peleliu's sometimes called the forgotten battle of the pacific war. for those who fought there it will always be remembered. one marine said about the bitter struggle, all gave some. some gave all. theirs is a war story that deserves to be told. i'm oliver north. good night. i'm oliver north. i'm oliver north. good night. captioned by closed captioning services, inc. >>> tonight on war stories confrontation in cuba. castro betrays his own people. >> the 20 years i spent in prison were terrible. >> meet the men abandoned at the bay of pigs. >> we were there to fight. >> and see how soviet missiles threatened a world war. >> very, very close to nuclear holocaust. >> it is kennedy, cruise ship and castro. that's next on "war stories." i'm oliver north. this is "war stories" coming to you from naval air station key west, florida, just 90 miles south of

why peleliu?here's a dozen other places you could have gone. why peleliu? >> peleliu was 600 miles north of new guinea, which was where macarthur's forces were moving along the north coast. and it was judged to be necessary to take it, to protect that flank. >> from tulsa, oklahoma, gordon gayle was a 27-year-old marine in 1st marine division. >> nimitz then told the 1st marine division to get ready to go to peleliu. >> when they started forming the marine corporation for world war ii, nobody had ever commanded a division of marines in the field before. the 1st marine division had fought in what we called the banana wars. they became known as the old breed. >> when i joined the marine corps, it was the size of the new york city police force. >> another member of the old breed was 25-year-old everett pope, born in the tiny town of milton, massachusetts. >> when did you first decide you wanted to be a marine? >> that's easy. i was a senior at bodien college in maine and it was 1941, and it was obvio

. >> but in peleliu it all went to hell. >> the campaign was nothing but a continuous blood bath. >>ost six or seven of my officers. >> they were hidden. they were in little spider holes. >> as soon as i turned around, a bayonet hit me here in the chest. >> what really happened on the bloody beaches of peleliu. that's next on "war stories." >>> this is the natio