My old man fought in the slogs of those Pacific islands in WWII and he died well before my son was born.

He's always asking me about him so I thought he was old enough to watch the series Pacific. So for the past few days we've been watching 2 episodes of the show each night with me pausing the show to talk about key scenes and what we just saw. The significance of a battle or the mindset of a soldier afterwards.

Its been a good experience for us. He is understanding just how big a sacrifice Americans made in WWII and that war just isn't a video game type experience.

We'll watch Band of Brothers next, but the connection won't be as strong. I think because of Pacific, he'll have a better understanding of what is really happening on the screen - I know at his age I had a much different concept of war - because my context wasn't from my old mans perspective but from Vietnam era movie's like Apocalypse Now, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket as well as growing up with a steady stream of Westerns and Dirty Harry type movies.

I'm thinking "Saving Private Ryan" might be the best depiction of warfare ever put to film.

JMHO,
Birdwatcher

I know the opening scene left my jaw on the floor for Private Ryan

But what I like about Pacific, and I'm sure some extent to Band of Brothers is it shows the grit - I think moreso than S.P.R. - and how war changes a man.

I finally watched Pacific through all the episodes.
I joined the Marines in 1963, only 20 years had passed and I still ran into some of the guys that fought those battles.
I use to enjoy a good war movie, but Pacific put a whole new light on what it was really like. After many an episode I sat there in the dark, all by my self, and just wondered if I would have had the balls those guys had.
Those were men from the "Greatest Generation"

yea I think about that alot - and not just the men at war.

Can you imagine Americans sacrificing the ability to buy cars, appliances, sugar , meat, vegetables, and being asked to buy war bonds? - The entire country willing (for the most part) to give up the basics of their daily lives for a war effort? The victory gardens, the rubber drives, the USO.....

I think about , if the people back then had a 24/7 news channel with real time video footage of the battles, if they had talking heads on TV promoting or demoting our participation, - all the information available at their fingertips - would they have been as "all in" with just radio and newspaper?

On the flipside , can you imagine a unified America with virtually 100% employment, much of it geared toward the war effort

do circumstances define the man, or does man define the circumstances?

My mom was a young girl living in England in 1939. She clearly recalls that, at one point, in a bid for self sufficiency they somehow were able to purchase ten day-old "laying hens". Nine of 'em turned out to be roosters She says she cried every time they ate one.

Birdwatcher