How we got here.

Is anybody watching The Pacific on HBO? We checked out the first episode last night.

Meh.

I'm hoping it becomes more engaging, because that's an incredible story. I hope the series does for awareness of the Pacific theater of WWII what Band of Brothers did for the European theater. HBO aired Band of Brothers over the last 10 weeks or so to whet our appetites for the new series. It was a smart way to generate interest, but it carried one significant risk. That of comparison. So far, BoB is in the lead. That may simply be because I've watched it so many times that I feel like I know the characters personally.

I read James Bradley's Flyboys several years ago--the story of the Army Air Force and its role in the Pacific. When I reached the final few chapters, I had to stop every paragraph and cry a little bit. I remember I was sitting on a bench at a driving range while Rodney took some swings on a day off from work. The weather was perfect and I sat there, reading about the carnage that was uncovered when the war was over. The tactics that had been employed. And I felt so lucky and a little bit unworthy of it all.