Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The boys at Iwo Jima

^^^^

They're out there now. We're just never told about it by the media.

God bless those men...those that came home and those that did not.

I never fully understood the sacrifice of war until I had a child. It wasn't something I could comprehend.

God bless our Gold Star families too

Hopefully we won't ever need to...but if the war toxin sounds I promise you will. Americans will always stand and fight. Vietnam, Korea, and the middle east have shown this time and time again.

I disagree. We have a lot of them in the military today but without an all out war like WWII, we don't see them. We live in a fog as to what's really going on in the ME.

Fine story.

One friend who died years ago told me a bit about it and he had photos he had taken with a little camera, maybe a Kodak Brownie, of literally hundreds of dead enemy soldiers from a mass attack the night/day before.

Thank you for posting, vapodog. I read the book several years ago and I was at the memorial a year and a half ago. Very moving. I was hoping to walk through Arlington cemetery, but they were still on winter hours and I got there too late.


Jerry

Brave men (and women) are still with us, there are plenty of them, MSM still hates the military as do the liberals so you dont get to see too many of them.

My wife’s uncle was with a mortar crew on Iwo. He fought in other battles also and would talk a little about those but not about Iwo Jima - except to say that he threw his helmet away during the siege. That was tantamount to committing suicide. He said he couldn’t take it anymore.


Thank you for taking the time to share this!

WOW! That was an incredible story, I hope those kids understand how lucky they were to be there for that. Any chance you could post the video?

That was a tough read. Thanks for posting.



P

My step grandfather was on the USS Missoula, an APA (Army Patrol Attack) that picked up some Marines in Hawaii and took them to Iwo. He was on board the Missoula when the big flag went up. (Supposedly the little flag was hauled to Iwo on the Missoula by a company of Marines) He said every ship in the harbor and around the island sounded their whistles and horns. He also said starting on the first day they started taking wounded on board and a couple of days after the flag went up they went back to Saipan to off load the wounded survivors at a big hospital they had there. He never mentioned being on the island so I don't know if he ever set foot on it. He never spoke about the wounded or those who did not survive the trip to Saipan. Every time it was brought it up he would start tearing up and the conversation ended.

kwg

Amen, Rocky.

As long as we have men and women who raise their hands and take THE OATH, we will have heroes. Only 1% of the population volunteers for the military, so in some respect, they all are. Some go above and beyond that, however. Sometimes way above. Crisp salute, all.

I read this before, but it’s a great thing to keep in mind.
Thanks for posting it again. We owe our Dads and Uncles, and even our Granddads a debt that we cannot repay. They call it “The Greatest Generation” for a reason.
7mm

I enjoyed that very much, thank you!

We visited that monument a few times when I was a small child. It held special significance to my father, but I didnt know why at the time.

I do now.

I had an uncle on Guadalcanal, another on Iwo Jima, my dad was on Okinawa, all USMC. None of them would talk about it much. Absolute friggin' heroes, all of them.

Thanks for posting Vapo. Someone mentioned taking care of Gold Star families. I have a customer who is a Gold Star mother. She has never mentioned it but her daughter has. I looked up the story of how her 19 year old son lost his life in an IED explosion in Iraq. My staff knows to take care of this lady’s needs. We help her and her husband as best we can. My family had several members who served in the Pacific and in Europe. We were fortunate that all came home. Real fortunate. To a man, none ever bragged about the war. If asked questions, they would answer.

In the last year of his life, one of my uncles who fought in the Pacific was asked by a young nephew (around 5-6 years old, “Uncle JT, did you ever kill a man?” My uncle looked at my dad (Korea Chosin Reservoir Marine) and then looked at me (I was 21) as if to ask if he should answer the question. Finally he answered with a story. “I was pulled off the line and sent to Australia because I had malaria, yellow fever, and yellow jaundice at the same time. When I was ready to go back, I was put on a guard detail watching a small bridge. That day I killed 30 men.” He was dead serious as his thoughts went back to that day

War or not, that’s a lot of killing. That’s a lot to carry in your head for the 38 years he lived post war.

From the stories shared on 24hcf, few of these brave souls talked about what they went through. All considered those left behind as heroes.