Semper Fi.
And Thank you.

Americas greatest generation

Yet today isn't a Holiday but "Juneteenth" is. WTF ever that is anyway.

A wonderful day in history. Most younger people up to about age 30 or so, don't even know what Iwo Jima is.

I thank all the brave Marines, and Sailers.

Yes sir! Thanks to all the servicemen who fought for our freedom!

Should be remembered like the Alamo!
Americans sacrificing all so that their children can live in freedom!
7mm

Slumlord was born?

have several uncles who served there in 1945.. thank God Each Came home...

my wife had a couple uncles who fought there also.... one is still buried there....he was 19 in 1945 when he was on Iwo...

Iwo Jima ended my uncles stint in the USMC. Took a round through the arm and stomach, lucky to get off the beach alive.

Back in '64 I found myself in the boom operator's seat in the back end of a KC97 flying over Iwo. First pic is the eastern half with Suribachi on the right. Second is of the western portion of the island. Was living on Guam at the time, enroute Japan.

We stand on the shoulders of giants .

My dad and his brother were both wounded on Day 5. Said getting shot up pretty badly was probably one of the best things that ever happened to him ( as he got off the island for the remainder of the campaign ). Had the picture of the Suribachi flag raising on his office wall for as long as he lived.

I had a good friend that swam doing beach recon ( UDT) he also was sent in to help clear the landing beach. He also swam at Tinian and Okinawa where he was wounded by a kamakazi. Hell of a man and hated Japanese for the rest of his life.

I met Chuck Lindberg, one of the Marines who raised the first flag over Suribachi - not the second, more famous raising - quite a few years back through one of his neighbors. I got along with him quite well, initially due to knowing the story of the first flag raising. Chuck was quite adamant about the first raising getting its due credit which caused him some grief at times. Eventually, the City of Richfield, MN where Chuck lived erected a monument commemorating all veterans using Chuck's likeness.

A few years after Chuck's death I found a book specifically about the taking of Suribachi and there were a number of pictures of Chuck in it. Three or four were of the first flag raising all of which were different from the single picture I had seen until then. I wish I would have found it earlier and shown it to him, I think he would have been happy to see the initial raising getting some attention.

I have had the honor of visiting there a few times. I walked to the top of Mt Suribachi, crawled through the tunnels and am truly amazed how many died. It is a tiny island but took months to capture.

Iwo Jima was the first thing that came to mind, but didn't realize the 2nd flag raising anniversary was today.
I couldn't imagine what it would be like to head into that fight, knowing what was expected.


Semper Fi, bros

My Dad was a WW2 vet who served in Europe, so through him I have had the privilege of knowing many WW2 vets of both theaters!
It has been my experience that most veterans came home loving or at least respecting the German people or German soldiers. Even the ones who seemed a little scared by their service in Europe felt this way in my experience.
But I have never known a Pacific Veteran to have anything but hatered for the Japanese, even civilians.
Combat soldiers and sailors hated them all their lives!
This fact is a very telling testament to the brutality of the Pacific War!
7mm

Tester or specialist?
Either way if for some reason your the one guy trying to leave Texas for California to go back to work I’ve got a job waiting for you!
Congrats on your retirement

My wife’s grandfather fought on that island. It was horrible.

Dad spent the war in the South Pacific. Americal Division. He said the Japanese soldiers were tough and crazy fearless.

Drafted in February of 1942 at 31 years of age. Dad had only gone through 8th grade in a one room schoolhouse on Fischel Creek in rural Montana.

I asked him if he’d ever heard of the Philippines before he was sent there in WWII, he said he hadn’t. Served from 1942 until his honorable discharge in 1945. Came back to a changed Montana with no job or veteran services to assist him, got a job and went on with his life, asking for no help from anyone.

Corporal in the Pacific theater, sometime during WWII…

Damn straight!