Main Resources
By far the main source of information for this book was George Peto himself, an extraordinary individual who, even at 93 years old, retained a remarkable, consistent memory for detail, including events that occurred over eight decades before. Most of his memoirs were obtained through a series of interviews with him in his home in Columbus, Ohio by Pete Margaritis between June 1915 and June 2016. A second good source of information was an audio set of two interviews taken of Mr. Peto on March 31, 2015, by Fairbanks Middle School teacher Claudia Bartow, also a veteran. Claudia’s excellent, detailed interviews augmented to a considerable extent the information subsequently obtained by Mr. Margaritis.
In addition, Mr. Peto’s sources include articles over the years that he has either written or contributed to. These include his “Combat Action Report” of November 1, 2014, “The Hard Luck Kid,” “The Real Heroes,” “The Long Voyage Home,” and “The Battle for Peleliu” (August 25, 2011). Also helpful were a few sources in which his personal actions have been included, including several books listed below.
A few additional sources for Mr. Peto’s unit detailed a good deal of information that was so valuable in filling in a few holes of Mr. Peto’s accounts. One useful resource was Russell Diefenbach’s privately published Autobiography of a Common American, R. E. Diefenbach, c.1997. This work, although at times (according to Mr. Peto) slightly more imaginative than accurate, provided a fairly good account of many of the day-to-day, intricate details of the 3rd Battalion’s heavy mortar platoon.
George P. Hunt’s Coral Comes High, Harper & Brothers, NY, NY, c.1946, gave excellent first-hand details of Company K (K/3/1) at Peleliu, to which George was briefly attached.
Curtis Beall’s Memoirs of a Marine Dawg: From Rose Bowl to Pacific Theater, Indigo Custom Publishing LLC, Macon, GA, c.2006, provided additional accounts of the mortar platoon’s combat experience on Okinawa.
Albert C Cook’s Between Shots—A Memoir: Experiences and Reflections, South Pacific, World War II, Albert C. Cook Publishing, c.2009, provided a fair amount of additional information on George’s mortar platoon starting from 1943.
Unless otherwise indicated, most of the informational footnotes came either from Mr. Peto or crosschecked open Internet sources such as Wikipedia.
Additional Sources
Albers, Col. Ron, USAF Ret., “FOCUS FEATURE: Sgt. George Peto, Jr., 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division, Pacific Theatre, WWII,” From the Trenches: Official Newsletter of Motts Military Museum, Inc., Fall issue, 2012, Groveport, OH.
Alexander, Joseph H., Col., USMC, Storm Landings: Epic Amphibious Battles in the Central Pacific, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD., c.1997. (A)
Alexander, Joseph H., Col., USMC, “What Was Nimitz Thinking?” Proceedings: U.S. Naval Institute, Vol. 124/11/1,149, November 1998. (B)
Appleman, Roy E., Burns, James M., Gugeler, Russell A, and Stevens, John, Okinawa: The Last Battle, U.S. Army in World War II—The War in the Pacific, Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C., c.2000.
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Camp, Dick, Last Man Standing: The 1st Marine Regiment on Peleliu, Zenith Press Division of MBI Publishing, Minneapolis, MN, c.2008
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Parks, Kevin, “Peto beats the odds again—as he’s inducted into vets’ Hall of Fame,” Northland News, ThisWeek Community News, November 16, 2009, 2:24 p.m.
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(No editor), H-3-1: The Life and Times of H-3-1, USMC, (private publishing), c.2000.
(No editor), Civilian Conservation Corps Camp of Vernal records, 1937–1939, http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv81680