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Be thankful each and every day for two things: |
- Men like Milton Saxon were at Iwo Jima.
- Today's MSM didn't cover WW2.
Posted on 02/17/2005 4:52:05 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
Sixty years ago, Milton Saxon was keeping watch on the island of Iwo Jima when he saw five Japanese soldiers climbing out of a burned-out hole in the middle of his Marine compound.
He fired, and nothing happened. A second time, nothing. After the third misfire, he felt for his magazine clip. It was gone.
"The safety and the magazine clip are about a half an inch apart on the carbine rifle," he said. "In my excitement, I pushed both and the clip fell into the bottom of a dark hole."
With bullets whizzing above his head, he ducked down to find his clip. When he looked back up, the Japanese soldiers were dead.
"It was a stupid mistake, but I'm convinced it saved my life," he said.
During the bloody invasion of Iwo Jima, which marks its 60th anniversary Saturday, Saxon was one of only three men in his platoon of 24 who wasn't killed or injured.
"I don't know why I did survive," he said. "I don't think God planned Iwo Jima. God didn't kill those men, shrapnel did that. That was man's thing."
The battle claimed more than 23,000 casualties. A photo of soldiers raising the American flag over Iwo Jima's highest peak remains one of the most memorable images of World War II.
The Department of Defense has planned several 60th anniversary commemorations around the nation and on Iwo Jima, as well as a recreation of the Bataan Death March on March 20 at the Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
Saxon, a retired principal and assistant superintendent for Longview schools, spoke Tuesday at the Longview Rotary Club meeting. He was a 19-year-old mortar specialist in 1945 when the Marines landed on strategically located Iwo Jima.
The Japanese were entrenched in more than three miles of tunnels on an island that was only eight square miles in size, and the Americans tried to bomb the Japanese tunnels.
"Just like a termite does a board, they would retreat," Saxon said. "Then they would come back and clean it out."
After intense fighting, in which Saxon saw many of his buddies shot, the island was secured on March 26.
He said war should always be a last resort.
"War is man's inhumanity to man," he said. "I would hate to see a puppy with a broken leg. But I would shoot (the enemy) in the head in wartime."
Thank a veteran Saturday. Heck, thank 'em every day!
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Be thankful each and every day for two things: |
bttt
If we were allied with Stalin against Iraq, the MSM would be on our side.
Nope, I just like to scan their paper sometimes.
Ping
People will read this and ask; Where will we ever find such men in OUR time of need.?
The MSM won't tell us,but of course we have them in spades.
They are serving the cause of Freedom in Iraq,Afganastan,
and around the Globe.
Yesterday's Hero's,and Today's. I Salute them all.
I work in Longview!
Wrong, Ferguson. Five Marines and a Corpsman, no soldiers.
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