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.

Thank you. host, James Early. Hello, and welcome back to the Pacific, our discussion of the epic 2010 HBO miniseries of that

same name, The Pacific. I'm your host, James Early, as always. And also, as always, I've got my buddy

Sean McIrva with me. So in our last episode, we saw several things happen, but the main event was

the invasion of the island of Peliloh, and we talked in some detail about what the point

behind that campaign, why it was undertaken, and what happened. We gave a 10,000-foot

view, really more of a 30,000-foot view of that battle. And then we focused in, as we saw

two of our main characters, Eugene Sledge and Robert Lecky, as part of the first Marine Division

that landed on the beaches of Pelaloo and prepared to try to take the airfield

the next day. So that's where we left off. Well, Sean, before we jump into the plot, as always,

I'll let you have the floor, maybe talk about who the writer is, who the director is, or anything

else, any other interesting trivia you might want to share with us.

Yeah.

Well, the writers are some folks that have written several of the other episodes, Bruce McKenna, Lawrence

Andreas and Robert Schenken.

The director is Tony Toe, who is a well-known TV director.

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