My father was a US Marine, enlisted age 17 and discharged before reaching 20 yrs of age.
Amphib tank driver, Okinawa first wave, 45 days combat, seriously wounded and before he was waiting his next assignment when the war ended.
He taught me from childhood that every Marine was first, an infantryman. He arranged for me to participate in Devil Pups as an adolescent.
My son went to Oki in 2014. Now I know why the Corps doesn’t want to move their base. Hallowed ground.
I’ve been so entrenched in where they are fighting now that I haven’t read their history. I’ve just started reading about Oki and the tears are streaming.
The Battle of Okinawa had a dramatic effect not only on the Pacific campaign but on the nature of warfare to this day. The battles in the Pacific made evident to America that they could defeat the Japanese in any fight. The painful realization from information gained from Okinawa was the high price that would be paid for every inch of Japanese land the Americans took. The Japanese mainland defense force was more than 1 million strong. In addition, the Japanese possessed 8,000 aircraft and kamikaze pilots who were being trained every day. Even the civilian population was trained for combat with the invading Americans; suicide attacks by civilians were expected.