Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific

Absent without leave (A.W.O.L.) refers to a military offense in which a servicemember leaves their assigned post or duty station without proper authorization from their commanding officers. In Helmet for My Pillow, Leckie commits this offense when he secretly returns to Melbourne for several days while his unit is conducting training exercises at their camp in the Australian countryside. The term represents a serious breach of military discipline that can result in court-martial proceedings, confinement, or other punitive measures.

“The Battle of Hell’s Point” was Leckie’s name for the first major combat engagement he experienced at Guadalcanal, which took place at the Tenaru River in August 1942. This battle marked the Marines’ first organized confrontation with Japanese forces on the island and represented a crucial turning point in both the campaign and Leckie’s understanding of warfare. During this nighttime engagement, Japanese forces launched repeated attacks against well-prepared American defensive positions, resulting in devastating casualties for the attackers while demonstrating their determination to fight to the death. For Leckie and his fellow Marines, the battle served as their introduction to the brutal realities of Pacific warfare, stripping away their initial romantic notions about combat and replacing them with a grim understanding of war’s true nature.