More than 50 years after his victory in the Pacific, the World War II United States Marine is vividly alive again in Gyrene. The scope and details record, analyze, and interpret the personal and cultural history of the enlisted men of America's celebrated fighting force which swept through the South and Central Pacific.Gyrene examines the pleasant and the unpleasant, serious and not so, the ordinary and the exceptional. This citizen-soldier is presented as having human frailties but is simultaneously different and special in the eyes of himself and others-capable of, and willing against the odds, to risk his life to secure a military objective or save a comrade.Overall, Gyrene paints a picture of who and what the Marine was and why and how he performed his duty. It tells no tales of great victories, grand strategies, famous generals, or decorated heroes. In his war, there was no London, Paris, or Rome. Both profound and entertaining, it adds a fresh new dimension to and historical perspective on the com-position and quality of the Marine.Gyrene focuses on the combat Marine of the infantry regiment, but it is also about Marines who served in aviation, the engineers, amphibious tractors, artillery, tanks, and combat support in posts at home and overseas. Each was a Marine, whether he attacked pillboxes or paper-work, watched the war from a loading beach or Douglas Dauntless dive bomber. Each was called gyrene without distinction as to rank or job classification.Gyrene examines the man's pre-war environment and characteristics and sees them molded into a Marine. Prototype common Marines are constructed at the time he entered service and later after combat. A legend of units and ranks, and a comprehensive glossary are provided.Themes and conclusions describe how a Marine reacted to the life and culture, adapted, developed, and survived. The Corps' myths, fabled esprit de corps, and enduring brotherhood are critiqued. All aspects reflect an unremitting devotion to each other, the Corps, and country, able to sustain him to final victor
