Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, in his speech to 800 assembled generals, admirals and senior enlisted at Quantico, Va., on Sept. 30, 2025, quoted Eugene Sledge from his timeless classic With The Old Breed published in 1981. In his World War II memoir, Sledge wrote, “War is brutish. Inglorious and a terrible waste. Combat leaves an indelible mark on those who are forced to endure it. The only redeeming factors are my comrades’ incredible bravery and their devotion to each other.” Those words are also inscribed on his headstone at Pine Crest Cemetery in Mobile, Alabama.
I connected with his son, Henry, via a common friend and learned he was writing a “rest of the story” book about his father’s World War II experiences on Peleliu and Okinawa. Henry shared that much of his father’s manuscript had not been published. Portions had been removed for various reasons but mainly to not make the book too long. Those pages of his manuscript are, like his book, priceless. They are maintained at Auburn University in the Special Collections Archive “closed papers” and are viewable by family members only. Henry Sledge was, of course, granted access to his father’s manuscript and from it has written the complementary piece to his father’s work. His book, The Old Breed: The Complete Story Revealed, shares those portions of his father’s manuscript previously not published and more.