With the Old Breed

Mail from home offers a bright spot among the fighting from Company K members. News from home is not always pleasant, though, as one letter informs Sledge of the death of his beloved pet dog. Often the mail from home leaves the troops feeling disoriented, as civilian life becomes increasingly more difficult to envision. Still, it remains a savored distraction from the realities of war.

Sledges notes what seems to be a fairly-standard practice among other soldiers: the gathering of souvenirs from corpses. This practice happens on both sides, with weapons, watches, teeth and sometimes even body parts taken from the deceased. At first, Sledge is horrified by this. Later, he comes close to joining in but is stopped by Doc Caswell, whom he credits with saving his humanity and compassion. The taking of souvenirs reveals a thoroughly-detached view of death, a numbness to loss and tragedy that the author decries.

Among the terror and chaos of fighting, the men occasionally pause to swap stories of girlfriends back home. One fellow Marine is nicknamed Kathy because of the pin-up photo he carries with him of his chorus-girl mistress, a photo he shares with Sledge at Okinawa.