eugene bondurant sledge
Corporal Eugene "Sledgehammer" Bondurant Sledge (November 4, 1923 – March 3, 2001) was a United States Marine, university professor, and author. Sledge was also a childhood friend and lifetime buddy of Sidney Phillips.
His 1981 memoir With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa chronicled his combat experiences during World War II and was used as source material for the Ken Burns PBS documentary The War (2007), as well as the HBO miniseries The Pacific (2010), in which he is portrayed by Joseph Mazzello.