Huntsville, Alabama
Marine Corps Private
PACIFIC THEATER: New Britain, Peleliu, Okinawa
RANK & DIVISION: Marines, Corporal, 3rd battalion, 5th marines, 1st division, K Co.

A hormone-filled Alabama boy, Nolen loves three things: drinking, swearing and chasing women. He enlists with the Marines because in Huntsville, “nobody has a future.” When he’s thrown into intense combat, Nolan’s hard-partying attitude is quickly chastened. On his first patrol into enemy territory his squad comes under heavy fire, and three of his friends are killed. Meanwhile, Nolen and the one other survivor barely make it back alive. In the months to come Nolen participates in brutal fighting on two more islands, suffering severe wounds in the process. His descriptions are violently graphic and brutally honest, revealing the shocking, bloody realities of war.