War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its size,

and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history

through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Music James Early. Hello and welcome to another special bonus episode of Key Battles of the Pacific

Theater of World War II.

This is your host, James, as always.

And I am extremely excited to introduce to you a returning guest, my first,

second time guest, not counting Scott Rank or Sean McIver, who've been there many times,

but my first person to come back for a second time for a bonus episode. That is my new friend,

Evan Muxon. You may remember that Evan and I had a discussion

about geography in the Battle of Iwo Jima not long ago. And during that discussion, it became

obvious that we needed to have a follow-up. We needed to have a sequel. We needed to talk about

Okinawa. And so that's what we're going to do tonight.

So I'm excited to have Evan back with me.

He has perhaps even more of a personal connection to Okinawa than he does to Iwo Jima.

And he's been very gracious in coming back on and sharing with us his personal knowledge of Okinawa.

And it's geography and how that affected the Battle of Okinawa.

Evan, you may remember, he's a historian, specifically he's the 446th airlift wing historian

...