The Oh, Welcome listeners to

to one thousand one heroes, legends, histories, and mysteries.

We have a very special author with us tonight,

a very special book, a book that I've read,

and it's one of those books where you feel like you're there

with the men who are going through it.

An elite platoon of Marine Scout snipers, Lieutenant Frank Tachofsky's 40 thieves were chosen

for their willingness to defy rules and beat all comers.

When two Marines got into a fight, the loser ended up in the infirmary,

the winner in the brig.

Sikovsky wanted the winner on his team.

A brush with military law was a recommendation.

These full-blooded men were trained in a ruthless array of hand-to-hand killing techniques

and then thrown into the battle for Saipan.

Emperor Hirohito's treasure and the bulwark of the Japanese Empire in the Pacific,

where they would wreak havoc in and around but mostly behind enemy lines.

They witnessed inhuman atrocities.

Walked into an ambush after the cunning Japanese used wounded Marines as bait, endured body punishing extremes of heat, hunger, and

thirst, fought a relentless enemy who would not surrender and watched their best friends die.

Now Takovsky's son Joseph tells their remarkable story,

a story he didn't even know until after his father's death.

Reported from an extensive documentary record,

...