There was a rare weekend lull in the action here as all hands fell back to welcome four veterans of WW II in the Pacific visiting some old wartime haunts. We were all a bit misty-eyed watching these distinguished survivors of bloody campaigns in the Solomons, Marshals, Marianas and Volcano Islands watching us recreate portions of their combat service. They gave us some valuable insights as well as tons of motivation and inspiration for our mission here. We will never be able to adequately thank The Greatest Generations Foundation for making their visit possible. If we needed a reminder of why we are all working so hard to get the real story of Marine Corps combat in the Pacific Theater of Operations told, these brave but humble old gents definitely gave us one. Meanwhile, on Peleliu, PFC Eugene Sledge is earning his "Sledgehammer" wartime nickname as K-3-5 continues to pound away at Japanese defenders in the Death Valley area of the Umurbrogol Hills. It's been one of those ugly, bloody periods of attack, fight and fall back with Marines learning by hard experience that the only way to gain ground against hard points is to "fix 'em, burn 'em and blast 'em" with demo and flamethrower teams as the decisive elements. Sledge and his fellow mortarmen have been employed as stretcher-bearer teams lately and had the sad task of evacuating their Platoon Commander, 2nd Lt. Ed "Hillbilly" Jones who was killed by a sniper while being carried toward the rear on a litter. The Movie Magic Time Machine is whirling us around in the coming weeks as we travel back in the Peleliu campaign sequence and begin the crossing of the airfield with K-3-5. At the same time, we are beginning the Iwo Jima campaign and joining 1st Battalion, 27th Marines of the 5th MarDiv with Gunnery Sergeant Manila John Basilone leading his machinegun platoon ashore on the bloody black sands. It's confusing but so is combat. We continue the attack. Semper Fidelis.