Regarding “A Turning Point in the Solomons”

Stephen A. Dombrowski, USAFA (Ret.) offered a much appreciated comment on this article:

Thank you for a balanced, thoughtful and insightful piece. I believe that, even with Normandy, Iwo and the Bulge, the Canal was the seminal moment, the tipping point, for our victory in the Pacific, a war we (the United States) won alone. As a combat veteran and the son of a WW2 veteran I sincerely thank you.

Respectfully,

– CWO2 Stephen A. (USAFA, Ret.)

I wrote this piece in memory of one of those Army engineers who endured the Japanese suicide attacks, and the bombings every night, huddled in a watery trench in the jungle, waiting for dawn and another day of fixing the holes in Henderson Field.

He was one of the fortunate ones who survived, though he was eventually shipped stateside after contracting malaria and dengue fever and losing over a third of his weight. I know almost nothing of what he experienced. Like many World War II veterans, he would never speak of what he saw or endured to his sons.