Pacific Time on Target: Memoirs of a Marine Artillery Officer, 1943–1945

Title Page, Copyright

Pacific Time on Target Memoirs of a Marine Artillery Officer, 1943–1945 Christopher S. Donner Edited by Jack H. McCall Jr. The Kent State University Press Kent, Ohio Donner text.indb 3 3/28/12 10:35 AM © 2012 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242 All rights reserved isbn 978-1-60635-120-8 Manufactured in the United States of America All maps are provided courtesy of Erin Greb, Erin Greb Cartography. Cataloging information for this title is available at the Library of Congress. 16 15 14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1 Donner text.indb 4 3/28/12 10:35 AM To Christopher S. Donner and his fellow survivors of the Pacific Theater of Operations of the Second World War, particularly the officers and men of the Ninth Defense Battalion and the Eleventh Marines, First Marine Division, U.S. Marine Corps—who left home as young men and came home as greatly changed men—and to their families and descendants, this book is respectfully dedicated. Donner text.indb 5 3/28/12 10:35 AM Definition of “time on target”: A method of coordinating the fires of individual batteries of field artillery to ensure that every projectile fired—no matter the location of the gun firing it—will reach the target area nearly simultaneously. One’s pulse beat faster and the appetite waned as the morning approached for the next job. Experience is a forceful teacher, and at no time at the front had I failed to see numbers of men killed quite near me. —Christopher S. Donner War is sweet to those who have never experienced it, but the experienced man trembles greatly in his heart at its approach. —Pindar Donner text.indb 6 3/28/12 10:35 AM ...