Helmet for My Pillow

From Parris Island to the Pacific: A Young Marine's Stirring Account of Combat in World War II

By: Robert Leckie

Narrated by: James Badge Dale, Tom Hanks (introduction)

Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

The celebrated 2010 HBO miniseries The Pacific, winner of eight Emmy Awards, was based on two classic books about the War in the Pacific, Helmet for My Pillow and With The Old Breed. Audible Studios, in partnership with Playtone, the production company co-owned by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, and creator of the award-winning HBO series Band of Brothers, John Adams, and The Pacific, as well as the HBO movie Game Change, has created new recordings of these memoirs, narrated by the stars of the miniseries. James Badge Dale (who portrayed Robert Leckie) and Joseph Mazello (who played Eugene Sledge) bring all the passion and emotion of their riveting television performances to these new audio productions.

In Helmet for My Pillow, Robert Leckie enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in January 1942, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This riveting first-person account follows his odyssey from basic training on Parris Island, South Carolina, all the way to the raging battles in the Pacific, where some of the war's fiercest fighting took place. Recounting his service with the 1st Marine Division and the brutal action on Guadalcanal, New Britain, and Peleliu, Leckie spares no detail of the horrors and sacrifices of war, painting an unvarnished portrait of how real warriors are made, fight, and often die in the defense of their country.

From the live-for-today rowdiness of marines on leave to the terrors of jungle warfare against an enemy determined to fight to the last man, Leckie describes what war is really like when victory can only be measured inch by bloody inch. Woven throughout are Leckie's hard-won, eloquent, and thoroughly unsentimental meditations on the meaning of war and why we fight.

BONUS AUDIO: Tom Hanks, one of the executive producers, has written and narrated an original introduction to Helmet for My Pillow, where he describes his appreciation for the book's author, the narrators, and the soldiers who had fought in the cauldron of the Pacific Theater during World War II.

For more from Audible and Playtone, click here.

©1957 Robert Hugh Leckie. "The Battle of the Tenaru" c. 2001 by Robert Hugh Leckie. (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Robert Leckie's unvarnished 1957 memoir paints a vivid picture of his experiences as a Marine on the frontlines of the Pacific Theater in WWII. Using the unadorned demeanor of a tough Marine, narrator James Badge Dale delivers Leckie's eloquent text with intensity and respect. He adopts a touch of humor when describing the occasional raucous camaraderie of the men but mostly employs a hard-boiled, sturdy veneer for Leckie's revealing and sometimes shocking narrative. Dale's unrelenting pronunciation of long "a"s (such as "a gun") is at first distracting but eventually comes to feel like the unyielding backbone of a young warrior facing the brutal action of battle. A brief introduction from Tom Hanks helps the listener anticipate the significance of this powerful American chronicle.” ( AudioFile)

“ Helmet for My Pillow is a grand and epic prose poem. Robert Leckie’s theme is the purely human experience of war in the Pacific, written in the graceful imagery of a human being who—somehow—survived.” (Tom Hanks)

“One hell of a book! The real stuff that proves the U.S. Marines are the greatest fighting men on earth!” (Leon Uris, author of Battle Cry)

Realism and truthfulness

This title is well written and very detailed. I especially enjoyed the narration and description of events he lived through

Great story, but a bit too poetic

What did you love best about Helmet for My Pillow?

It's a great story and the narration was super, the only complaint would be that Leckie is a bit too flowery with his language, but that isn't a reason not to listen. Leckie really gets you to feel how horrible war is in a way that makes you ashamed if you've never been there and somehow thought it would be cool or glorious.

Profane and Profound

There's an assumption in the military that the best and the brightest are officers. The enlisted, particularly those in all volunteer services, are thought to be uneducated louts without skills, options, or hope. That assumption is wrong. In fact, as Robert "Lucky" Leckie describes in
"Helmet for my Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific: a Young Marine's Stirring Account of Combat in World War II" (1957) intelligence and leadership can sometimes be mutually exclusive.

For at least part of World War II, an American man could be drafted into any other service, but he chose to be a Marine and the Marines chose him. Writer Leckie volunteered shortly after Pearl Harbor, and served in Company H, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.

"Helmet for my Pillow" is Leckie's story, and the stories of men who fought and died in the battles of Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, and Peleliu. This isn't a book about tactics and goals. The only 'Big Picture' in this book is a nickname for one of Leckie's Lieutenants. He's also got officers called 'High Hips', 'Commando', 'Ivy League' and 'Dreadnought'. Leckie's pseudonyms are spot on accurate, and the only officers he respected earned their commissions on the battlefield.

Leckie was great at fighting, but - cursed with an explosive temper - garrison life didn't suit him. He got busted several times and was what he proudly called a "Brig Rat". He would have been in a lot more trouble without the help of several Australians whose convict origins must have given them an innate hatred of MPs.

"Helmet for my Pillow" isn't a nostalgic look back at what was later remembered as a hero's war in the Pacific. It's a cold, hard, eloquent and sometimes horrifying story. Leckie's writing was excellent, and I plan to read/listen to his other military histories.

The narration was good, and there's an Easter Egg: there's a brief introduction by Tom Hanks.

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Very good...but you need to read "W/ the Old Breed

A very worthwhile book. So thankful to Robert Leckie and those who sacrificed for freedom. All young people today should read this book, and Eugene Sledge's " With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa" ( an even better book).

very detailed!

felt like robert was sitting down right next to me talking to me about his experiences

I wish our schools made

I wish our schools made this one of the required reading before graduating 12th grade. We spend far too much time of mind numbing brain washing political correctness that is leading another generation into peril. Only by learning from history, history that presents truth in context will future generations have a chance at avoiding such a catastrophic war.

Good but wordy

This book is a great account of South Pacific fighting in WWII but it is a bit wordy for my taste. It makes sense though bc I believe Leckie was a writer in his fathers newspaper before and after his service.

Harrowing account of times since past

To look through the eyes of a Marine during a time of incredible trial and tribulation is to be humbled and awestruck. So wonderfully written and narrated. The accolades from Tom Hanks says a lot about the impact of this book.

Epic

Having watched The Pacific and listened to With the old Breed a few times, this brings another level of realism that, although we will never know what it was like, puts all of us closer to the hell that they went through in those islands

Beautifully, written. Stark portrait of the complexity of war

The story is familiar, but the detail and atmosphere presented here make the novel fresh and alive. Sometimes the language gets ponderous, but the deliberate attention to detail makes the story read like a confession. The Epilogue is one of the most elegiac summations of American post-war triumph and guilt that I have read. Altogether wonderful.