In 1942, Washington Post writer Sam Stavisky heard that the U.S. Marine Corps was creating a unique unit of rifle-toting writers, the Combat Correspondent Corps. After completing the rigors of boot camp every grunt must endure, a chosen few civilian reporters would be transformed into Marines, then be assigned to the Pacific to engage in and report on the war there.

Already rejected by all branches of the military because of his poor vision, Sam jumped at the chance to volunteer. Soon he found himself hacking his way across the coral atolls of the Pacific, engaging in some of the fiercest fighting of World War II. He and his fellow Marines took part in five Solomon Islands campaigns and a score of operations, including patrols with the legendary "Marine's Marine," Chesty Puller.

Culled from original sources and from stories filed fifty years ago, Sam Stavisky has written a heart-pounding eyewitness account of those hellish battles--and of the sacrifice and heroism of the American men who have immortalized the name of the U.S. Marines in the annals of war.