The Long Road of War: A Marine's Story of Pacific Combat

4¼ stars.Johnston was in the 1st Marine Division, 5th Marines (E/2/5) and fought on Bouganville, Peleliu and Okinawa as a machine gunner in WW2. There is some information on Johnston's background and marine career all the way up to action on Bouganville (where he is involved in the classic antics of "foraging" that we all now associate with the corps after seeing the second episode of The Pacific) but the bulk of his combat experience centers on his account of Peleliu with the last part focusing on his time on Okinawa.This is a shorter account than most, about the same length as another marine memoir I reviewed: PACIFIC TIME ON TARGET by C. Donner. Unlike Donner's account however, there is a lot of detail packed into such a short book. Johnston is in the thick of action a lot in his role as an assistant machine gunner (later a squad leader on Okinawa) and conveys the relentlessness of battle to the reader quite openly. This is especially evident when Johnston describes the first few nights he lived through on Peleliu!At times the writing is a bit awkward but never coy - Johnston is quite open about his feelings towards the experience he underwent. What makes this account stand out above others is such openness, in fact. I've read over fifty WW2 memoirs and the most I've read about one's combat experience resulting in chronic dreams/nightmares comes from Johnston's account. You cannot help but respect someone who is willing to open up on such harrowing and unnerving past experiences.As I said, the account is rather short and there are some awkward passages here, which ultimately result in the 4¼ star review. However, this memoir has all of the hallmarks of a great combat memoir in my book: quality writing, explicitness in detail and openness in conveying one's personal actions. This is up there in the ten best PTO - if not, marine memoir that I have read from WW2.If you're looking for more USMC memoirs on Peleliu then check out BATTLEGROUND PACIFIC by Sterling Mace and the classic WITH THE OLD BREED by Sledge. Johnston provides the most content on that battle but if you want a marine account of fighting on Bouganville the only example I can think of is A MARINE FROM BOSTON by John Carey.Self-plugging: If you want to read more war memoirs check out my listamanias!

4 stars because it is just as if you are there,but watching it all from a protective shell.I am lucky enough to have known Jim, and to have listened to some of these memories sitting at his kitchen table or on a Sunday on his front porch sipping on something stronger than an ice tea or lemonade. I listened with sometimes anticipation and sometimes true gut wrenching heartache. It was not often he would speak of them, but when he did there was always a point to every story, usually meant towards something one of us young fellas had better pay attention to. And the older i got , from teenager to adult hood, i could see that just listening wasn't enough, you could see the pain,anger,sadness and happiness in his eyes as he told it. So as i read this book , i saw his face and eyes as i did then.He was , and his family is still, loved in the small community that i grew up in. I am grateful that he sat down and put it all, or all he could remember on paper so everyone can understand what hell ALL them boys went through over there to try and keep their family's at home safe and keep evil at bay.This book won't make you as lucky as me to have known him personally, but it will get you as close as you can to know him and the men, family and friends that he believed in to fight so hard for. He at times, lets you know how he feels about his feelings for the war,in general,and what war can to to a person,in battle and some effects later in life. At times bluntly and maybe not to some peoples' liking, but Jim told things like it was. Like it or not, and to me thats a stand up kind of man.A man,husband,father and a marine. They should put all the South Pacific first books of this magnatude to life on the Military and/or History Channels for more to see. GOD Bless you Jim, may you rest in peace, and GOD bless your family, i'm proud to have known you and know your family, Clifford L. Larsen

I st 1/2 of book very intense. Great account of One who was there. Had the same attitude towards officers may Dad had when He was in WW2. Dad was on Saipan after the island was taken.