Helmet for My Pillow

Just as David Kenyon Webster’s unpublished work formed the basis for his father’s Band of Brothers this memoir is the backbone of Hugh Ambrose’s The Pacific. Both became the mini-series produced by Spielberg and Hanks. Both writers were newspapermen in civilian life. Without any prologue the book begins with a description of the dehumanizing process of basic training which seems common to all such memoirs. Leckie’s style is so engaging it almost makes basic sound like fun, it contains little of the rancour that often populates such tomes. His background as a reporter shows in a spare fact-based approach devoid of excessive editorial comment that still manages to get his point across. He writes about doing time in the brig as if it were a point of honour. His descriptions of jungle surveillance are terrifying in their simplicity. All in all a great read.