Tribute to the boys at Iwo Jima

[Cole11]

Today, Feb 19, 2004, marks the 59th anniversary, of the Marines landing on Iwo Jima, I just want to send out a tribute to them, and all those who lost their lives there.

[dep_baumy]

Ooh-Rah, thanks for making me aware of that.

[namgrunt]

I had occasion to meet an old guy in the lunch/deli section of a market once. He was non-descript except for his cover, which had an Eagle, Globe, and Anchor patch on it. I nodded in greeting and said "Semper Fi!", which he returned with a grin.

He stopped to shoot the breeze for a minute, asking when, where, and which outfit I'd served with. I answered him and thought he was probably in the Korean War. When I asked, he said no, he had fought on IWO with the 26th Marines. I stood to my feet, faced him, and saluted. Then I shook his hand, and bought him a cup of coffee. We talked for awhile, but not about Iwo Jima. His face became a bit grim, and he didn't go into much detail. I didn't push it.

That was a hard fight. Of all Marines killed in World War II, one in three was killed on Iwo Jima. In the space of 34 days, 6,800 Marines died. Do the math. Yes, a hard fight indeed. If you meet a survivor of Iwo, accord him respect.

Semper Fi!
namgrunt

[cmbell]

http://www.iwojima.com/battle/battleb.htm

I recently ran across this web site while surfing the net..
It has a lot of interesting facts about Iwo Jima including pictures and bio's of the flag raisers.

check it out if you want.

All I have to say about the Marines who were there is SEMPER FI!:thumbup:

[namgrunt]

Amen to that! My mother once worked on proofreading the memoirs for a Marine who was on Iwo. I think his name was Frank Sutter, but am not sure. According to my mother, he said it took him twenty years before he could even put his thoughts on paper. He still had a hard time talking about it to anyone, even then.

It didn't help my mother's situation, because I was in Vietnam on my first tour. Frank's writing of combat shook her as she transposed them to my situation. Rough stuff.

I salute all the men of all services which fought on Iwo Jima. I say that because Army Air Corps units were there also.

Semper Fi!
namgrunt

[MillRatUSMC]

http://www.geocities.com/millrat_99/iwoplan.jpg
Tactical Map of Iwo Jima showing the landing beaches of Iwo Jima

http://www.geocities.com/millrat_99/tributetoiwojimamarines.html
Tribute to the Marines of Iwo Jima

God, we miss the date of 19 February 2004.
I met a Marine that was there also at the "Frozen Chosin" his nickname in the Corps also on the web...AppleEater....

Semper Fidelis Jim and we miss you as your one of the BEST among the BEST...
Ricardo

[namgrunt]

Looks like the old guy I met got a free cup of coffee. If he was in the 26th Marines, then he didn't fight at Iwo Jima. Or my memory is off and he was in the 23rd, or 25th, or 28th Marines. I remember he wasn't in the 27th, because that was my outfit 23 years later in Nam. Regardless, I saluted him for the men that did go.

Semper Fi!