Mobile man in HBO WWII miniseries

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - This weekend, HBO will premiere a World War II miniseries that tells the story of battles not often heard about.

'The Pacific' is about a group of Marines serving in some of the most dangerous battles in the Pacific theater, and the miniseries has ties to Mobile.

The miniseries is based on a book written by Eugene Sledge, a Marine from Mobile.

Sledge died in 2001, but his best friend, Sid Phillips , is alive and well. Phillips served in the Pacific front.

Dr. Phillips consulted the film crew while shooting the miniseries, in which he's also a key character. He remembers the battles like they were yesterday.

Laughter is the best medicine. And for this retired physician, laughter cures the wounds of war.

"I was a lowly private, I don't know of anybody or anything that could be lower than a private in the Marine Corps," Phillips said with a chuckle.

And he said serving in the Pacific was hell.

"Everybody developed diarrhea! We had no toilet paper, we tore up our socks for toilet paper and our shorts and shirts!" Phillips said.

Laughter kept him and his comrades sane during World War II.

"You see terrible things," Phillips said. "I try to put them out of my mind. I figure that's the only thing to do."

Phillips is a central figure throughout HBO's ten-part series. He said the directors went through excruciating detail to reenact the battles, and it's one of the most realistic war series he's ever seen.

Phillips was a teenager when he set foot on Guadalcanal, one of the most decisive allied battles of the war.

Japanese forces were building an airfield in the Solomon Islands.

"They seemed to be unstoppable," Phillips said.

If successful, the Japanese could have stopped sea lanes between the United States and Australia. So, the Marines were sent to stop them. But they were pelted, assaulted and bombarded from land, sea and air.

"We felt like we were targets at a shooting gallery at the carnival," Phillips said.

While fighting in the Pacific, Phillips was beyond scared; he was terrified.

"If I would have had a meter that registered from concerned, to scared, to fear, to terror, many times my meter would've been pinned beyond terror. Everybody was scared, but nobody would admit it," he said.

Phillips fought in the intense tropic heat, battling bullets, mosquitoes and a lack of food. After six months of fighting, the allies won, but nearly 70 years later, don't call Phillips a hero.

"The heroes are the ones who didn't come home," Phillips said.

Phillips and his friends were just doing their duty, and sadly not everyone came home. But he didn't lose his sense of humor.

"Oh, I hated that food!" Phillips recalls with a laugh.

Sid Phillips has learned not to let the past control his life, and he does it by smiling through the pain.

Phillips said people don't understand how massive the Pacific theater was. They were fighting on chains of islands that spread for thousands of miles. They were trapped in total isolation in tropical forests, with rains that would pelt them 24 hours a day.

But those are stories that need to be told. So, all this week, we're going to sit down with different veterans from that era and share their stories with you.

If you'd like to learn more about Sid Phillips and find out about a book he recently wrote, click here .