A genre to experience

On the topic of genre's I would like to go off course a little. One of my favorite genres is the war film. Now in this area we find different subdivisions like documentary or fiction or my favorite which is the adapted novel. Now I may have just coined this term but what I mean by these poorly chosen words is the books that have been written about specific experiences during wartime and then adapted to either television or film.
Topping my list are
1. Saving Private Ryan
2. Band of Brothers
3. The Pacific

Now I am only veering off topic in that I just celebrated a milestone birthday, which one I will not divulge, and went out to purchase myself a gift. I used the money won from scratch tickets. I was hoping to find The Pacific in a Blu-ray box set but was let down in finding that it is not available till Christmas I would imagine. It is based in part on three books entitled "Helmet for My Pillow", "With the Old Breed", "Red Blood, Black Sand", and "China Marine". These books were all written by Marines on the front lines of the battles in the pacific during World War 2. I think there are lessons to be had from experiencing these and other films like it. It can be very graphic and hard to watch at times but we need to learn from them. We must always remember what has happened because otherwise we are doomed to repeat these events.

So just out of curiosity anyone out there catch this series? Liked it or hated it?