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Robert Leckie (December 18, 1920 – December 24, 2001) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 author of popular books on the military history
Military history

Military history is a humanities List of academic disciplines within the scope of History recording of War in the Human history, and its impact on the societies, their cultures, economies and changing Politics and international relationships....
 of the United States. As a young man, he served in the 1st Marine Division during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. His experiences as a machine gunner
MOS 0331

MOS 0331 is the USMC infantry specialty for crew-served machine guns. A machine gun team can utilize a medium machine gun , a heavy machine gun , or an automatic grenade laucher ....
 and intelligence scout during the Battle of Guadalcanal and later campaigns are said to have greatly influenced his outlook.

ie was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a U.S. state located in the Northeastern United States and Mid-Atlantic States regions of the United States....
 on December 18, 1920 to an Irish
Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can claim ancestry originating in Ireland. A total of 36,495,800 Americans reported Irish ancestry in the 2006 American Community Survey....
 Catholic
Catholic

Catholic is an adjective derived from the Greek language adjective , meaning "whole" or "complete". In the context of Christianity ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages....
 family of eight children.






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Robert Leckie (December 18, 1920 – December 24, 2001) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 author of popular books on the military history
Military history

Military history is a humanities List of academic disciplines within the scope of History recording of War in the Human history, and its impact on the societies, their cultures, economies and changing Politics and international relationships....
 of the United States. As a young man, he served in the 1st Marine Division during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. His experiences as a machine gunner
MOS 0331

MOS 0331 is the USMC infantry specialty for crew-served machine guns. A machine gun team can utilize a medium machine gun , a heavy machine gun , or an automatic grenade laucher ....
 and intelligence scout during the Battle of Guadalcanal and later campaigns are said to have greatly influenced his outlook.

Biography

Leckie was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a U.S. state located in the Northeastern United States and Mid-Atlantic States regions of the United States....
 on December 18, 1920 to an Irish
Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can claim ancestry originating in Ireland. A total of 36,495,800 Americans reported Irish ancestry in the 2006 American Community Survey....
 Catholic
Catholic

Catholic is an adjective derived from the Greek language adjective , meaning "whole" or "complete". In the context of Christianity ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages....
 family of eight children. He grew up in Rutherford, New Jersey
Rutherford, New Jersey

Rutherford is a Borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 18,110.Rutherford was formed as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on September 21, 1881, from portions of Union Township, Bergen County, New Jersey, based on the results of a referendum held o...
. He began his professional writing career, before World War II, at age 16 as a sports writer for The Record of Hackensack in Hackensack
Hackensack, New Jersey

Hackensack is a City in Bergen County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States and the county seat of Bergen County, New Jersey. Although informally called Hackensack, it was officially named New Barbadoes Township, Bergen County, New Jersey until 1921....
.

In 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Empire of Japan Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, later resulting in the United States becoming militarily involved in World War II....
, Leckie enlisted in the United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps

The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing Military power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to rapidly deliver Marine Air-Ground Task Force....
. He served in combat in the Pacific theater
Pacific Theater

Pacific Theater or Pacific Theatre may refer to*Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I* Pacific War**Pacific Ocean theater of World War II...
, as a scout and a machine gun
Machine gun

A machine gun is a Automatic firearm mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire List of rifle cartridgess in quick succession from an Belt or large-capacity Magazine , typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
ner in the 1st Marine Division. He participated in every major 1st Marine Division campaign except the Okinawa
Battle of Okinawa

The Battle of Okinawa, also known as Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa Island and was the largest amphibious warfare in the Pacific War of World War II....
.

Following World War II, Leckie worked as a reporter for the Associated Press
Associated Press

The Associated Press is an Media of the United States news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, Radio station and Television station stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staffers....
, the Buffalo Courier Express, the New York Journal American
New York Journal American

The New York Journal American was a newspaper published from 1937 to 1966. The Journal American was the product of a merger between two New York newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst: The New York American , a morning paper, and the New York Evening Journal, an afternoon paper....
, the New York Daily News
New York Daily News

The Daily News of New York City is the fifth most-widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 703,137, as of March 30, 2008....
 and The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger

The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark, New Jersey. It is a sister paper to the Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton, New Jersey and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications....
. His first and best-selling book, Helmet for My Pillow
Helmet for My Pillow

Helmet for My Pillow is the personal narrative written by World War II United States Marine Corps veteran, author and military historian Robert Leckie ....
, a personal war memoir, was published in 1957. Leckie subsequently wrote more than 40 books on American war history, spanning from the French and Indian War
French and Indian War

The French and Indian War was the North American chapter of the Seven Years' War, known in Canada as the War of the Conquest. The name refers to the two main enemies of the British: the royal French forces and the various Indigenous peoples of the Americas forces allied with them....
 (1754–1763) to Desert Storm (1991).

In April 2007, it was announced that Leckie's war memoirs, Helmet for My Pillow
Helmet for My Pillow

Helmet for My Pillow is the personal narrative written by World War II United States Marine Corps veteran, author and military historian Robert Leckie ....
, along with Eugene B. Sledge
Eugene Sledge

Eugene Bondurant Sledge was a United States Marine Corps, university professor, and author. His 1981 memoir With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa was, in part, the basis for Ken Burn's PBS documentary on World War II and for the upcoming HBO series on the Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater during World War II....
's book With the Old Breed
With the old breed

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa is a World War II memoir by Eugene Sledge, a United States Marine....
, would form the basis for the HBO series The Pacific
The Pacific (miniseries)

The Pacific is a World War II television drama mini-series, produced by HBO, which is currently in development. It may be similar, although unrelated, to Band of Brothers....
, the successor to Band of Brothers
Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers is a ten-part television World War II miniseries based on the book of the same title written by historian and biographer Stephen Ambrose....
.

Books


Military history

  • On the Korean War.


  • "Summary: A review of America’s major wars, from the French and Indian War to the War in Korea, with emphasis on eleven important battles: Quebec, Trenton, New Orleans, Mexico City, Chancellorsville, Appomattox, Santiago, Belleau Wood, Guadalcanal, Normandy, and Pusan-Inchon."

Fiction

  • Fiction.


Other

  • Autobiography.


See also