HBO’s “The Pacific” Takes You to Hell and Back
Sixty-nine years ago Sidney Phillips was a Mobile, Alabama teenager who could not imagine he would spend his next birthday on the tiny Pacific Ocean island of Guadalcanal, trying to kill Japs who were trying to kill him. Then Pearl Harbor happened.
One day later, on December 8, 1941, the young man found himself standing in a U.S. Navy enlistment line when another military recruiter asked, “Did he want to get eye-to-eye with some Japs?” Hell, yes, everyone wanted to get eyeball-to-eyeball with Japs. Sidney Phillips enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He is profiled in HBO’s new miniseries “The Pacific,” which was co-produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.
Hanks and Spielberg have been extraordinarily prolific World War II story tellers. Hanks starred as Capt. John Miller and Spielberg produced “Saving Private Ryan” in 1998, described then by some critics as the best World War II movie ever made. Hanks as Miller leads Americans behind enemy lines to rescue a private whose brothers all died in World War II.
“Band of Brothers” Continued Collaboration
Three years after “Saving Private Ryan,” Hanks and Spielberg co-produced HBO’s “Band of Brothers,” the story of American GIs in Europe. Now, again with co-producer Gary Goetzman, Hanks and Spielberg are back with “The Pacific,” a 10-hour miniseries that premieres at 9:00pm Sunday, March 14 and then weekly for nine more weeks.
HBO arranged an Atlanta special invitation showing of “The Pacific” first hour recently at The Carter Center. Most in the room were current and former United States Marines. Some who once served are very old men now. They wore Marine Corps dress blues and they sat tall and straight in their wheelchairs. Once a Marine, always a Marine.
Sid Phillips is 85 years old. He still stands ramrod straight and moves briskly. His handshake is strong and there’s a twinkle in the old Marine’s eyes. “This is pretty heady stuff for a private,” he said. “The Pacific” is his story and the story of every Marine who served in the Pacific campaign.
The 1st Marine Division landed on Guadalcanal eight months after Phillips enlisted. Here is some of what Sid said during interviews conducted for HBO. “You joined the Marine Corps to fight. You were macho and gung-ho. I turned 18 when we were on Guadalcanal. We’d been there about a month. I remember specifically thinking, this is my birthday. I walked over. I sat down and I had a five-minute meditation that I’m 18 now and I’m growing up.”
“We’d Just Pray and Hold On”
The 1st Marine Division remained on Guadalcanal from August 7, 1942 through December 22. This was their first experience with absolute hell. More than 7,000 Marines and some 30,000 Japanese soldiers died.
Sid Phillips again: “The Japanese would come in there and turn on their searchlights and bombard us for hours. We’d just pray and hold on. There wasn’t anything else you could do. I don’t think anybody that lived through that would ever forget it. That was really frightful. It was just unbelievable.”
HBO does not disclose the cost of miniseries projects. Published reports speculate each hour of “The Pacific” cost north of $20 million, or $200 million plus. Most of 262 shooting days were in Australia with 138 main character actors and some 26,000 total cast members.
The series weaves together the real world lives of four United States Marines. Phillips and his Mobile, Alabama buddy Eugene Sledge survived the war, as did Robert Leckie. Leckie became a prominent military historian. All three wrote books about the campaign. HBO’s “The Pacific” is extensively based on books by Sledge and Leckie along with interviews.
The fourth Marine is John Basilone of Buffalo, New York.
Basilone is a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient for valor on Guadalcanal. He returned stateside and was feted as a national hero. Celebrity unsettled Basilone who requested reassignment to the Pacific. Basilone died on Iwo Jima. He became the only U.S. Marine recipient of both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross in World War II.
“I’ve had a Wonderful Life. I Really Have”
Phillips’ campaign ended in summer 1944 after he participated in the Cape Gloucester invasion on New Britain. Phillips rotated to the United States for naval officer training. When the war ended in spring 1945 Phillips went home to Mobile, Alabama where he married Mary Houston. They had three children, twelve grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Sid Phillips: “When you first arrived home it was just impossible to speak without cursing. We’d been doing it for so long. You did not want to talk about the war to your family, to other civilians, no. To another veteran, like to Eugene (Sledge) when Eugene came home, we would talk freely about it for hours at night. It would be therapeutic to both of us.”
Phillips attended local college and then medical school at the University of Alabama. It was on Guadalcanal that Phillips decided that if he survived hell, he would devote his life to medicine.
“I think the war changed me quite a bit, maybe for the better. It disciplined us. We were humbled by it. For the rest of your life, you appreciate a glass of clean water. You appreciate clean shaves. You appreciate good food.” He reflects easily now on 85 years. “It’s kind of like hitting the jackpot on a slot machine. I’ve had a wonderful life. I really have.”
Additional Resources
Dr. Sidney Phillips, www.marinesidphillips.com
Dr. Sidney Phillips discusses Guadalcanal on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2EqQjIKn28
HBO Series / “The Pacific”, www.hbo.com/the-pacific
HBO Series / “Band of Brothers”, www.hbo.com/band-of-brothers
PBS Series / “The War”, www.pbs.org/thewar
United States Marine Corps, www.marines.mil
Health Care Reform + Debt Commission = National Sales Tax?
“Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor is an unforgettable sound track that immediately conjures up Rocky Balboa trying to resurrect his ring career against dastardly basher James “Clubber” Lang. This is long after Rocky vanquished Apollo Creed. Rocky has gotten soft, fattening his resume on bums who couldn’t punch through tissue. “Eye of the Tiger” is Rocky on the Rebound, lean, fast, hard, a ring artist, a two-fisted cruise missile. Mano a mano!
“Eye of the Tiger” announced a not-so-lean Newt Gingrich into the American Conservative Union’s CPAC last week in Washington. The ballroom rocked; it was a Rocky moment, the conservative version of triumph by good over evil. Gingrich delivered a high octane half hour. Gingrich barnstorms this week in Atlanta, addressing an Atlanta Press Club luncheon and keynoting the Georgia Republican Party’s Presidents’ Day Dinner, both Wednesday. Read more »
Losing Job Leaves Colleague “Feeling Bruised”
This past week two more colleagues joined the half million plus Georgians who are out of work. They toiled for big companies, Coca-Cola and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who apparently have not heard we are in an economic rebound made possible by the Barack Obama administration.
They entered the ranks of newly laid off professionals the same week the White House admitted the inevitable: Official unemployment will remain around 10% nationally all year and that is not good news for any politician, Republican, Democrat or Tea Party. One told me she is “feeling bruised.”
Perhaps they are just a bit fortunate. Now they can reinvent. Think about all the poor folks back in the office who sit around all day, fearful someone has painted a target on them. The best part is they no longer have to get up in the morning and wonder, is this the day they send me home? Read more »
GOP Power Play, Obamacare, Space Taxis and Newt!
Friday morning’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution headline that screamed “Governor seeks a shake-up” was counter-punched by the next morning’s headline “Critics pound Perdue plan.” The November headline should say “Voters KO GOP Power Grab Plan.” This was a bad idea from the start. And if it’s such a good idea now, why didn’t we hear about this until Sonny Perdue’s eighth year in office?
The basic plan goes like this: Perdue proposed that starting after 2014 elections the governor would appoint four currently elected officials: commissioners at labor, education and insurance, along with state superintendent of education. This will ostensibly make for better, more efficient government and ensure that really good people hold those jobs. Read more »
Bill Bolling: We Need New Trust, Honest Conversations
A lot of smart folks who care deeply about Atlanta’s future went to Wednesday’s New Century Forum lunch at The Commerce Club. They talked about water, education, transportation, existing companies, emerging companies and economic growth. All the usual issues that you would expect were put on the table and the terms we all know like MARTA, GRTA, SPLOST, GDP and FDIC.
The panelists used phrases like “pockets of great schools, pockets of mediocre schools and pockets of poor schools.” They discussed a second airport, the Beltline initiative, Atlanta one day becoming an urban model for green technology and why mass transit needs money. None of the major stuff was missed. It was all there, just like it’s always there in these conversations. Read more »
Monday Live Blog: Georgia Jobs Conference
Final Version: 4:00 pm
The Georgia Department of Human Resources will utilize federal government stimulus funds to help Georgia employers fully fund new teen-aged hires during the June and July summer recess. The announcement was made Monday by Human Resources commissioner B.J. Walker during the Georgia Department of Labor’s Georgia Jobs Summit at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center.
Labor commissioner Michael Thurmond announced his department will create Georgia Jump Start, a new focus on how to re-deploy existing resources without requiring legislative action. The plan will be shared with Governor Sonny Perdue, Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, and the General Assembly. Perdue and Cagle did not attend the conference. GDOL executives also pledged more help to small business. Panelists repeatedly said strengthening Georgia education remains the key to economic success. Read more »
Georgia Telecom: “Statewide Cobwebs of Regulation”
Economies require technology just as mammals require oxygen. In effect, technology is the oxygen from which economic progress is derived. If you wonder about that idea, consider that Soviets launched the first man into space through Kremlin willpower but Americans landed the first men on the moon because superior private sector research and technology enabled the U.S. space program to overcome the Soviet albatross.
Lately we are forced to become accustomed to some fairly terrifying economic ideas. Big recessions will happen. Millions will lose jobs. Vast amounts of accumulated wealth will vanish. Governments will be overwhelmed by service demands. Tax bases will shrink. Politicians who are challenged to create new ideas will often look elsewhere to see what the other guy is doing. Despite that, technology marches forward and it provides the path to future success. Read more »
What Happened to Georgia Prosperity?
Gosh, it seems like only yesterday that Atlanta re-branded itself with the catchy phrase “Every Day is an Opening Day” which came complete with a rap song that energized some folks and offended others. Mostly, those were the good old days of November 2005 before financial challenges smash-mouthed Georgia and Atlanta like a monster truck rolling over a Ford Pinto.
Georgia and Atlanta today are poster children for residential foreclosures, glistening office towers without tenants, bank foreclosures, transportation woes, water woes, education woes, revenue woes, pension fund woes and stunning numbers of personal bankruptcies. But we’re not alone; all major cities and state governments are experiencing financial meltdowns. Read more »
Good Photos, Good Wood, Real Heroes and Snowflakes
One year ends, another soon begins. Sharing these thoughts:
A good photograph saves one moment forever. Use them liberally with family.
Afghanistan will not become the next Vietnam but Iraq will become South Korea.
Americans will not feel like we are at war until more Americans die in an American city.
Atlanta’s new mayor seems like a nice young man who inherits a dysfunctional city.
Barack Obama skipped the Nobel Peace Prize luncheon; that is poor manners. Read more »
Michael Thurmond: We Can Claim Our Economic Destiny
It is well known in Georgia politics that you should never follow Michael Thurmond to the podium. Not when he is speaking with passion about his primary passion, putting people back to work.
State labor commissioner by title, Thurmond is the unemployed people’s champion. He saw a better future in career centers than in sending folks to the unemployment office. So he threw out the old, depressing model and created a new model focused on getting ready to go back to work. Department of Labor Job Fairs attract thousands. One in Atlanta this year drew almost 17,000. Read more »
-
Recent
- HBO’s “The Pacific” Takes You to Hell and Back
- Health Care Reform + Debt Commission = National Sales Tax?
- Losing Job Leaves Colleague “Feeling Bruised”
- GOP Power Play, Obamacare, Space Taxis and Newt!
- Bill Bolling: We Need New Trust, Honest Conversations
- Monday Live Blog: Georgia Jobs Conference
- Georgia Telecom: “Statewide Cobwebs of Regulation”
- What Happened to Georgia Prosperity?
- Good Photos, Good Wood, Real Heroes and Snowflakes
- Michael Thurmond: We Can Claim Our Economic Destiny
- “I Didn’t Do Too Well At Iwo Jima”
- The Achilles Heel That Could Engulf Obama
-
Links
-
Archives
- March 2010 (1)
- February 2010 (4)
- January 2010 (3)
- December 2009 (1)
- November 2009 (3)
- October 2009 (4)
- September 2009 (4)
- August 2009 (6)
- July 2009 (7)
- June 2009 (1)
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
