War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its size,

and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history

through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. host, James Early. Hello and welcome back to the Pacific, our episode by episode breakdown of the epic

2010 HBO miniseries, The Pacific.

I'm your host, James Early, as always. And as always, I've got Sean

McGever with me. We are on part eight. And we are going to move on now to Iwo Jima as the

American forces are getting closer and closer to the Japanese home islands. And our old

buddy, John Basselone, is going to get some sand under his boots again.

He's going to get back into the fight, having been in the U.S., helping sell war bonds for quite some time.

Before we jump into the plot, though, as we always do, I'm going to let Sean tell us a little bit about anything he wants to,

the director, the writer, any production notes or anything else you find interesting about

this episode. Sean, take it away. Well, it's a cast of the usual suspects in terms of

written by and directed by Robert Shankanan and Ashkenon and Michelle Asher wrote it.

I was co-directed by David Nutter and Jeremy Padeswa, presumably because a large, it's

split between, you know, the Baselon parts and the, the, some of the very small amount

of the sledge part.

Mostly this is a Bas Sloan episode, though.

...