RabidAlien
1st Lieutenant
Just finished this book, and I've gotta say, I can understand why the grunts LOVED Pyle and his columns!!! The man writes in a way that brings you right there inside the tent/foxhole/jeep/ship with the average Joe, describing not just the battles he goes through (there are a few of those experiences), but the sheer dam HUMANITY of the troops, their hopes, fears, dreams, gripes (the one right a front-line troop has...and exercises frequently!), laughs, tears, etc. He laughs with them (and mostly at himself), and generally gives you a look into the sides of warfare that are not typically told (there's a segment where he rides with an ordinance group, telling what they do on a daily basis, and taking a trip to the front in the dead of night to retrieve a disabled German tank), and goes into detail about his experience being caught up in the accidental bombing of Allied troops during the massive bombing campaign immediately prior to the breakout from the Normandy beachhead, something that most authors tend to shy away from other than mentioning that it happened/was a tragic accident/due to winds shifting the marker smoke over the allied lines. He pulls no punches, makes no excuses for anyone (himself included), and just tells it like it is. Man....I love this guy!
