Captain Dale Dye Talks About HBO'S "The Pacific"

Even if you don't know who Captain Dale Dye, USMC (Ret.) is -- and you darned well ought to know who he is -- you've seen the actors he's trained and the movies and TV projects he's held to his particular high standards.

When you see an interview or a DVD bonus feature in which the pretty young star of a war movie has complained about their pre-shoot boot camp and how without that boot camp, they never would have been able to get into character, to properly do justice to our men and women in uniform, odds are that that boot camp was run by Captain Dye.

Military advisor on films ranging from "Platoon" to "Saving Private Ryan" to "Band of Brothers" to "Tropic Thunder," Dye has become the go-to veteran for directors ranging from Steven Spielberg to Oliver Stone to Brian DePalma. He doesn't just know his stuff on an intellectual level. He lived it, earning multiple Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam.

His most recent gig was on HBO's "The Pacific," where he put the stars, including James Badge Dale, John Seda and Joe Mazzello, through the paces necessary to do justice to the First Marine Division and their campaign through the Pacific front.

Read the rest of this article by Daniel Fienberg -- Here on HitFix.

Merriel "Snafu" Shelton -- WW2 Marine

Rami Malek as Merriel "Snafu" Shelton

Merriel "Snafu" Shelton was one of Eugene Sledge's fellow soldiers. He got his nickname from his cocky personality and demeanor. Though he has already had some humanity beaten out of him by his introduction, he slowly loses even more of his humanity as the series goes on.

Snafu was born in Louisiana. He enlisted in the Marines at some point, and served along with Burgin on Cape Gloucester.

Snafu is first seen in a cabin with De L'Eau and Burgin. He is later seen supervising new recruits Eugene Sledge, Bill Leyden, and Robert Oswalt clean oil drums.

Messing with the new replacments

He later participates in the Battle of Peleliu, where he is later seen prying a dead Japanese soldier's jaw right off the skull to get some gold teeth right in front of Eugene Sledge.

Snafu is later part of the Airfield assault, though he pays almost no major role in this episode. He asks Sledge for a smoke, which Sledge obliges. It is here that Snafu gives Sledge the nickname "Sledgehammer".

The real Merriel "Snafu" Shelton

He later becomes part of the marines that fight in the Peleliu hills led by Capt. Haldane. At one time, Snafu throws rocks into the partially destroyed cranium of a dead Japanese soldier. It is here that we see Sledge almost getting reduced to Snafu's level, about to cut off another Japanese corpse's jaw. Snafu stops him, maybe because he doesn't want to let Sledge become like him in a glimpse of humanity, even though all he says is that there are germs that spread diseases in the corpses, so Sledge cuts off a patch instead. Snafu is then seen going back to Pavavu with the rest of his unit, and he is presumably one of the soldiers swimming just off the shores of Pavavu.

Sledge and Snafu attacking the enemy

Snafu's unit is later called upon to assist in the Battle of Okinawa, where Snafu is first seen exchanging his old poncho for replacement Pvt. Peck's poncho which leads to some problems later. He is the same as he always is. Eventually, Snafu watches as Hamm is killed in a botched suicide attempt by Hamm's fellow replacement Pvt. Peck, and in a rare show of emotion, he holds a poncho in remorse. Snafu is later seen with Sledge looking into a house where a crying baby and a dying woman are the sole survivors of a mortar shelling. Snafu leaves without learning of the woman, and Sledge walks out some time later. Snafu is later seen questioning Sledge about his cigarette lighter. Sledge then tells Snafu that it used to belong to GySgt. Haney, slightly surprising Snafu and Burgin. Snafu is last seen leaving in a truck. Snafu is later seen celebrating Victory in Japan Day with his friends, Sledge and Burgin.

Rami Malek and some Real Marines

Snafu, Sledge, and Burgin later return to their respectivie homes in a train. Burgin goes out first, and Snafu soon follows that night. While leaving, he noticeably wanted to talk to Sledge before doing so, but Sledge was fast asleep. Snafu instead then leaves the train holding his tongue and never speaking to his friends again for 35 years until Sledge released his memiors, "With the Old Breed At Peleliu and Okinawa". Snafu stayed in Louisiana and worked in the lumber business, married, and had three sons.

Snafu Shelton, Paul Wright, and Eugene Sledge at a Marine reunion

Snafu died in 1993. Contrary to popular rumor, Eugene Sledge did not serve as one of the pallbearers in his funeral. (source WIKIA )

Rami Malek and Merriel Shelton

God Bless You Snafu!

HBO's The Pacific -- Actors and The Real Guys

If you're like me you loved HBO's The Pacific, so I thought today we could compare the real-life heroes the characters were based on and the actors who portrayed them during the series.

Robert Leckie and the actor who plays him in The Pacific, James Badge Dale

Eugene Sledge author of With The Old Breed and actor Joe Mazzello

Medal of Honor recipient John Basilone and actor Jon Seda

Actor William Sadler and Marine Hero Lewis "Chesty" Puller

Actress Annie Parisse and Marine Lena Riggi Basilone

Outstanding actor Rami Malek and the unforgettable Merriell "Snafu" Shelton

Ashton Holmes and Sidney Phillips

Actor Scott Gibson and Capt. Andrew "Ack Ack" Haldane

Lew "Chuckler" Juergens played by actor Josh Helman

Eugene Sledge -- Interview and Video

Eugene Sledge

The video below takes a look at the life of WWII veteran Eugene Sledge. It features interviews with Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, actor Joe Mazzello and the team behind the HBO miniseries "The Pacific."

Joe Mazzello as "Sledgehammer"

The recording below is a cool interview with Joe Mazzello, he talks about playing Eugene Sledge, meeting Sledge's family, the mental strain all the actors went through after production, and about actor Rami Malek, who played "Snafu" in HBO's The Pacific.

Don't leave here without listening to this, it's very interesting!

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa

Click here for a nice article about Joe Mazzello and a gift he received from the Sledge family.

God Bless You Sledge!

Sgt. Lena Basilone Pictures

Marine Sergeant Lena Basilone was the wife of Medal of Honor winner John Basilone. I just watched HBO's The Pacific episode 7, it was great, tons of action. Anyway it looks like John and Lena Basilone meet and fall in love during episode 8. I thought I would share some of the information I have found on Lena Basilone, it's not much, but here it is.

 Lena Basilone's Obituary, this has some good info, click image for a larger view.

The happy couple on there wedding day.

HBO's The Pacific a ten part mini-series includes the love story of John and Lena Basilone.

Lena christens the USS Basilone after John's death. She was a stunning women.

Actress Annie Parisse plays Lena Riggi Basilone in HBO's The Pacific. More info on Annie here -- Wiki and -- IMDB

Annie Parisse and Jon Seda, as Lena Riggi and John Basilone.

The Basilone wedding party.

The grave of Lena Basilone. God Bless and Semper Fi.

Check here for more info on Lena Riggi Basilone.

Check here for more info on John Basilone

Eugene Sledge -- Author and War Hero

Having just finished Helmet For My Pillow by Robert Leckie (great book by the way) I am now starting With The Old Breed by Eugene Sledge. HBO's miniseries The Pacific was based on these two books.

Eugene Sledge and Actor Joe Mazzello from HBO's The Pacific

I you are watching The Pacific then you might have some interest in the real men behind the characters in the show. Please enjoy some of the information I have located on Marine Veteran and Author E.B. Sledge.

A young Eugene Sledge

Eugene Bondurant Sledge (November 4, 1923 – March 3, 2001) was a United States Marine, university professor, and author. His 1981 memoir With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa was, in part, the basis for Ken Burn's PBS documentary, The War on World War II and for the HBO series on the Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

E.B. Sledge

Eugene B. Sledge was born on November 4, 1923 and grew up at Georgia Cottage in Mobile, Alabama. The great-grandson of Confederate officers, Sledge was bookish and frail as a child. However, his physician father brought him up to be accustomed to the outdoors. Having learned to fish and hunt from his father, he was fond of venturing outdoors into the woods with his best friend Sidney Phillips. After Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, Sledge wished to join the Marines with his friend Phillips. A heart murmur prevented him from joining up at that time, however, and Phillips went off to the recruitment post alone. Sledge graduated from Murphy High School in Mobile in May 1942, and entered Marion Military Institute in Marion, Alabama, that fall.

Sledge and His Father in HBO's The Pacific

During the scene pictured above Sledge's father, a doctor, tells him "The worst thing about treating those combat boys from the Great War wasn't that they had had their flesh torn, it was that they had had their souls torn out."

Sledge (Joseph Mazzello) hits the beach at Peleliu

Sledge enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in December 1942 to train as an officer, but in order not to "miss the war" he joined as an enlisted man and was eventually assigned to Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division (K/3/5). He served as a Private First Class in the Pacific Theater and saw combat as a 60 mm mortarman at Peleliu and Okinawa. When fighting grew too close for effective use of the mortar he served other duties such as stretcher bearer and providing rifle fire. During his service, Sledge kept notes of what happened in his pocket sized New Testament. When the war ended, he took these notes and compiled them into the memoir that was to be known as With the Old Breed. After being posted to Beijing (then known as Peiping), China after the war, he was discharged from the Marine Corps in February 1946 with the rank of Corporal.

Sledge during happy times in the Marine Corps

After the war, Sledge attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University) where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in the summer of 1949. Sledge, like many other war veterans, had a hard time readjusting to civilian life. “As I strolled the streets of Mobile, civilian life seemed so strange,” Sledge wrote. “People rushed around in a hurry about seemingly insignificant things. Few seemed to realize how blessed they were to be free and untouched by the horrors of war. To them, a veteran was a veteran – all were the same, whether one man had survived the deadliest combat or another had pounded a typewriter while in uniform.”

Sledge is center smoking the pipe

Once an avid hunter, Sledge gave up his hobby. He found that he could not endure the thought of wounding a bird and said that killing a deer felt like shooting a cow in a pasture. His father found him weeping after a dove hunt where Sledge had to kill a wounded dove and in the ensuing conversations he told his father he could no longer tolerate seeing any suffering. A key turning point in his life and career followed when his father advised him that he could substitute bird watching as a hobby. Sledge started to assist the conservation department in its banding study efforts, the origin of his well known passion for the science of ornithology.

Sledge was such a young man, imagine the horror he witnessed

When he came to enroll at Auburn University, the female at the register office asked him if the Marine Corps taught him anything useful. Sledge replied saying "Lady, there was a killing war. The Marine Corps taught me how to kill Japs and try to survive. Now, if that don't fit into any academic course, I'm sorry. But some of us had to do the killing -- and most of my buddies got killed or wounded." He found his salvation in science, it kept the flashbacks of Peleliu and Okinawa at bay. Close, constant study of nature prevented him from going mad. However, the war stayed with him, and finally at the urging of his wife, he began to put his thoughts on paper, at last allowing him to put his horrors behind him. He returned to Auburn in 1953 where he worked as a research assistant until 1955. That same year he graduated from API with a Master of Science degree in botany. From 1956 to 1960 Sledge attended the University of Florida and worked as a research assistant. He published numerous papers on helminthology and in 1956 joined the Helminthological Society of Washington. He received his doctorate in biology from the University of Florida in 1960. He was employed by the Division of Plant Industries for the Florida State Department of Agriculture from 1959 to 1962.

Sledge loved Biology

In the summer of 1962, Sledge was appointed Assistant Professor of Biology at Alabama College (now the University of Montevallo). In 1970 he became a professor, a position he held until his retirement in 1990. He taught zoology, ornithology, comparative vertebrate anatomy and other courses during his long tenure there. Sledge was popular with his students, organizing field trips and collections around town. Eugene Sledge died after a long battle with stomach cancer in 2001. (source wiki  )

Eugene's Marine Discharge

Check Out E.B. Sledge's Books Below

 

With the Old Breed

 

China Marine: An Infantryman's Life after World War II

God Bless You SledgeHammer!