Islands of the Damned

A Marine at War in the Pacific

By: R. V. Burgin, Bill Marvel

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

This is an eyewitness - and eye-opening - account of some of the most savage and brutal fighting in the war against Japan, told from the perspective of a young Texan who volunteered for the Marine Corps to escape a life as a traveling salesman.

R. V. Burgin enlisted at the age of 20 and, with his sharp intelligence and earnest work ethic, climbed the ranks from a green private to a seasoned sergeant. Along the way, he shouldered a rifle as a member of a mortar squad. He saw friends die and enemies killed. He saw scenes he wanted to forget but never did - from enemy snipers who tied themselves to branches in the highest trees, to ambushes along narrow jungle trails, to the abandoned corpses of hara kiri victims, to the final howling banzai attacks as the Japanese embraced their inevitable defeat.

An unforgettable narrative of a young Marine in combat, Islands of the Damned brings to life the hell that was the Pacific War.

©2010 R.V. Burgin and William Marvel (P)2010 Tantor

Great story on the Pacific campaign

Mr. Burgin's story talks to the forgotten Pacific battles and the spirit that is Semper Fidelis!

true history that needs to be told

I like the story very much. The performer was brilliant. He had the right frame of mind when telling the story. He wasn't just reading lines. I think every young person should read these books to, like he said, never forget.

Good war autobiography

Great autobiography and well read. Must read for any Marine. Gives good perspective on reality of war from a warfighters lenses

Excellent WWII history

After having watched The Pacific miniseries and doing a grad school research paper on Okinawa I wanted to go through Burgin’s account fully, and it did not disappoint. We need to remember these men and the sacrifices they made. I highly recommend this account for those interested in the American Pacific theatre and Marine Corps.

Sledge's Squad Leader

If you appreciated "With the Old Breed" by E.B.Sledge, this Book is an essential read to flesh out the same story from a related perspective. This is the understated story of a Marine mortar man fighting through a Pacific hell that we today can only dimly imagine. Well Done!

Great History lesson

What made the experience of listening to Islands of the Damned the most enjoyable?

Many of us don't realize what these brave men and women went through to preserve our freedom. I think everyone should read this book.

I think this is the best Pacific memoir there is.

I wasn’t a fan of Leckies books. Thought Sledges was very good. However, this one takes the cake. You really get a sense of the separating wall that Burgin put up in his mind while listening to this. He was a text book Sgt and leader and was a lot more of a professional than Sledge came off as. You can tell that they had different upbringings when comparing the two. If you haven’t read “With the Old Breed” absolutely check it out. But this is my favorite by far. I appreciate the simple no nonsense approach of Burgin. He was a Marine’s Marine.

Good Read with Important Historic Value.

The accounts in this book sync very accurately with other authors that I’ve read who were in the Pacific during WWII. Books like these provide an important narrative of historical events that took place in the life of our nation, events that cost thousands of young men their lives so that we can be free. The narrator was good, if not a bit monochromatic, but then this book was not intended to be read as a play or drama made
for TV. Thanks should be extended to the author and his surviving family members for the service of their dad, a true American hero. I’m not sure they make them like that anymore.

So proud of these men!

Loved it, my father was a coxswain on LST713 and drove a Higgins boat into Okinawa and Iwa Jima!

How anyone made it home

Everyone should read this to see how war should be the last thing this country should get in to how boys turn into killers