the Marines, as witness. These two disappointments, together with the deaths in combat of close friends in their units, are two age-old examples of why war is hell, which it is. Yet these good men served their country with grace and exemplary courage, and in the process liberated the vast Pacific domain from Japanese tyranny. This country owes them and all US Marines a debt it can never hope to repay. And the ultimate test of their character and service is that, at the end, they will tell you, "I was doing my duty." They don't want to wallow in the gratitude of their countrymen, just to do the job, do it right, and win.
They are the ultimate Magickians, you see. Magick is, after all, the Art and Science of causing change in conformity with Will. The Will of the US Marines is to win, and do it right, serve their country well and honorably, and guarantee that America's influence on history will be great and good. Whatever we do, you know, we generate a large part of history; we weave everything that has been, and our hopes and dreams, fears and desires, deeds and plans, myths and legends into the history that is born moment to moment, and so help shape the future. And our belief in and devotion to God is woven into it, too, making it sacred, a living offering to God as well as the sum total of all our lives and actions. The US Marines have always striven to ensure that that offering and that total are worthy, that the future will be far better for their lives and deaths than it could ever have been otherwise.
World War II was in many ways an ultimate test of that Will -- and the Marines passed that test with flying colors.
I'll report on the remaining parts of the series as I view them. I will almost certainly have to take the DVD set back to the library and put it on hold at least a few times before I can view it all. I've got manuscripts to work on, and my health is not good, so it's going to take a while. And, on top of that, I just today picked up the DVDs from the TV miniseries Band of Brothers, produced by Stephen Spielberg, based on the book of the same title by Stephen Ambrose. I will have to watch the episodes of that series as I can, and as you can imagine, what with also watching episodes of The Pacific, it will be cycling between me and the library for a while. But that's okay. I'll get it done, and report on both series here as I watch the episodes.
BTW, for anyone who is interested in films and series about World War II, The Great Raid, is very much worth watching. The Great Raid is a 2005 war film about the Raid at Cabanatuan, adapted from William Breuer's book of the same name. It tells the story of the January 1945 liberation of the Cabanatuan Prison Camp on the Philippine island of Luzon during World War II. It's one of the most moving things I've ever seen, and it covers an extremely important part of World War II, the experience of US soldiers who were taken prisoner by the Japanese -- and liberated by US Army Rangers, in Rudyard Kipling's words, some of "the best ye breed," right up there with the Marines. A wonderful film. Don't miss it. :-)
Part 3 is about the visit of the US Marines to Melbourne, Australia after the Battle of Guadalcanal for rest & recreation, refitting and resupplying, and training exercises to get them in shape for the battles to come. They were welcomed as heroes and saviors by the Australians, and well they should have been, because they were able to retake a major Japanese forward base in the Solomon Islands, which would otherwise have made a perfect staging area for a Japanese assault on Australia.
This episode also showed highlights of that time, such as the awarding of the Congressional Medal of Honor to one Marine, a sergeant, who was subsequently sent back to the US to sell war bonds, a major source of funding for the war effort. He didn't want to go; he wanted to stay with his outfit. But need dictated that he go back home, and need prevailed, what with his superior officers backing that need all the way.
Another Marine, Robert, fell in love with an Australian girl who was obviously in love with him. Her parents were immigrants from Greece, and liked him as much as he liked them. But their daughter finally told him not to come back, because if he should be killed in combat it would break her parents' hearts -- and hers, too. In his grief and desolation he ended up drawing his sidearm on his lieutenant, getting brigged for it and reassigned to a different outfit.
(Due to neurological problems, I am lousy at remembering names of anyone or anything I haven't known for some time. So most names and assignments of the characters slip by me, which is why I'm not providing the names of characters here. Please forgive me, as this is something I really can't help.)
Clearly being heroes didn't necessarily make life perfect for the Marines, as witness. These two disappointments, together with the deaths in combat of close friends in their units, are two age-old examples of why war is hell, which it is. Yet these good men served their country with grace and exemplary courage, and in the process liberated the vast Pacific domain from Japanese tyranny. This country owes them and all US Marines a debt it can never hope to repay. And the ultimate test of their character and service is that, at the end, they will tell you, "I was doing my duty." They don't want to wallow in the gratitude of their countrymen, just to do the job, do it right, and win.
They are the ultimate Magickians, you see. Magick is, after all, the Art and Science of causing change in conformity with Will. The Will of the US Marines is to win, and do it right, serve their country well and honorably, and guarantee that America's influence on history will be great and good. Whatever we do, you know, we generate a large part of history; we weave everything that has been, and our hopes and dreams, fears and desires, deeds and plans, myths and legends into the history that is born moment to moment, and so help shape the future. And our belief in and devotion to God is woven into it, too, making it sacred, a living offering to God as well as the sum total of all our lives and actions. The US Marines have always striven to ensure that that offering and that total are worthy, that the future will be far better for their lives and deaths than it could ever have been otherwise.
World War II was in many ways an ultimate test of that Will -- and the Marines passed that test with flying colors.
I'll report on the remaining parts of the series as I view them. I will almost certainly have to take the DVD set back to the library and put it on hold at least a few times before I can view it all. I've got manuscripts to work on, and my health is not good, so it's going to take a while. And, on top of that, I just today picked up the DVDs from the TV miniseries Band of Brothers, produced by Stephen Spielberg, based on the book of the same title by Stephen Ambrose. I will have to watch the episodes of that series as I can, and as you can imagine, what with also watching episodes of The Pacific, it will be cycling between me and the library for a while. But that's okay. I'll get it done, and report on both series here as I watch the episodes.
BTW, for anyone who is interested in films and series about World War II, The Great Raid, is very much worth watching. The Great Raid is a 2005 war film about the Raid at Cabanatuan, adapted from William Breuer's book of the same name. It tells the story of the January 1945 liberation of the Cabanatuan Prison Camp on the Philippine island of Luzon during World War II. It's one of the most moving things I've ever seen, and it covers an extremely important part of World War II, the experience of US soldiers who were taken prisoner by the Japanese -- and liberated by US Army Rangers, in Rudyard Kipling's words, some of "the best ye breed," right up there with the Marines. A wonderful film. Don't miss it. :-)