thedrifter
09-05-06, 02:12 PM
September 11, 2006
The lore of the Corps
Promotion at Iwo Jima tested former teacher
By Charles A. Jones
Special to the Times
A high school Latin teacher proved that every Marine must be a rifleman.
Facing the draft during World War II, Dan Marshall joined the Marine Corps and became a clerk with Marine Aircraft Group 11.
In 1942, he earned his commission and became a lieutenant.
Known to his men as “The Kid,” Marshall was platoon leader for the light weapons platoon of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Marines, 3rd Marine Division.
He fought at Bougainville and served as a battalion intelligence officer on Guam, where he was wounded.
Marshall’s greatest challenge came during the battle for Iwo Jima. His battalion commander ordered him to assume command of India Company after it lost its officers, including the company commander.
Marshall was wounded in the knee, and a Japanese bullet slammed into the front of his helmet. The helmet liner deflected it upward and out the back. The shattered liner cut his scalp; because Marshall refused evacuation, he had to wear a bandage tied under his chin in a bow — an unusual look for a Marine. Only India Company leathernecks were allowed to joke about it after they left Iwo.
One night, Marshall and his men shot five soldiers who seemed larger than average Japanese troops, making Marshall fear they had shot Marines.
In daylight, they discovered five Japanese soldiers wearing Marine uniforms and helmets and carrying M1 rifles. He thought they were dead, then saw one blink. Marshall attacked him until two other Marines restrained the Japanese soldier, who was so wild he had to be tied to a stretcher.
The Japanese soldier spat on Marshall, hoping his action would result in his execution. However, Lt. Gen. H.M. Smith, the senior Marine commander at the battle, wanted prisoners and offered trips to Hawaii to Marines who captured one.
Marshall offered the trip to the two other leathernecks, but they refused to leave their comrades on Iwo.
Later, his men remained quiet as a “guest” sneaked up on Marshall while he was alone in his foxhole in a rest area. Smith tapped him on the shoulder and announced he had come ashore to shake Marshall’s hand. Marshall had long been the company’s only commissioned officer.
The two had a friendly conversation, and Smith noticed that Marshall carried an M1 Garand, instead of the carbine rifle usually carried by officers. Marshall told Smith he had taken it from a fallen Marine on Guam. The first time he fired it, an enemy soldier slumped, Marshall said. After that, he couldn’t bring himself to part with it.
Following the war, Marshall taught English in Japan. During a flight to Japan in 1946, Marshall’s plane made an emergency landing on — coincidentally — Iwo Jima, where he visited 3rd Division’s cemetery, which was filled with names he recognized, including a close friend, posthumous Silver Star recipient Capt. Edward Stephenson.
Marshall earned his doctorate and retired as a Tufts University professor. In 1957, he was advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel on the retired list.
Now 89, he remembers the war’s cost. Upon leaving Iwo, “I could not shake the sad memory of a very young Marine flashing his never-to-be-forgotten grin as he crumpled in my arms from a sniper’s bullet,” he said. “I was very weary of bartering the lives of young men for worthless real estate.”
His survival during the battle was “like winning the lottery,” Marshall said, because you “can’t explain it, but you live with it.”
The writer is a lawyer and Marine Corps Reserve colonel in Norfolk, Va.
Ellie
The lore of the Corps
Promotion at Iwo Jima tested former teacher
By Charles A. Jones
Special to the Times
A high school Latin teacher proved that every Marine must be a rifleman.
Facing the draft during World War II, Dan Marshall joined the Marine Corps and became a clerk with Marine Aircraft Group 11.
In 1942, he earned his commission and became a lieutenant.
Known to his men as “The Kid,” Marshall was platoon leader for the light weapons platoon of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Marines, 3rd Marine Division.
He fought at Bougainville and served as a battalion intelligence officer on Guam, where he was wounded.
Marshall’s greatest challenge came during the battle for Iwo Jima. His battalion commander ordered him to assume command of India Company after it lost its officers, including the company commander.
Marshall was wounded in the knee, and a Japanese bullet slammed into the front of his helmet. The helmet liner deflected it upward and out the back. The shattered liner cut his scalp; because Marshall refused evacuation, he had to wear a bandage tied under his chin in a bow — an unusual look for a Marine. Only India Company leathernecks were allowed to joke about it after they left Iwo.
One night, Marshall and his men shot five soldiers who seemed larger than average Japanese troops, making Marshall fear they had shot Marines.
In daylight, they discovered five Japanese soldiers wearing Marine uniforms and helmets and carrying M1 rifles. He thought they were dead, then saw one blink. Marshall attacked him until two other Marines restrained the Japanese soldier, who was so wild he had to be tied to a stretcher.
The Japanese soldier spat on Marshall, hoping his action would result in his execution. However, Lt. Gen. H.M. Smith, the senior Marine commander at the battle, wanted prisoners and offered trips to Hawaii to Marines who captured one.
Marshall offered the trip to the two other leathernecks, but they refused to leave their comrades on Iwo.
Later, his men remained quiet as a “guest” sneaked up on Marshall while he was alone in his foxhole in a rest area. Smith tapped him on the shoulder and announced he had come ashore to shake Marshall’s hand. Marshall had long been the company’s only commissioned officer.
The two had a friendly conversation, and Smith noticed that Marshall carried an M1 Garand, instead of the carbine rifle usually carried by officers. Marshall told Smith he had taken it from a fallen Marine on Guam. The first time he fired it, an enemy soldier slumped, Marshall said. After that, he couldn’t bring himself to part with it.
Following the war, Marshall taught English in Japan. During a flight to Japan in 1946, Marshall’s plane made an emergency landing on — coincidentally — Iwo Jima, where he visited 3rd Division’s cemetery, which was filled with names he recognized, including a close friend, posthumous Silver Star recipient Capt. Edward Stephenson.
Marshall earned his doctorate and retired as a Tufts University professor. In 1957, he was advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel on the retired list.
Now 89, he remembers the war’s cost. Upon leaving Iwo, “I could not shake the sad memory of a very young Marine flashing his never-to-be-forgotten grin as he crumpled in my arms from a sniper’s bullet,” he said. “I was very weary of bartering the lives of young men for worthless real estate.”
His survival during the battle was “like winning the lottery,” Marshall said, because you “can’t explain it, but you live with it.”
The writer is a lawyer and Marine Corps Reserve colonel in Norfolk, Va.
Ellie