Las Vegans remember the horror of war on the anniversary of the battle for Guadalcanal

"Saving Private Ryan," the latest Steven Spielberg movie, has some of the most realistic World War II battle scenes ever filmed, reviewers say.

But there are those who don't need a realistic film to be reminded of the realities of war.

Despite the realism of "Ryan," the actors actually survive, unscarred. It's only a movie.

But in the reality of war, your closest friends are blown apart as they stand beside you; if you live, you may suffer life-long physical ailments or psychological problems.

A slick, $70 million motion picture may help some remember war's horrors, but for many a circled date on a calendar may be enough -- the date of Aug 7.

Today marks the 56th anniversary of the beginning of one of the most important campaigns of World War II -- the battle for Guadalcanal, in the southern Solomon Islands 1,000 miles northeast of Australia.

It's a date some Las Vegans remember well, their vivid, nightmarish memories intact.

It was on this day, eight months after Pearl Harbor, that America launched its first offensive against Japan, a turning point in the war that took place on an obscure island where the Japanese had established an air base.

There was little initial resistance and the Marines quickly captured the base, which they renamed Henderson Field, and established a defensive perimeter. Two weeks later, the Japanese started a campaign to get the territory back, but failed then, as well as during subsequent attacks in September and October.

On Feb. 8, Japanese troops withdrew and the island was declared secure.

But security came at a high price. During those six months, the 1st Marine Division, which was replaced in December by elements of the 2nd Marine Division, suffered 774 killed, 1,962 wounded and 5,400 disabled by malaria. The U.S. Army infantry suffered 1,600 killed and 4,300 wounded.

Among the naval casualties were the famous five Sullivan brothers, killed when a torpedo struck their ship, the U.S.S. Juneau.

"Saving Private Ryan" is loosely inspired by the Sullivan brothers.

Las Vegas residents Jerry Seible, 75, and Harold "Cage" Pennington, 74, were among those in the 1st Marine Division to land on Red Beach the morning of Aug. 7. John Shaw, 81, of Henderson, a Marine Corps pilot, arrived in October, 1942, and Dr. Harold Boyer, 84, a Las Vegas dermatologist, arrived in January, 1943. Las Vegan Frank Cannistracil was a Marine photographer at Guadalcanal.

They shared an experience with thousands of others that will never be captured on screen, no matter how realistic, but will always be replayed in their minds.

"We were ready to die," said Seible, a retired casino operator whose budding boxing career became a war casualty. Seible recalled that the Navy, after unloading only half of the supplies aboard, was forced to abandon the Marines because a Japanese fleet was en route. Americans were forced to scrounge for food, some of it taken from Japanese troops, to supplement their rations in order to survive.

The sparse diet caused many to develop gaunt appearances.

Pennington, a New Orleans native who enlisted in the Marines the day after Pearl Harbor, weighed 165 pounds when he landed at Guadalcanal but only 140 when he left.

Seible said he and most others stationed on the island lost so much weight that naval personnel who helped them on board when it was time for them to rotate to a recreational area, wept.

Pennington recalled that when the U.S. forces landed, there was no initial resistance, except for occasional sniper fire. However, before Pennington left the island almost three months later, he would have survived two Banzai attacks, hand-to-hand combat, relentless shelling by Japanese battleships, malaria, dysentery, jaundice and other diseases.

He can still remember bullets whizzing past his ears.

"They pop when they come close," Pennington recalled.

There was a lot of "popping" on Bloody Ridge, one of the major counter-offenses launched by the Japanese to reclaim the air strip. Bloody Ridge was called Edson's Ridge until after the battle, but after so many Japanese soldiers died, more than 600, the name of the ridge was changed.

Pennington was among the approximately 600 Marines who held out against 2,000 to 3,000 Japanese soldiers.

If the Ridge had fallen, the landing strip would have fallen into enemy hands -- and if that happened, officers warned enlisted men, then there was a chance of losing the war.

And so the Marines were ready to fight to the last man.

Pennington can still remember the stench of Japanese bodies, stacked like cordwood on the battle front as each wave moved forward, only to be cut down by the Marines.

Pennington and others often saw bodies of their own fallen comrades; they saw headless bodies; men carrying around their own intestines; comrades with missing limbs.

"You got used to it," Boyer said.

Boyer wasn't on the front line in the jungles, but he was as close as you could get without actually being involved in combat. He gave first aid to the sick and wounded and sent them to the field hospital farther behind the lines.

Considering all of the trauma he treated, Boyer says he was most affected when accompanying more than 400 sick and wounded troops on a hospital ship to Hawaii.

"The thing that bothered me the most were those who died on ship and were buried at sea," Boyer, son of a country doctor from Arkansas, said. For a time after the war, he was also plagued by feelings of guilt when he slept in a warm clean bed.

Seible, like most who endured the most terrifying ordeals of the war, suffered from nightmares for a long time after his discharge. He and Pennington received medical discharges as a result of wounds received in combat, both in battles after Guadalcanal.

Pennington said a mortar shell exploded next to him on the island of Bougainville and the concussion threw him against a tree, injuring his leg, and shrapnel wounded him in the arms, hands and legs.

Eventually he settled in Santa Rosa, Calif., enjoying a long career as a railroad conductor until retiring, then he and his wife moved to Las Vegas in 1989.

After settling here, Pennington helped build the Leatherneck Club and has spent much of his spare time on Marine Corps issues. He recently was elected commandant for the Nevada chapter of the Marine Corp League, an organization for former Marines.

Boyer developed malaria and jaundice and he had the same fungus as most of the troops who served in the jungle. A few short years after his discharge, he was recalled for the Korean War, but served his time in Jacksonville, Fla. In 1952 he moved to Las Vegas, in part because he liked the small town atmosphere -- at the time the city's population was around 25,000.

Seible had been a champion boxer in the Marine Corps -- All-Marine Boxing Champion and All-Service Boxing Champion. But he was unable to pursue the sport professionally because of his wounds.

Seible also picked up a jungle fungus and suffered from malaria for several years. Doctors suggested he move to Las Vegas, which he did.

Marine Pilot John Shaw came to Las Vegas after retiring 16 years ago as financial officer for a moving company in Southern California. His unit was on its way to Manila to begin rehearsing the invasion of Japan when word came down that the war was over -- something called the atomic bomb had been dropped on Japan.

Cannistracil, the Marine photographer, was on Guadalcanal briefly toward the end, but his most compelling experience came later at Bougainville, where he jumped into a river and eagerly began drinking from the river.

Cannistracil said he drank until he suddenly realized he was standing in water mixed with blood.

Around the bend in the river were more than 30 Japanese soldiers, killed during a Banzai attack, their blood freely flowing into the water.

"It was difficult," Cannistraci said, "for me to drink water after that."

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