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The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Iwo Jima - Feb. 19th, 2003
http://www.angelfire.com/wa/redwoodsigns/iwojima.html ^

Posted on 02/19/2003 5:36:51 AM PST by SAMWolf

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

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The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.

We hope to provide an ongoing source of information about issues and problems that are specific to Veterans and resources that are available to Veterans and their families.

In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.



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The Costliest Operation
in Marine Corps History

On Monday, February 19, 1945, U.S. Marines hit the sands of Iwo Jima.

The battle for Iwo Jima can be described in many ways.

Most simply, 70,000 Marines routed 22,000 Japanese in a 36 day battle. It bore little resemblance to today's' modern warfare. It was a fight of gladiators. Gladiators in the catacombs of the Coliseum fighting among trap doors and hidden tunnels. Above ground gladiators using liquid gasoline to burn the underground gladiators out of their lethal hiding places.



The Marines had overwhelming force and controlled the sea and air. The Japanese had the most ingenious and deadly fortress in military history.

The Marines had Esprit de Corps and felt they could not lose. The Japanese fought for their god-Emperor and felt they had to die fighting.



The Marines were projecting American offensive power thousands of miles from home shores with a momentum that would carry on to create the Century of the Pacific. The Japanese were fighting a tenacious defensive battle protecting the front door to their ancient land.

The geography, topography and geology of the island guaranteed a deadly and bizarre battle. The large numbers of men and small size of the island ensured the fighting would be up close and vicious.

Almost one hundred thousand men would fight on a tiny island just eight square miles. Four miles by two miles. If you're driving 60 miles an hour in your car, it takes you four minutes to drive four miles. It took the Marines 36 days to slog that four miles. Iwo Jima would be the most densely populated battlefield of the war with one hundred thousand combatants embraced in a death dance over an area smaller than one third the size of Manhattan island.



From the air the island looked like a bald slice of black moonscape shaped like a porkchop. All its foliage had been blown off by bombs. The only "life" visible on the island were puffs of "rotten egg" stinking sulphur fumes coming from vents that seemed connected to hell. Correspondents in airplanes could see tens of thousands of Marines on one side of the island fighting against a completely barren side of stone.

On foot it was a morass of soft volcanic sand or a jumble of jagged rock. The Marines sought protection in shell holes blasted by the bombardment. Foxholes were impossible to dig, either the sand collapsed in on you or your shovel failed to dent the hard obsidian floor.

Bullets and mortars would come from nowhere to kill. The Marines would come across a cave or blockhouse and shoot and burn all its defenders to death. They would peer into the cavern and assure themselves no one was left there to hurt them. They'd move on only to be shocked when that "dead" position came alive again behind them. The Marines thought they were fighting men in isolated caves and had no idea of the extensive tunnels below.



A surgeon would establish an operating theater in a safe place. With sandbags and tarp he'd build a little hospital and treat his patients away from the battle. Then at night when he lay down exhausted to sleep he'd hear foreign voices below him. Only when his frantic fingers clawed through the sand and hit the wooden roof of an underground cavern would he realize he had been living atop the enemy all along.

The days were full of fear and nights offered terror. The Marines were sleeping on ground that the Japanese had practiced how to crawl over in the darkness, they knew every inch. Imagine sleeping in a haunted man- sion where the owner is a serial murderer who knows the rooms and stairways and trapdoors by touch and you are new. Then you can imagine the tortured sleep of the Marines.

Experienced naval doctors had never seen such carnage. Japanese tanks and high caliber anti-aircraft guns hidden behind walls of rock and concrete ensured that the Marines would not just be cut down, but cut in half or blown to bits.

A seventy five year old veteran of Iwo Jima would still reflexively open his bedroom window in 1999 after dreaming of the battle once again. Fifty four years after the battle the stench of death still filled his nostrils.



The bodies lay everywhere. Young boys who had never been to a funeral became accustomed to rolling another dead buddy aside. Kids full of life worked on burial duty unloading bodies from trucks stacked with death.

Mothers back home would tear open the ominous telegrams with trembling fingers. The survivors would remember sailing away and seeing the rows and rows of white crosses and stars of Davids. Almost seven thousand. Today there are still over six thousand Japanese dead still entombed under the island, dead where they fell in their tunnels and caves. Recently two hundred sixty were excavated, some mummified by the sulphur gases, their glasses sitting straight atop preserved noses, hair still on their heads.

Military geniuses predicted a three day battle, an "easy time." Some of the nicest boys America would ever produce slogged on for thirty six days in what would be the worst battle in the history of the US Marine Corps.

Generals conferred over maps while tanks, airplanes, naval bombs and artillery pounded the island. But it was the individual Marine on the ground with a gun that won the battle. Marines without gladiator's armor who would advance into withering fire. Marines who would not give up simply because they were Marines. A mint in Washington would cast more medals for these Iwo Jima heroes than for any group of fighters in America's history.



America would embrace these heroes, but they were enthralled by an image of heroism, by a photo. Millions of words would be written in the US about 1/400th of a second no one on Iwo Jima thought worthy of remark at the time. Thousands would seek autographs from three survivors who felt "we hadn't done much." Battles would be fought over that image, some dying early because of their inclusion, some living bitterly because of their exclusion.

But that would all come later. After two battles were fought on Iwo Jima, one for Mt. Suribachi and the southern part of the island the other for the northern part. And after one hundred thousand individual battles, personal battles of valor and fear, of determination and dirt.



TOPICS: VetsCoR
KEYWORDS: freeperfoxhole; iwojima; marines; veterans; warinthepacific; wwii
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To: The Real Deal
I got to tour the USS Missouri when it was in Astoria. Saw the spot where Japan signed the surrender documents.

What a chill that sent through my spine.
161 posted on 02/19/2003 8:26:41 PM PST by SAMWolf (To look into the eyes of the wolf is to see your soul)
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To: Victoria Delsoul
That it is. No better place to be than Oregon USA either.
162 posted on 02/19/2003 8:27:44 PM PST by SAMWolf (To look into the eyes of the wolf is to see your soul)
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To: Victoria Delsoul
Hi Victoria! Wonderful to see you.
163 posted on 02/19/2003 8:27:57 PM PST by Jen
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To: Coleus
Politicians are the reason the VA's in such a mess. At least some of them care enough to try and get Vets taken care of.
164 posted on 02/19/2003 8:29:26 PM PST by SAMWolf (To look into the eyes of the wolf is to see your soul)
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To: Coleus
I thank your uncle for his service. It's a shame that he didn't get the treatment he deserved from the VA. Nice to see you in the Foxhole tonight!
165 posted on 02/19/2003 8:30:05 PM PST by Jen
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To: SAMWolf
Evening Raw Deal. Better busy than unemployed.

I laugh everytime you end up with Raw instead of Real. Unemployment doesn't support me in the style to which I have become accustomed. A job has never been a problem for me. I have been lucky.

166 posted on 02/19/2003 8:30:25 PM PST by The Real Deal
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To: AntiJen
Well it sure as hell isn't me LOL!
167 posted on 02/19/2003 8:30:30 PM PST by SAMWolf (To look into the eyes of the wolf is to see your soul)
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To: PhilDragoo
Good to see you Phil!
168 posted on 02/19/2003 8:30:53 PM PST by Jen
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To: SAMWolf
I was the Navy Corpsman.
169 posted on 02/19/2003 8:30:54 PM PST by Marine Inspector
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To: TheRedSoxWinThePennant
Hi there! Nice to see you in the Foxhole tonight. Thanks for bumping the thread.
170 posted on 02/19/2003 8:31:34 PM PST by Jen
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To: The Real Deal
OOPS Did I do that??? Must have been thinking of Schwartzenegger's movie
171 posted on 02/19/2003 8:31:46 PM PST by SAMWolf (To look into the eyes of the wolf is to see your soul)
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To: DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet
You are correct.
172 posted on 02/19/2003 8:32:44 PM PST by Marine Inspector
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To: Marine Inspector
Thanks, daughterofanIwoJimavet even came up with the name.
173 posted on 02/19/2003 8:32:57 PM PST by SAMWolf (To look into the eyes of the wolf is to see your soul)
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To: Victoria Delsoul
Hi Victoria, nice one. I really like it.
174 posted on 02/19/2003 8:32:58 PM PST by The Real Deal
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To: SpookBrat
Hi Spookie!!! You're probably long gone, but I wanted to say hello. I've missed seeing you and talking to you. Hope you are doing OK. I wish you could spend more time with us too, but what you are doing with your kids and for your family is more important. Drop in when you have some free time though.
175 posted on 02/19/2003 8:33:28 PM PST by Jen
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To: SAMWolf
What a great story about the MOH winner retired Marine colonel finally getting the Eagle Scout rank he earned so many years ago. Thanks for posting the link Sam, or I would've missed it.
176 posted on 02/19/2003 8:36:28 PM PST by Jen
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To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Those making the most noise on the world stage today are the least informed and the most cowardly, imho.

Agree 100%!

177 posted on 02/19/2003 8:37:43 PM PST by Jen
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To: SAMWolf
I hope so, I think closing our bases in Germany would send a message.

Me too! I don't think that Germany or France are really our friends anymore. It will be along time before I buy anything from either place.

178 posted on 02/19/2003 8:38:43 PM PST by The Real Deal
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To: AntiJen
I've heard... that a FReeper who visits the Foxhole looks remarkably like Hannity... Sure wish someone would post a pix so we could determine if the rumor is true...

All of the men that post to the FReeper Foxhole look just like him, except for me. LOL

179 posted on 02/19/2003 8:41:44 PM PST by The Real Deal
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To: AntiJen
I don't have a clue. Now I know who watches that stuff. LOL
180 posted on 02/19/2003 8:43:59 PM PST by The Real Deal
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