Student honors Iwo Jima veterans

[thedrifter]

Student honors Iwo Jima veterans
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By CHANDLER BROWN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/03/04

Last Christmas, Danielle Girdano gave her father a gift to honor his service in World War II - a vial of black ash from the beaches of Iwo Jima.

At first, Daniel Girdano, 78, was confused.

"But once he realized what it was - what it meant - he began uncontrollably sobbing," his daughter recalled.

Her father's emotions have led Danielle Girdano, 26, to give a gift to other Marines who fought at Iwo Jima. With the help of Kennesaw State University, where she's a senior marketing major, Girdano is playing host to hundreds of Marine Corps veterans this weekend at events to honor them.

Today, more than 200 Marine vets - including about two dozen who helped U.S.-led forces win Iwo Jima in 1945 - are expected at a ceremony on the KSU campus in north Cobb County. Tomorrow, they'll attend a "Men Who Never Came Home" memorial service, also at the school. The public is invited.

After Christmas last year, Girdano, who lives in Canton, began researching the battle at Iwo Jima and decided her project would be to create a local monument to the Marines who fought there.

Her roommate, artist Bobbi Emmert, 25, agreed to construct a glass statue featuring Iwo Jima veterans and an American flag. It will be unveiled today at KSU's Stillwell Theater.

Girdano, who has been in contact with Marines all over the country on the Internet, also convinced Delta Air Lines to fly 10 veterans here for the ceremony and a local hotel to put them up.

"I'm overwhelmed. I'm just so glad that these Marines are getting recognition," Mario Scampini of suburban Chicago said Friday as he mingled with other veterans. "I'm very proud to have served my country, and this - these people - make it all worthwhile."

The tiny island of Iwo Jima sits about 650 miles from Tokyo. Winning it put U.S. troops closer to Japan while providing a place in the Pacific Ocean for B-2 bombers to refuel and make emergency landings. Within months of Iwo Jima's fall, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Japan surrendered.

"Without [winning] Iwo Jima, we would have still won the war, but it was a strong island to have," said WWII vet Gordon Ward, 81, who nearly lost his leg in a mortar attack after just one day in Iwo Jima. He traveled from his home in Kensington, Md., for this weekend's events.

"It started out small, but it's blown up into this huge thing," Danielle Girdano said.

Ward said: "I can't understand what the benefit is for her. It's just amazing."

The reward, her father said, is recognizing those who fought for her freedom.

"She's just one of those girls that if people have done something, she wants them to be honored," Daniel Girdano said. "Believe me, we feel honored."


Ellie

[Cole11]

the men who fought on Iwo Jima are all heros, reading a book about Iwo Jima is what inspired me to join the Corps. On Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was truly a common virtue. Semper Fi

[thedrifter]

Filmmaker documents veterans' heroism in WWII
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By Mike Cronin
The Salt Lake Tribune

Webster's New World College Dictionary defines it as anyone "admired for courage, nobility, or exploits, especially in war." Another entry in the fourth edition says it's someone "admired for qualities or achievements and regarded as an ideal or model."

This is the story of two heroes: One is Murray resident Glen Young, who fits the first description. The other is Colorado filmmaker Larry Cappetto, who embodies the second. Cappetto is interviewing veterans who fought on the remote Pacific island of Iwo Jima for his third documentary about those who fought in World War II. His first two films dealt with the men who stormed Normandy's Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1945.

A humble Young, 81, earned his "hero" moniker as a then 21-year-old Marine corporal during the 36-day campaign to take Iwo Jima that spanned February and March of 1945. His job there was to lay telephone wire so American troops could communicate.

"It was my fourth battle, so I wasn't particularly afraid," he said late last month. "Most of the time you don't think you're going to die. You just do your job, think 'We're going to win,' and that's it."

Like most genuine heroes, Young denies that he is one.

"The only heroes are those who never came home," he said.

Young witnessed horrific scenes on that 7.5-square-mile island, a third of the size of Manhattan. He recounted some of those nightmares during a filmed conversation with Cappetto on New Year's Eve: two friends shot dead while sitting in their jeep; two gunned down while running back to their foxholes; and one whose stomach was blown apart as Young stood within inches of him.

Cappetto asked Young what it felt like to be enveloped in bullets, bombs and mortars fired by the Japanese.

"Well, it's bad when you get hit; when you don't, you're just fine," Young said. "I didn't get hit, so I was just fine."

He did, however, suffer a concussion from a blast so fierce that he thought he was about to die.

"They always talk about what your last thought is going to be, so I said, 'OK, what is it?' " Young recounted. "I couldn't think of anything, so I said, 'Oh, well, I'll do without it.' "

Of the 41 men in his unit, only three left the island unwounded. Young was one of those men. He was never hit during 2 1/2 years of fighting in World War II.

The sacrifice of men like Young has compelled Cappetto, 47, to embark on what he labels a "calling." Cappetto's documentaries contain no narration. He lets the words of those who were there do all the talking.

"My mission is to find these veterans and record their stories before it's too late," he said following his interview with Young.

"I'll be doing this as long as I can. They're a dying breed. Some estimates say that 1,500 [World War II vets] die a day."

Cappetto has already experienced that tragic fact. On Thursday, he spoke at Jack Homer's memorial service in Salt Lake City after being invited to do so by the veteran's family. Homer served as a Navy coxswain on Feb. 19, 1945, bringing Marines to the shores of Iwo Jima that first day of the offensive on a Higgins Boat. Homer, a Salt Lake resident, went into a coma just hours after his interview with Cappetto. Three days later, the 78-year-old veteran died.

"It was as though Dad willed himself to live until he could tell his story. Then he let go," said Debra Deming, Homer's daughter. The former sailor had waited more than a year to share what happened on Iwo Jima with Cappetto.

These men - and a few women - are his heroes, said Cappetto, whose father served in the Korean War and whose grandfather served in World War II under Gen. George Patton.

"They went to war because they had to, not because anyone commanded them to," he said.

After interviews with 100 veterans of the D-Day invasion and the assault on Iwo Jima, Cappetto marvels at the humility of the American troops.

"They have no ego," he said. "I have a lot of admiration and respect for them. What's a role model? Someone's life you want to pattern."

Which is why Cappetto was speechless when one veteran told him after their interview, "You're my hero."

At the end of every interview, Cappetto has a picture taken of him with the veteran. It's his favorite part of the conversation.

It was Young's favorite part, too.

The veteran wept during much of the 45 minutes he was on camera.

"It doesn't affect you when it's happening, but when you come back . . ." Young said of combat. Every Sunday, Young still calls two comrades who fought with him on Iwo Jima. He's talked to them each week for the last 60 years.

He said there was really no choice about whether to fight once he and his friends saw how the Japanese treated prisoners.

"We had to defend ourselves," he said of his thinking back then. "We would've had to fight the Japanese either way. It would've been now or later."

The battle for Iwo Jima

It was one of the bloodiest campaigns fought in World War II. U.S. Marines amassed more than 24,000 casualties - "by far the highest single-action losses in Marine Corps history," according to Marine Col. Joseph Alexander.

American commanders wanted the island's three airstrips so U.S. planes could launch bombing raids on Japan's mainland. And the island's capture stopped kamikaze pilots from launching more suicide missions from Iwo Jima against Allied forces.

"Nearly seven hundred Americans gave their lives for every square mile" of Iwo Jima, writes military historian Norman Cooper. "For every plot of ground the size of a football field, an average of more than one American and five Japanese were killed and five Americans wounded."

The search is on

Filmmaker Larry Cappetto continues to look for veterans from Iwo Jima. They can contact him through his Web site, veteranshistory.org; his e-mail, larry@veterans history.org; or his phone, 970-254-9262.


Ellie

[juan zamboni]

My father was a corpsman who served on Iwo Jima. He landed in the first wave on green beach (base of Suribachi), and the Marine unit he was attached to fought in the very last action on the far end of the island.

He had so many wounded on the first morning that he was constantly running out of supplies, so he had to run down to a landing craft at the beach and restock. After making several trips, he was wounded by shrapnel in his knee, shoulder, and forehead as he came down the ramp. He was evacuated to a hospital ship for treatment (they thought his eyes were injured by the shrapnel, which ended up not being the case.) He returned to his company a couple of days later and remained with them until the last day. He's a fiesty 80-year old now - still tough as nails.

He was awarded the Silver Star and a Purple Heart.

Clint Eastwood is currently making a movie about Iwo Jima based upon the book, "Flags of Our Fathers".

excellent online history of the battle (http://www.nps.gov/wapa/indepth/extContent/usmc/pcn-190-003131-00/index.htm)

unsung heroes of Iwo Jima (http://www.nps.gov/wapa/indepth/extContent/usmc/pcn-190-003131-00/index.htm)