writing about all these battles and he did a masterful job of telling a lot of the battles of the guadalcanal in a way that rings true to both veterans and people who were there and also people learning about the stories for the first time so he t was absolutely integral in making sure that it was militarily sound and i worked hard to make sure it was accessible to people like me. >> maybe it is just me but i feel like i've read a lot about world war ii in europe both from a nonfiction perspective and a ton of fiction. but there is not as much written about the pacific. >> i think one of the reasons is that it's far away. the islands look the same two people that are not there. they look a little different when you are on them and people had a familiarity. they understood when the bombs were dropping on the st. paul those were images people were familiar with. it was d devastating. it made people wonder is that going to happen and it could have. that's where this was headed but it was a darker more mysterious placeof. it becomes a great interest of mine and i think the pacific is a great stor

writing about all these battles and he did a masterful job of retelling a lot of these battles in guadalcanal in a way that rings true to both veterans and people who were there and also regular people who were learning about these stories for the first time so he was absolutely integral in making sure that it was as i say militarily sound i worked to make sure it was accessible to people like me. >> maybe this is me but i >> might have heard you say this . i feel i've heard you read a lot about world war ii in europe both from a nonfiction perspective and a ton of fiction. it's a great genre for me, i love historical fiction but there's not as much about the pacific. >> there isn't one of the reasons is it was far away. people all look the same to people that work there. they all look a little bit different when you're on and people have familiarity with your. understood when the bombs were dropping on st. paul's in london, just that people were familiar with. it was devastating to see hitler marching down the shops at least a. many people wonder gis that what happened in new york city and i

guadalcanal. okinawa. and many many more. during the cold war with the soviet union. american soldiers fought the spread of client unit one —-dash communism including korea and the soviets and in the northern part of the korean peninsula to invade the south. five.7million americans were engaged in that war. five.7million and nearly 34000 lost their lives. almost remained american served in uniform in the vietnam war which was intended to prevent the soviets and the chinese that communist in the northern part of that country from taking over the south. over 58000 american soldiers lost their lives. and there have been many battles since including but not limited to iraq and afghanistan and the war on terrorism. contrary to the slurs we hear from joe biden and kamala harris, lebron james and athletes, contrary to the slurs we hear from black lives matter and other leftist marxist in this country america is a great country. it is not an imperialist country or colonizing country. our soldiers, our people are noble. we fought and died and still do. to protect the liberties

and the guadalcanal campaign, which in august of 19 to and we began to march in what is called an island hopping campaign. back to take the war directly to the japanese home islands. island hopping was designed. essentially bypass japanese strong points if we could. gain, control of the water in the pacific with our submarines and surface ships and our naval aircraft. then any isolated japanese post no matter how large could not really threaten us. we could just bypass and they would wither on the vine because they couldn't receive any supplies from the japanese government the japanese armed forces back in japan. so this was the strategy and this is basically what we succeeded in doing. in those months in late 1942 1943 and about the first half of 1944 the central pacific campaign started in the gilberts went to the marshalls and spring of 1944 essentially got to the marianas. and there they seized the island of saipan retook guam and also sees the island of tinian. and what that would do would bring the japanese home islands into range of a new bomber that we were building which became

speak of marine corps general pedro de valle commander of the first marine division artillery at guadalcanal and later commanded the division in combat in 1945. do you know anything about the general? well, i haven't done research on him, but he is on my list of of things to look into i mean again. we're here was a general with the united states marine corps. there's with it was of a hispanic descent. but yeah, i wish i could talk a little bit more about him. but let's let's look at that in the future. but yeah. and one of the one of the side effects of being virtual i can guarantee you that rich could probably speak at length about the question. he asked so our next question from gene. can you discuss treatment hispanic americans faced while in the service as compared to the treatment of african-american soldiers? yeah, so in my book i do i do details some of the discrimination that company eve faced. one in particular is gabriel navarrete from el paso, texas? gabriel had been serving in the texas national guard since about 1939 and a lot of the the officers in company. he said well, you kn

his service included combat on the philippine islands, boganville, and guadalcanal, and he received the purple heart after being wounded in action. returning to north dakota after the war, mr. britell earned his high school g.e.d., attended art school in napes, and spent much of his life in lumber, millwork and camper sales. he spent his last years living nearing his daughter in bowman, north dakota. often attending reunions of the infantry association, he was present at its final gathering in october of 2017. he helped relatives of other veterans with research about the war experiences of their loved ones, and he painted throughout his life, generously sharing his work with friends. mr. britell's artwork helped tell the everyday stories of the soldiers as they fought their way through the south pacific. his illustrations are a lasting testament to the heroic contributions of the 164th infantry regiment regiment to world war ii. he was honored in march when north dakota ajut antigen al dorman announced his sketches would be featured on a new coin. arches on the regiment memorial which i