ARRGH! My viewing was interrupted. What did the disturbed marine say to Leckie? Something about Guadalcanal.
I had to rewind the DVR and watch that scene a couple of times with the volume turned up to understand what was said. The disturbed Marine told Leckie that he and another guy jumped into a ditch to avoid a Japanese bombing raid on Guadalcanal. The other guy was praying to God and the rest went something like this:
“He believed God would save him. I envied him.”
That’s not an exact quote, but it’s close. The implication was that as early as Guadalcanal, the disturbed Marine felt he was already beyond salvation.
I read somewhere that it seemed like a lot of WW II guys who thought they would die in combat did die. Don’t know if anybody kept stats , probably not. There is a theory that guys who thought they would die took more risks which led to many of them dying.
I thought the point to the story he told was that the guy behind him got killed, and he wished it was he who died. Afterward, he wished Lucky a quick death with all sincerity.
Not WWII, but I just finished a Civil War novel where the author had some characters taking risks because the whole experience was so horrible and they were so miserable, they just wanted to get out of the situation, even if they had to die to do it. It was very believable, the way he described it.
I found this one to be the most compelling one yet.
I liked that Leckie gave the gun to the doctor. He would rather he have it than the officer that stole it from him.
Why was the disturbed marine still there? Wouldn’t they have sent him home?