Mary Campanella

Steve Campanella-- Mary's husband. Both are excellent. It depends on what you want to see. The Pacific is probably more realistic, though never having fought in war, I couldn't really say. Nevertheless, the Pacific shows what even good American kids are capable of, when pushed to the limit. I was told a story by a friend who fought in the Pacific, of how he witnessed some American soldiers "exploding" the bloated bodies of dead Japanese by jumping on them. Snafu's digging out the gold from a still living Japanese soldier is probably not impossible. Please note how he and Sledge were transformed by war's end. We don't like to imagine our men committing atrocities, but we do know that is what war does to people. Please remember that the Americans who fought to the last man and died at the beginning of the war were "heroes". The Japanese soldiers who fought and died at the end of the war were "fanatics". The American who jumped on a grenade to save his buddies-- hero; the Japanese kamikaze--- a fanatic. Tom Hanks dying in "Band" was pure Hollywood. Captain Haldane in the "Pacific" different. I'm sure someone will object to this view, but he/she is entitled to, because that's one of the things that those Americans died for: our right to disagree with our government and each other.