Posted on 02/19/2015 4:19:00 AM PST by Kartographer
Clayton Chipman saw the first flag raising. So did Harvey Kurz.
Both were relieved and happy to see Marines had finally scaled Mount Suribachi four days after the Feb. 19, 1945, invasion of the hardscrabble, desolate island in the Pacific Ocean.
Each looked at the American flag flapping in the wind and then returned to the business at hand — staying alive.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
My late father-in-law Gunnery Sargent John “Jack’’ Scharffenberger, 4th. Marine Division was wounded on that damned island but made it home ok. God bless them all. “When the Army and Navy ever gaze upon Heavens scenes/ they will find the streets are guarded/by United States Marines’’.
I have found myself believing that this battle and others like it deprived our gene pool of the quality of selfless courage, leaving us with only the successors of the 4Fs who stayed home.
Could explain a lot, like the Vietnam antiwar movement and dweebs like Obama.
No, there were as many courageous men who fought in Korea, Vietnam (my dad fought for two tours), and even today (my son’s best friend is now a Marine). They’re still there....it’s the leadership that’s become wussified.
One of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare.
God bless the United States Marines, and thank you for our freedom.
Your Dad sounds similar to mine. My Father was in Pearl Harbor on Dec 7., fought in Korea and did 2 tours in Vietnam. His marker at Arl. Natl is one of the busiest there.
The sacrifice these men made and the hardships they endured by the fanatical Japanese defenders was a deciding factor in the use of the atomic bomb.
The problem is that there are fewer than there used to be: look at the numbers of volunteers versus the much bigger numbers of the self-interested and cowardly remainder.
I have a lot of trouble forgiving what our country did to the survivors of Korea and Vietnam.
Look how few of our eligible young people volunteer now and look at the open contempt our leaders have for them.
“And when he gets to Heaven, to St. Peter he will tell,
“Another Marine reporting, sir; I’ve served my time in Hell!”
God bless the Marines!
The vast majority of 4Fs had no desire to avoid the fight. Our gene pool might have tipped a bit towards poor eyesight or flat feet as a result of the military induction process back then, but I don't see how qualities such as courage and selflessness would have been diminished.
Those qualities are instilled in us (or not) by our parents and through our relationship with God.
My Dad was an "essential civilian employee"...essential because he worked for a company that designed and built missiles for the Navy.Guys trained to fire the missiles are useless without missiles to fire.My Dad's older brother lost an eye in a playground accident when he was a kid.He very much wanted to fight and tried to enlist.His efforts failed miserably.
My bitterness and fallacious Darwinistic theories stemmed from returning from combat in Vietnam to see thousands of able-bodied young men enjoying the '60s as though there wasn't anything happening elsewhere. I resented it ferociously and even confronted an entire football team at my college because they were wearing antiwar protest regalia. I was probably lucky they didn't want to fight. I told them that we could've used big guys like them at least to carry ammo boxes but it seemed that it was only the shorter, skinny guys with glasses who were carrying the load for our country.
I haven't lost a bit of that resentment against people like Cheney who got three draft deferments because he "had better things to do". He missed his chance to learn what it was like to be surrounded by some of the best young men that he'd ever meet who were will to lose everything they had for their country.
All worthy battles, all required stunning courage and selflessness but Iwo was unique in its grim efficiency as a death trap. It was the only battle in which our casualties almost matched those of the Japanese holding Iwo.
I'm saying that Iwo was unique because it was a hopeless death trap. The Japanese had worked for many months to make it as efficient as possible and those who survived the first weeks knew that they had to back into that mill and almost certainly get killed our mutilated to gain the next objective.
If you haven't understood my point so far, you never will.
Never having served in combat...or near it...I can't speak from personal experience.However,a quote comes to mind regarding bravery in combat.IIRC an Admiral,or Marine General,in assessing the performance of the Marines during one the Pacific battles of WWII (can't recall which one) said something like "in this battle uncommon courage was a common commodity".
IMO...the Army,Navy,Air Force *and * Marine Corps fought skillfully and courageously in WWI,WWII,Korea,Vietnam and the Middle East.
Admiral,or Marine General,in assessing the performance of the Marines during one the Pacific battles of WWII (can’t recall which one) said something like “in this battle uncommon courage was a common commodity”.
“Uncommon Valor Was A common Virtue”..
Chester Nimitz, CINCPAC
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