bbA story of heroism, friendship, and courage in World War 2--as seen in the award-winning HBO miniseries iThe Pacifici.b pbIn 1944, the U.S. Marines were building the 5th Marine Division--also known as The Spearhead--in preparation for the invasion of the small, Japanese-held island of Iwo Jima... pWhen Chuck Tatum began Marine boot camp, he was just a smart-aleck teenager eager to serve his country. Little did he know that he would be training under a living legend of the Corps--Medal of Honor recipient John Basilone, who had almost single-handedly fought off a Japanese force of three thousand on Guadalcanal. pIt was from Basilone and other sergeants that Tatum would learn how to fight like a Marine and act like a man--skills he would need when he hit the black sand of Iwo Jima with thirty thousand other Marines. piRed Blood, Black Sand iis the story of Chuck's two weeks in hell, where he would watch his hero, Basilone, fall, where the enemy stalked the night, where snipers haunted t