Hell in the Pacific: A Marine Rifleman's Journey From Guadalcanal to Peleliu (35 page)

Lou Gargano (friend) and Jim McEnery in Australia, 1943.

Men wade across the Lunga to begin a patrol on Guadalcanal.

Jim McEnery.

Colonel Merritt “Red Mike” Edson, one of Jim’s most-admired officers, whose troops turned the tide at Guadalcanal by repelling fierce Japanese attacks against Henderson Field.

A machine gunner at Cape Gloucester comes off the hill after the battle has been won.

U.S. Armed Forces Cemetery at Cape Gloucester.

Tex Goodwin.

Jim’s Marine Corps ID card (note that he was in for the “duration”).

Parris Island, South Carolina (Jim McEnery and friends).

Marines crossing the Matanikau on Guadalcanal.

Jim (in white cap) poses for a Marine Corps photographer with other battle-weary members of K/3/5 after their hard-won victory at Peleliu.

Sergeant McEnery (second from right) stands on the beach at Peleliu with the only other four senior noncommissioned officers of K/3/5 still alive and unwounded after the battle. From the left, his companions are Sergeants Dick Higgins, David Bailey, Donald Shifla, and John Marmet.

Men of the Fifth Marines begin to cross the Peleliu airfield under intense enemy fire.

Captain Andrew Haldane, beloved commander of K/3/5 on Peleliu, killed in action near the end of the fighting.