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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Posted on 02/19/2003 5:36:51 AM PST by SAMWolf
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are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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in Marine Corps History On Monday, February 19, 1945, U.S. Marines hit the sands of Iwo Jima.  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.
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Marine Casualties 23,573 Japanese Troops 1,083 POW and 20,000 est. Killed
I am confused. You list U.S. personnel total casualities of 28,686 and Marine casualities of 23,573.
Are these seperate figures? Did we have a total casualty number of 52,259?
"Drop what you’re doing. Pack the car, get on a plane, a train, a bus or start walking. Our troops need your support right now! They’re laying it on the line for us overseas and all they are seeing in the media is hundreds of thousands of anti-war/anti-American demonstrators marching in our streets. As evidenced by this article Anti-war Protests Anger U.S. Troops Inside Kuwait those demonstrations are starting to affect morale. You can do something about that, but it will take time, effort and sacrifice -- a modest sacrifice compared to our men and women in uniform waiting for the the word to take out Saddam and his tyrannical terrorist regime. The D.C. Chapter of Free Republic urges all FReepers and lurkers in good standing, as well as their friends and families, veterans and their friends and families and all others who want to stand up for America and support our troops to join us in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, March 1, 2003 for the Patriots Rally for America IV from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m at the outdoor Sylvan Theater on the grounds of the Washington Monument."
BE THERE or else spend the rest of yer life LYIN' SAYIN' YOU WUZ!!!!
Oughtta be a HOOt...MUD
BTW...has anybody contacted Rush Limbaugh's folks about this?...it's got Dan's Bake Sale written all over it!!
Location: Approximately 650 miles south of Tokyo, Japan.
Size of Island: Approximately 2 miles wide, 4 miles long; 8 square miles
Iwo Jima was the first native Japanese soil invaded by Americans in W.W.II. Approximately 60,000 Americans and 20,000 Japanese participated in the Battle.
The American Flag Raising on Mt. Suribachi took place on February 23, 1945 - the fifth day of battle. The Battle continued with increased intensity for a month more. Almost 7,000 Americans were killed in action at Iwo Jima - more than 20,000 American casualties.
Approximately one-third of all Marines killed in action in World War II were killed at Iwo Jima, making Iwo Jima the battle with the highest number of casualties in Marine Corps history.
Twenty-seven Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded in the Battle - more than were awarded to Marines and Navy in any other Battle in our country's history.
Three of the men who raised the flag in the Joe Rosenthal photo were killed before the Battle was over.
After the capture of Iwo Jima, more than 30,000 American Airmen's lives were saved when more than 2,400 disabled B-29 bombers were able to make emergency landings at the Iwo Jima Airfield after making bombing flights over Japan.
Approximately 132 Americans killed at Iwo Jima were unidentifiable and listed as unknown.
More than 50 4th Division Marines died of wounds aboard ship and were buried at sea.
The U.S. government returned the island of Iwo Jima to the Japanese government in 1968, after the bodies of the men in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Division cemeteries were removed to the United States.
This is my Mom on the left at the first display of a statue of the Iwo Flag Raising in late 1945 or 46. We believe it is near 8th and I street in DC, she cannot remember. This statue has been removed since, and I would like to know if anyone has ever seen it while in the Corps!
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