That is how we always keep our beloved dead alive, isn’t it? By telling stories about them; true stories.

Roughly fifty percent of procedure in a Marine basic-training program is about disconnecting the young American boy from his concept of himself as a unique individual, a lone operator.

Later he would declare that “not getting hit was like running through rain and not getting wet.

Iwo Jima had become the number-one front-page story in newspapers across the country. And it had become the most heavily covered, written-about battle in World War II.

Late in his life, Rene complained of living a life of a celebrity one minute and a “John Doe” the next.

Like a moth, Rene was attracted to the flame of fame