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 host, James Early. Greetings and welcome to season two of Key Battles of American History.

This season I will call Key Battles of the Pacific War of World War II.

This, of course, is James Early, your host.

And before we jump into the series itself, I wanted to just give you a quick intro to it and an overview.

I'm really excited about this series.

As I've mentioned before, I have a personal stake in the Pacific Theater of World War II

because my father, Colonel Clelanderley, was a Marine who fought in many of the battles

of the Pacific Theater.

He fought at Guadalcanal.

He fought at Tarawa.

He fought at Okinawa and Iwo Jima.

And he never really told me much about it.

He told me just a few tidbits here and there.

And he passed away in 2004 and I never had a chance to sit down and really ask him.

I mean, I had a chance, but I was young and I wasn't that interested, unfortunately, which is really sad.

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