The corpsman's name was Bradley. He saved the lives of many injured Marines that day, always at great risk of his own. He never spoke of Iowa Jima to his family and friends. For years, when reporters or journalists would call to talk to him his family was told to them, "Dad went fishing."
Bradley's son wrote a book about the lives and deaths of the flag raisers, before and after. "The Flags of Our Fathers." I'll never have a what I think is a difficult day again.
Memorial ping.
One more thing. I know these men were there. All accounts of Iwo Jima relates that the Japanese allowed the marines to land on the beach before they opened up on them.
Maybe they were not in the initial landing.
Ping!
There's a show currently running on the Military Channel about the carnage that would have occurred if we had had to invade the Japanese mainland, and of course it uses footage from Iwo Jima.
The thing that struck me most about the anticipated horror of what was to come was the bit about the Purple Hearts. In preparation for the the invasion the military ordered a large number of Purple Hearts. How large? A stockpile so large that we're still using the medals from that order in 1945!
My dad, may he rest in peace, saw the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi. Our WWII vets are truly America's greatest generation.
BTTT
Unfortunately, the greater sacrifices of the Sixth and First Marine and 77th and 96th Infantry Divisions during April - June of the same year are often over looked.
http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/ItisPeke/VDay.html
To Our Veterans ...
I do believe that present day military personnel will someday be spoken of as the next great generation.
Minor point, but the airfield on Iwo Jima was actually useful because the island rests about half way between Saipan, Tinian, and the other islands in the Marianas Archipelago which were already within flying distance of Tokyo for B29's.
We needed the Iwo Jima airfield to provide a place where damaged or low on fuel bombers, that couldn't get back to Saipan or Tinian, could safely land. Otherwise those planes and crews had to ditch at sea, in most cases resulting in the loss of both. In fact, shortly after the capture of the airfield, with the battle still raging around it, a crippled B29 came in for a landing.
GREAT piece on the Wall Street Journal Op Ed page about Iwop Jima today. I'm surprised no one posted it, and I don't have it electronically. Really puts things in perspective.
And Ping again...