iwo jima 69 yrs ago Today

feb , 1945 ,69yrs ago ,On this Day Our Brave Men Raised the American flag on Mt Sarabachi ,.,. it would be another 30 days before the island will be declared safe ... 70000 Americans fought over 20 thousand nnalert,, nearly 1 in 10 American Soldiers Died in horrendous fighting ,, semper fi

BIL's brother landed on the beach at Iwo Jima. He reached to the man in his left, he was dead. He reached to the man on his right, he was dead also. He survived Iwo, went on to make a career of the Marines.

KEH

So many of those veterans are gone now. My sister's father in law, who passed away at 90 a couple of years ago was there and saw the flag be hoisted. He used a flame thrower to roast out caves the enemy might be hiding in. Then he was blown out of a truck, spent some time in the hospital and returned to service. He was very proud of having served and was active in his local VFW till he couldn't physically do it anymore. Jim

My hat is off to the brave men that fought in WWII. They are rapidly dying out on us. We will be worse off when they are all gone.

My Uncle was a anti-aircraft gunner aboard the USS Bismark Sea. This small aircraft carrier was flying cover and staffing and bombing missions at the onset of the invasion. On 21 Feb, during that invasion their ship was hit by two Japanese Kamakazi's. Suffering catastophic damage. 318 Brave sailors went down with their ship. 605 were pulled from the water. My Uncle survived(still survives) and I was able to honor him and his shipmates last Memorial Day,at our local service. What a privelege for me. gobble

My father was there on a Fleet Tug.Orders got screwed up. His tug arrived a week before it should have.Had to hide between all the other ships.Told me a lot of people were hurt by friendly fire. Sky turned black and body parts and rounds were coming from all directions. Never talked about it until a year before he died.

My mother's cousins husband was there and standing
close by when the "flag raising" picture was
taken, making sure none of the enemy were around.
He is not in the picture, but knew all the men who
were. They were all from his unit. The famous
picture was staged, shortly after a smaller flag
was raised. The Navy "Corpsman" (medic) that was
attached to his platoon is the Navy man that is in
the picture and on the monument. (All the
"medics" assigned to Marine companies were Navy
corpsman at that time. They may still be Navy
personnel, but who knows how things are done now
in the "modern" military.) He said the guys on
monument looked just like his friends as he
remembered them. The survivors were invited to
attend when the Marine Memorial was dedicated. If
I remember right, he said the corpsman was killed
on the Island a few days later. There were 12 (or
so) in his company were all that survived the
island and subsequent battles. He said that his
unit was selected to be in the first wave because
it was their third landing and they had already
cleaned up two other islands during the "island
hopping" campaign that was taking place at the
time. The dozen or so that were survivors of that
first wave on to the island used to hold reunions
every couple of years. He told me a year or two
before he passed away that there were only 5 left.
(He passed away a few years ago.) Being a history
buff, I used to talk with him at family reunions
about his service in the Pacific after he got so
he'd talk about it, which was shortly after the
memorial was dedicated. Definitely part of the
"greatest generation" that wanted no accolades. He
always said "we were just doing our job". He grew
up in Chamberlain, SD, and lived in Billings, MT
after the war. (My $0.02 worth. jal-SD)

Friend of mine father was there but not close to the flag raising. Married and had two sons but then crawled into a bottle and deserted his family. He died about 15 years ago, the booze finally got him. My friend sis a hitch in the Corp because that's what his dad had been. Served a tour in Viet Nam. Combat wounded vet.

My dad fought in the Pacific, US Army infantry. He was on a hospital ship returning to the US when they landed on Iwo.

Even though our WWII vets are dying off I think we will be OK. We have a younger group who rush to recruiting offices right after 9-11 just as they did years ago right after Dec 7. They have carried that fight now for over 10 years as an all volunteer force. In WWII they enforced the draft with jail time for failing to report and even the Marines were taking draftees toward the end of the war. Not knocking them at all. Just stating facts. Draftee or volunteer the WWII vets stepped up and did their jobs when needed as are the kids today.

Rick

Rick

Thanx for responses ,Yes , I Respect the Greatest Generation,,,. And I Do believe That Patriotism is equally ALIVE and WELL amongst Our young Fightin Men in America ,, many of you mite recall that my dad served with 10 other family members thru WW2 ,,while he was Fightin and island hoppin across the Pacific in amphibious tank ,,my mother was inside the airplane wings riveting away at Curtis -wright , Louisville Ky ,, of course all that drama was a good 15 yrs before I was born,, With dads' arm in a sling , He and mom married on November,17 of 1945,,, My oldest sister was born in sept of 46,And seven of us followed..// We lost Dad in 2008 at 92 , and sadly My mom will Soon Too ,succumb to all her ailments ,.Just been a lot of reflectin Going on Around Our place lately...

A man from Webster served on Iwo. He told me once that since the japanese wouldn't give up, They just had to kill them all. It wasn't till years later that I did a little reading about Iwo Jima that I understood what he meant.

(quoted from post at 10:33:33 02/24/14) A man from Webster served on Iwo. He told me once that since the japanese wouldn't give up, They just had to kill them all. It wasn't till years later that I did a little reading about Iwo Jima that I understood what he meant.

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Nathan: That's pretty much how my dad described it. They took very few prisoners because they would give up. Dad said that most Japanese POWs were wounded or unconscious that his unit captured.

Rick