The Price

Thank you for the article on Harry Truman and the price of victory ("History Now,” April/May 2003). I’m a World War II veteran who was trained in amphibious naval beach battalions. Our job was to follow the Marine landings and supply ship-to-shore communications. As part of the “dungaree” Navy, those not assigned to man-of-war ships, we considered ourselves “gun fodder” for the landings of Japan proper. Later, when many of us saw how steeply those volcanic slopes entered the sea, we wondered how many men it would have taken to have made that invasion.