Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Don Whipple, Iwo Jima, age 17, Marine

I had an Uncle on Iwo Jima, another on Guadalcanal, and my dad was on Okinawa. They all passed around twenty years back, the Greatest Generation.

May God bless and be with them, Birdy.

My Uncle Emil was on Guadalcanal. He would never talk about it.

A friend, now passed - Pete Dreith - was on the first wave onto Iwo Jima. 12 men of his (whatever - battalion? - of many!) walked off that beach on their own, eventually. He wasn't one of them.

The way he put it - "I stuck my finger out of my foxhole to check the wind, and the f'kin' Japs aimed a morter at it!"

He was 18 or 19, and suffered his whole life from his wounds.

I had an uncle who was navy. He piloted a landing craft at Tarawa. He got a purple heart and a star of some color from it but he wouldn't talk about it at all. His son only found out about the star from talking to one of his dad's buddies.

My grandfathers brother, was the youngest 2 Star General in the Marine Corps when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. He was sent to the Pacific as Chief of Staff Deputy Commander Pacfic Fleet and later commanded the 3rd Marine Division on Iwo Jema.

My Late Father lied about his age(just 15 yrs old) joined the
Marine Corps was in Guadalcanal all the way to Iwo Jima
I have all his M.C. stuff still His Platoon pics in the Phlliphines
He looked like a baby way back then!
He would never talk about his time in WWII
Lost him in 1977 when I was still in H.S.

A young OSI lieutenant in the last OSI unit I served before retirement had a photo on his wall of a small group of Marines posed in front of the flag on Suribachi. I asked him about it. He said while the Marines were raising the flag, they were protected by a small squad forming a perimeter at the top of the mount. After the flag was raised, they posed quickly for a group shot. His dad was a young officer holding a carbine.

We got to talking and he said he was gathering up a host of stuff to give to his dad on his birthday, and trying to find a good 1911A1 to go along with the carbine he'd bought. I had a good Remington Rand that I offered to sell him at my purchase price. He said he'd get back to me.

The next day, he told me he'd talked to his dad and asked him what kind of .45 he'd carried. The response was, "Remington." The deal was struck. So, I know that my last 1911A1 went to an Iwo veteran for his birthday. I kind of wish I'd have asked the Louie to sell it back to me after his father departed since it wasn't a family heirloom, but what the heck.