‘Semper Fidelis: Jerry McConnell at Guadalcanal’

‘It was 68 years ago today that Jerry McConnell landed with the 1st Marines on a beach at Guadalcanal, in 1942.  It would be over four months before Jerry got to take a deep breath, and step back from the constant strain of fighting the Japanese.
When he departed “the ‘Canal,” he weighed 35 pounds less than when he left America.  He was weak from dysentery, wracked with malaria, and had seen and done things that he never imagined before Guadalcanal.  He was 18 years old.’         source