My dad was in the 4th also, but didn’t go to Iwo after being shot on Tinian. I think he as in F 24, but it’s highly unlikely they knew each other. He did say not many of his company made it off Iwo unscathed. I get the quarterly , Fighting Fourth Division of WW2, the newsletter of the 4th Marine Division Association’s survivors.I read it end to end .
We were blessed to have such men as parents.
We certainly were. My late father-in-law was 4th. Marines, 27th. Regiment. I believe their objective was one of the islands airfields. He wasn’t on the island long, I think about four days and then he got that ‘’million dollar wound’’ a leg wound and that got him the heck out of there. Prior to Iwo he saw combat on Saipan, that was where he was first wounded, grenade shrapnel in the face, nothing too serious, just a cut lip and a few scrapes and he also saw combat on Tinian. He described watching in absolute horror as civilians on Saipan, convinced by Japanese propaganda that the Marines would rape the women , kill them and eat their bodies, flung themselves off cliffs to their deaths. That deeply affected him and he rarely talked about it. He also couldn’t eat spare ribs, couldn’t stand the sight of them and I think I know why. He sometimes had to provide cover for a flame thrower team. Think about about it. The human lungs inside the rib cage are really two bladders filled with air. When a jet of super heated flame at least four or five hundred degrees hits that,the air is super heated and a human rib cage explodes. God Almighty but war is awful.
My Dad was in the 3rd Marine Division and saw action in the South Pacific including Iwo Jima. He recently passed (Jan 27 age 93), at his memorial service a contingent of Marines presented the colors, paid tribute to his service and bid farewell to a brother Marine. Truly blessed to have such a man as a parent.