Who is Howard Nease from With the Old Breed, at Peleliu and Okinawa and what is their importance?

Howard Nease is a marine in Sledge's company and a veteran of Cape Gloucester and Peleliu. Nease is universally liked and respected by the other men. Sledge describes him as large, nimble, and physically powerful. On at least one occasion, Nease sneaks into the jungle and kills a sniper which has other men pinned down. On New Year's Eve, 1944, Nease orchestrates a diversion and steals cooked turkeys from the officers' mess. He shares the turkey with fellow veterans and thereby cements their admiration. Like many other marines, Nease holds a superstitious fear of his third combat campaign—and, he is killed by a sniper on May 1, 1945, during the first day of combat operations on Okinawa. Sledge recounts that the popular Nease's death was particularly hard on the veterans of K/3/5.