A young Marine survives the coral hell of Peleliu and the carnage of Okinawa, comes home to Alabama, and breaks down in tears over a wounded dove. This episode explores the two halves of Eugene Sledge's life, starting with a frail childhood in Mobile marked by rheumatic fever and a heart murmur, a physician father and dean mother who wanted him safe, and a decorated older brother fighting in Europe. Sledge enrolled in the Navy V-12 program at Georgia Tech, then deliberately flunked out with half his detachment so he would not miss the war.

Assigned as a 60-millimeter mortarman to K Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, he served constantly as rifleman and stretcher bearer while secretly keeping notes in the margins of a pocket New Testament. Back home, a registrar asked whether the Marine Corps had taught him anything useful, and hunting bec ...