I've had this book for many years - I can't say how many exactly because I somehow forgot to put it in Goodreads - and I finally picked it up on a whim. It is well worth the read. Pyle was an excellent writer, who did the world a great service in providing an up close look at what our armed forces were experiencing during World War II, while they were experiencing it. I imagine it was a source of interest and hopefully some comfort to those waiting at home, too.

Unfortunately it did remind me of the casual racism of the time, how he sometimes had a "colored boy" to clean his room etc. And also I kept thinking how he writes how these were such good men, but in the context of the time that doesn't mean they weren't racist or homophobic or treated their wives terribly. When he describes people's background or what they are provided for entertainment it reminded me how much everyone was expected to conform to a fairly narrow range of behaviors and that's just how it was. That doesn't take away from the amazing efforts and sacrifices they made to win the war.

Pyle definitely humanizes the German and Italian foes more than the Japanese, and honestly that was baked into military policy at the time.

This was an important job Pyle did, and I'm sorry he didn't live to see the end of the war. I think he left an amazing legacy behind.