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Derek Todd Lee and The Pacific....
Posted on 4/25/10 at 7:47 pm
Posted on 4/25/10 at 7:47 pm
Just found out this crazy connection. I was looking up information on my favorite character from The Pacific, this guy:
As I was doing my search, I started reading some information about the real Snafu. And this is what I found.
And finally to get to the point of the title:
As I was doing my search, I started reading some information about the real Snafu. And this is what I found.
quote:
Well, Snafu Shelton is more than mentioned in Sledge's (terrific, brutal) book; he's woven throughout it. When I read "With the Old Breed" a few years back, it was difficult to wrap my mind around the idea that the Marine who committed and endured the savagery of the Pacific campaign was our neighbor, Mr. Merriell. But he was. He lived with his sweet wife, Miss Gladys, and his two sons in a little brick house on Highway 61, a mile or so away. He was an air conditioner repairman and installer.
quote:
It was a revelation to me to read in Sledge's book what, exactly, the quiet, hard man who lived in the little brick house down the road had done early in his life. He was a ruthless killer, which is only to say that he was a brave, effective soldier in a terrible war that he didn't choose. Reading the Sledge memoir, I wondered how in the world a man can come through that kind of hell, and have anything like a normal life. I guess Snafu did, but I really don't know. He was our neighbor, but a loner.
And finally to get to the point of the title:
quote:
He died a long time ago, as did Miss Gladys, and his older son Floyd, a talented teenage ballplayer who'd gotten mixed up in drugs. His younger son Allen -- my old playmate -- survives, I think, but I don't know where he moved off to. In a dark and bizarre coda to the tale, Snafu's old house on Highway 61 was later inhabited by the infamous Derrick Todd Lee, who was living there while he was carrying out his serial murders.
4
Posted on 4/25/10 at 7:58 pm to fouldeliverer
That is wild...amazing how things like that work out.
Posted on 4/25/10 at 8:40 pm to fouldeliverer
quote:
Snafu's old house on Highway 61 was later inhabited by the infamous Derrick Todd Lee
Holy shite.
Posted on 4/25/10 at 8:40 pm to The Sundance Kid
The Snafu Hwy 61 Horror...coming soon to a theater near you! 
Posted on 4/25/10 at 10:30 pm to CCT
Yikes!
Posted on 4/26/10 at 9:55 am to LSUlefty
I know, extremely weird, especially considering how Snafu was the most violent person committing war 'atrocities' according to Sledge.
Posted on 4/26/10 at 10:02 am to fouldeliverer
House is probably cursed
Posted on 4/26/10 at 10:11 am to fouldeliverer
quote:
Snafu's old house on Highway 61 was later inhabited by the infamous Derrick Todd Lee, who was living there while he was carrying out his serial murders.
Holy crap...that's nuts.
Posted on 4/26/10 at 10:16 am to fouldeliverer
quote:
Snafu was the most violent person committing war 'atrocities' according to Sledge
Did u read the book? Because that's not how i interpreted it. He just got desensitized to the war, like many other Americans. Seeing literal blood and guts everyday, can mess with a man's psychey. So the digging for Jap gold in a jap's teeth, was not uncommon for many soldiers. Not to mention seeing the brutality of what the Japs did to any Americans they caught. For instance, decapitating a soldier and cutting off his privates and shoving it in his mouth.... If you'd see that, would you not be angry, and hate everything the Japanese stood for also?
Posted on 4/26/10 at 10:29 am to BugAC
That is how I viewed it as well. It relates well to what Sledges dad said at the beginning of the series, something along the lines of the worst part of war is not seeing a mans limbs torn apart but is soul. And Snafu comes across, especially in the last episode as wanting to protect others from that lost innocence. That is why I put 'atrocities' we today may call them such things but as you pointed out the things he did were not that uncommon, and in that position is understandable.
This post was edited on 4/26/10 at 10:31 am
Posted on 4/26/10 at 10:31 am to fouldeliverer
quote:
Did u read the book? Because that's not how i interpreted it. He just got desensitized to the war, like many other Americans. Seeing literal blood and guts everyday, can mess with a man's psychey. So the digging for Jap gold in a jap's teeth, was not uncommon for many soldiers. Not to mention seeing the brutality of what the Japs did to any Americans they caught. For instance, decapitating a soldier and cutting off his privates and shoving it in his mouth.... If you'd see that, would you not be angry, and hate everything the Japanese stood for also?
well said, couldn't agree more.
quote:
That is how I viewed it as well. It relates well to what Sledges dad said at the beginning of the series, something along the lines of the worst part of war is not seeing a mans limbs torn apart but is soul. And Snafu comes across, especially in the last episode as wanting to protect others from that lost innocence. That is why I put 'atrocities' we today may call them such things but as you pointed out the things he did were not that uncommon, and in that position is understandable.
good point.
Posted on 4/26/10 at 10:48 am to fouldeliverer
quote:
And Snafu comes across, especially in the last episode as wanting to protect others from that lost innocence.
I wasn't really sure how to read that scene. On the one hand, it seems like Snafu was telling Sledge that he shouldn't do it because it would do something to his soul - something that Snafu had already gone through but didn't want the same thing to happen to Sledge.
On the other hand, I was wondering if Snafu just wanted to get the gold for himself.
Posted on 4/26/10 at 10:56 am to Newbomb Turk
quote:
Snafu was telling Sledge that he shouldn't do it because it would do something to his soul - something that Snafu had already gone through but didn't want the same thing to happen to Sledge.
This is what he was eluding to. But in the book, it wasn't Snafu who stopped him, i forgot who, but i'm pretty sure it wasn't snafu.
Posted on 4/26/10 at 11:35 am to BugAC
It wasnt Snafu in the book. The Doc that Snafu was quoting, in the TV show, told it directly to Sledgehammer (in the book).
I know thats hard to read.
I know thats hard to read.
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