The View From My Foxhole

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, millions of young American men were eager to join up and defend their country. William Swanson was among them. The View from My Foxhole tells William Swanson’s story of fighting in the jungles of Bougainville and Guam and the ash heap of Iwo Jima. Through it he maintains his sense of humor and thanks his lucky stars for every day he survives. From THE VIEW FROM MY FOXHOLE: We move past the torn bodies of our buddies, hoping and praying that we will be spared, yet knowing in our hearts that many will not. Fear is on me again—fear of death, of course—but I have found that it is relatively easy to resign oneself to death and, on occasion, even welcome the thing. It is really the violence, the pain, the suddenness, and unpredictability of events that tear our insides. We cannot be sure of anything—not the next step or the next second—and that is the real terror.

A Foxhole View is a powerful and moving oral history of the Korean War. Here are highly personal accounts of the war from the rank and file of the infantry--told in the distinctive voices of Hawaii's soldiers.

In January 1968, John Corbett and his fellow leathernecks of the 26th Marine Regiment fortified a remote outpost at a place in South Vietnam called Khe Sanh. Within days of their arrival, twenty thousand North Vietnamese soldiers surrounded the base. What followed over the next seventy-seven days became one of the deadliest fights of the Vietnam War—and one of the greatest battles in military history. Private First Class Corbett made do with little or no sleep for days on end. The enemy bombarded the base incessantly. Extremes of heat, cold, and fog added to the misery, as did all manner of wounds and injuries too minor to justify evacuation from frontline positions. The emotional toll was tremendous as the Marines saw their friends suffer and die every day of the siege. Corbett relates these experiences through the eyes of a twenty-year-old but with the mind and maturity of a man now in his fifties. His story of life, death, and growing up on the front lines at Khe Sanh speaks for all of the Marines caught up in the epic siege of the Vietnam War.

On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was brutally attacked by Japanese war planes, forever changing the history of the world. Thousands of miles away, Joseph Friedman was living on a small farm in Flemington, New Jersey, handling many chores during the day and discussing the war in the evening. Less than a year later, Friedman's own life would change forever when he joined the Marine Corps and shipped overseas to begin a twenty-seven month journey into wartime. Friedman narrates a compelling and harrowing story as he chronologically describes his experiences as a Marine private during World War II, commencing with his swearing-in ceremony in downtown New York City. As he details rigorous marches during basic training, tenacious patrols through the South Pacific jungles, fierce battles with the enemy, and terror as he huddled in foxholes and witnessed the unleashing of war's fury, Friedman offers a moving portrayal of the powerful human emotions that sustained every soldier comradeship, duty, and loyalty to their fellow brothers-in-arms. In God Shared My Foxholes, Joseph Friedman offers not only his own personal reflections, but also a lasting tribute that acknowledges the indomitable courage and incredible sacrifices of all who served during World War II.