Everyday Carry

With the Old Breed

A Marine mortarman at Peleliu and Okinawa, and the book every account of the Pacific is measured against.

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Mike ManningBy Mike Manning
Marine veteran, gym owner, dad
Recon Report: full review pendingPhotos: E.B. SledgeUpdated 2026-10-04
More from E.B. Sledge

Product Information, Not A Review

Specs, pricing and buying notes taken from the manufacturer so you can compare this against whatever else you are looking at. I have not had this one in my hands. When it goes through real use it gets rewritten as a full review, with a rating and my own photos.

With the Old Breed

Quick Specs

CategoryEveryday Carry
BrandAmazon
ReviewedOct 4, 2026
AuthorE.B. Sledge
CategoryMarine Corps, WWII memoir
FormatsAudible and print

What Stands Out

  • Written by an enlisted Marine who was there, from notes kept in his pocket Bible
  • The source material behind The Pacific, and far better than the series
  • Unflinching about what the fighting did to the men doing it
  • Considered one of the finest war memoirs ever written, by historians and Marines alike

What To Check

  • Genuinely grim; Sledge does not spare the reader anything
  • No arc and no redemption, because that is not what it was
  • Dated language in places, as a 1981 memoir of 1944

Why it is on this shelf

Every Dad Carry has a veterans section because I am a Marine and most of the people I train are veterans or married to one. This shelf exists partly to point at the books that do that experience justice, and partly because a long drive or a long session is the best time most of us get to read anything.

Audiobook or print

Both links are below. The general rule I use: memoir and narrative history go well on audio, because they are stories and a good narrator carries them. Anything with maps, photographs or a large cast you need to keep straight is easier in print.

One note on war memoirs

These are first-person accounts, and first-person accounts are shaped by the person telling them. Several of the books on this shelf have had details publicly disputed. That does not make them worthless, it makes them testimony rather than history. Read enough of them and the shape of the thing comes through.

The Short Version

A Marine mortarman at Peleliu and Okinawa, and the book every account of the Pacific is measured against.

Mike Manning

MIKE MANNING

Founder, Every Dad Carry

Dad | Coach | Marine Corps Veteran

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With the Old Breed

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