In 1942, several Marines prepare for deployment to the Pacific Theater of World War II. We follow them through to their deployment, first landing, and first battle.
Tropes:
- Burn Baby Burn: While leafing through a book of one of the dead Japanese, Leckie finds a photograph of a Japanese woman in a kimono, which he later somberly burns.
- Happy Birthday to You!: Sidney Phillips admits he just turned eighteen a few weeks before the battle. The Marines sing this to him.
- Hold the Line: The Battle of the Tenaru/Alligator Creek is basically this. At one point, the Marines are putting their entire effort just preventing a flanking maneuver.
- Reunion Vow: Several, as the boys go off to war.
- John has dinner with his large Italian family and expresses hope that they'll see each other again, but his mother is clearly concerned about whether it'll happen.
- Leckie tries to say goodbye to his father, who's originally preoccupied with fixing their car's axel. Eventually he stands up to shake Leckie's hand and wish him a proper goodbye. His stiffness probably comes from not knowing if his son will make it.
- Rousing Speech: A few are given, most notably by Lieutenant Colonel Chesty Puller
at the episode's start. - Suicide Attack: After their first battle, the boys are sorting through the dead and find a live one. When they pick him, he detonates a grenade held behind his back. This won't be the last time, either.
- Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: A Japanese soldier, the last of his squad charging the Marines, wanders out unarmed begging to be killed. Leckie obliges him after the others just wound the Japanese soldier.
- We Have Reserves: The Marines are shocked at how many bodies they find the morning after their first battle. Truth in Television, as some 20th century militaries compensated for inferior equipment by just overwhelming with numbers, lives of the soldiers be damned.
- You Are in Command Now: The local CO in Guadalcanal, who up 'til this point has been a picture of professionalism, ducks behind cover and looks like he's having a breakdown the moment their first engagement starts. The boys are forced to cope on their own.
