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Faithful Warriors: A Combat Marine Remembers the Pacific War

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If you are fascinated by personal narratives from World War II, you had better put on the coffee pot, and settle down to one hell of read covering the Guadalcanal Campaign and landings at Tarawa, Saipan and Tinian islands in the battle for the Pacific Theater.

Dean Ladd was a young enlistee in the Marine Corps at the onset of .World War II. Commissioned on the battlefield, he fought as a junior officer though out the war. Ladd served in the Marine Corps Reserve following the war, rising to the rank of Lt. Colonel.

In a thoughtful 21 page retrospective, Ladd reports on visits to the former battlegrounds, often with old mates and old enemies. Like old veterans of the Iron Brigade at Gettysburg or the Doughboys in Mousse Argon in World War l, these veterans share one thing in common; they lived through the ordeal of war and remembered the battles all the days of their lives

What we have left from these adventures are the personal narratives which will live as long as the printed word survives. Long live Colonel Ladd, and long live the Naval Institute Press, massage carriers of long ago days.

Richard N. Larsen
Reviewer

I echo what the previous reviewer says. This 2009 release version is a fascinating book, it will draw you right in and won't let go. I read it cover to cover in less than two days. This book is written mostly from the perspective of what the author calls the "50 yard circle" from his foxhole. Interspersed with the bloody battle scenes from different islands are stories of the various antics of Marines on liberty, they had me laughing out loud and the other people in the auto dealership waiting room looking at me like I was crazy.

If you have spent any time at all on Guadalcanal, Betio, Saipan, or Tinian, you might want to also procure LtCol Ladd's 1993 release of the same title. While some of the battle scene narrative is identical between the two books, there are enough major differences to the point I consider the two releases as different books. The 1993 edition is written from a "memory lane" perspective and has more of a human interest emphasis. Having spent some time on Saipan myself (albeit during peacetime), I actually prefer the 1993 version. For a straight battlefield read, however, the 2009 release is better.

This is a tremendous book about the Marines in the Pacific during the Second World War. I bought this book and liked it so much that I bought another for my father in law, who was a Marine in the Pacific. The descriptions of the day to day life are as real as your backyard fence, and Col. Ladd brings that reality up close and personal in these pages. He not only tells you what happened, but brings it home to you in a natural and vivid way. He tells the tale with such candor and honesty that you come to feel like you know this humble man.

I had the pleasure of meeting Col. Ladd today, as he spoke to a civic group. He signed my book and signed the copy I bought for my father in law, "From one old Marine to another." Dad's going to love that.

Buy this book and settle in for a truly great read.

Kelly Vance

This book is superb! Ladd was with the 1/8th Marines of the 2nd Marine Division on Guadalcanal, Betio (Tarawa), Saipan and Tinian. He opens with his experience of the disastrous landing on Betio where the reef forced his battalion to wade 600 yards to the beach through curtains of heavy fire. He is lucky to survive and it is a gripping start to his story. Subsequently he covers his long stint on Guadalcanal in a very detailed and clear manner. His most searing experiences though are on Saipan and Tinian. While he just avoided the massive Banzai attack he was closely involved in the action the following day. He writes extremely vividly of the sights and of dealing with the surviving Japanese. This is followed by witnessing many of the cliff suicides and the general fanatical and at times diabolical resistance. It seemed like a war of extermination.

There is a 1993 version of this book, apparently this edition has been written to provide a more immediate and personal element. Ladd has a good understanding of the bigger picture too and there is a lot on units and general circumstances. Ladd writes on weapons, tactics, the failures of some men and the enthusiasm others had for killing Japanese. At times he is critical of various others and he sets the record straight in a few spots too. He gives a very clear picture of the challenges of being an officer and the attitude required to be a marine. There is some humour too in recounting the high-jinks of leave in New Zealand, some of which came back to haunt veterans at post-war conventions.

Ladd writes openly about his own actions, including on killing. He is an officer, initially of mortars, so he is usually directing the fighting though. He does go to some lengths to fill in the gaps by including the experiences of his men and there is some exceedingly interesting material here. He particularly writes about his commanding officer John Murdock, who had some amazing encounters (including with the ladies on leave!). Through this Ladd has given a very full picture of the war as his unit saw it. It remains essentially his story though. It is also a story of an incredibly merciless war. Some sections are harrowing and it is later quite moving to read of Ladd's meetings with former Japanese soldiers and the friendships he established.

This is a very full story indeed. Ladd's central narrative is engrossing and is enhanced by his intelligent context and the inclusion of relevant experiences of others. The writing is very strong and there is an extremely detailed index, as well as maps and pictures. It is therefore broader in scope than a standard memoir and while this is a strength, I will rate it just under Sledge's book. Highly Recommended!

For those of us who have been in a military action and for those who wants to know and live the experience of what it means to be in a war, this book is a must read. The reality of being in a war zone, the pain,the madness and the courage can not be described any better than this. ...... A must read. Dan L.

another quality product from NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS! an 8th MARINES 2nd MAR DIV infantry officer's memoirs of his combat experiences on THE CANAL, TARAWA, SAIPAN & TINIAN with all the unvarnished unearthy horror and barbaric madness that was the Central Pacific. Despite having previously read several other accounts of TARAWA, LADD's, along with his fellow platoon members' absolutely harrowing recollections of having to wade-in fully exposed to enemy gunfire 600 yds off the reefs of BETIO truly drives home what the MARINE CORPS stands for. Gut-shot wounded on the BETIO reef and evacuated never having touched RED BEACH, the author's many interviews with his fellow B-Company Marines (done over a course of many a 2nd MAR DIV reunion) tells the sheer brutality (utmost savagery) of the Battle for TAWARA. Returned for the SAIPAN & TINIAN operations, his descriptions of the endless killing, the fighting of a merciless relentless fanatical enemy where no quarter is shown or given, bespeaks of a combat experience in its most rawest form. widowed, retired and in the golden waning years of his life, his nostalgic return to the pacific islands of his youth & battle campaigns along with an understanding reconciliation with his former faceless enemies provides a sense of closure in a chapter of his military life where he had witnessed the utter inhumanity and the naked ugly face of war. the author avoids any moral stance.....he does not advocate world peace or justify the killings, however his shared enlightenment of what has come to past is perhaps a lesson we can all draw from for future references. definitely stands along with Eugene Sledge's WITH THE OLD BREED as a classic WW2 memoir.

I am back with another Marine book. Maybe I am attracted to them because my father-in-law and his sons were all Marines, oh wait, are Marines. SEMPER FI. This book is truly out standing! Dean Ladd writes like a seasoned writer, not a grunt in the thick of it, but here it is a real, close up account of what is was like in the Pacific campaigns major battles, like the horror of Beito. It is such a personal account of being a Marine. I can not praise it enough. Buy the book, share the book, treasure the sacrifice. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This is simply one of the best World War Two person accounts I've read in many years. It's well written, easy to follow, and full of fascinating information regarding the war. It was a pleasant surprise to read this book and one that remains highly recommended for information regarding the Pacific war.

The things I liked most about this particular book were the fact the author served in a number of islands in the war. In fact it was the only first person account I've read that contained information about the invasion of Tinian. I was shocked to find out the island was used as an airbase for the Hiroshima mission only days after the island was captured.

In particular, I enjoyed the author's description of harrowing Banzai charge on Saipan and the story of Tarawa's beach are quite gripping He goes into great detail into the weapons used, and the tactics utilized in the war. Especially, in dealing with enemy snipers on Guadacanal.

One of the more facilitating aspect of the book is he doesn't end his book when the war ended. He writes about his return to his old battlefields and how he visited them with Japanese survivors of the war. This turns out to be some of the most interesting reading within the book.

This book belongs with the classics With the Old Breed by E.B. Sledge and Helmet for my Pillow by Leckie.