thedrifter
11-10-06, 02:51 PM
Veterans Day and the U.S. Marine Corps
By Ted Sherman
Nov 10, 2006
Today's officially Veterans Day, as well as the 231st birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps. Semper fi, Gyrenes, past and present. You’re truly the few and the proud! The current Clint Eastwood movie about the World War II battle for Iwo Jima, “Flags Of Our Fathers”, has brought new interest to one of the most dramatic moments in Marine and US history. Glorious as the battle was to civilians, politicians and historians, it was something entirely different for those who lived ... and died ... it.
My Navy troopship was part of the fleet that carried Marines into the battle on February 19, 1945. By the time the slaughter ended 36 days later, 7,000 Marines had died on that dirty little island, including three of the six guys (five Marines and a Navy medical corpsman) who raised the flag in the photo. At least 22,000 Japanese defenders were killed, virtually the total defensive force on the island.
Although every Hollywood film about World War II has used actors in their 20s and 30s to portray Marines, the reality is that almost all who actually fought on Iwo Jima were teenagers. I was 19 and felt like an old man among them. Many of the Marines were 15 and 16, boys who had lied about their age and faked parent signatures on enlistment papers to join the Corps.
Was it all worth it? I often wonder, especially knowing that absolutely nothing has changed in the 61 years that have followed Iwo Jima. Young Marines are dying again. Virtually the entire globe is at war again. Recruiters and politicians still lie about the honor, glory and adventure of military service to country. Mothers and fathers still proudly give up their children to war. International hate propaganda, especially against the US, is worse now than it ever was in World War II. Movies and computer games glorify war. The cliché is true. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And repeat it. And repeat it.
Governments, terrorists, rebel gangs, political outcast groups, religious fanatics and cults all over the world use basically the same historic routine to get cannon fodder. They take the healthiest teenagers, put them through rigid indoctrination, select an enemy to hate and then send the boys and girls out to kill or be killed by other teenagers.
Whenever I see the famous Iwo Jima flag-raising photo these days, memories of 1945 and thoughts of old Marine and Navy friends come flooding back. But sometimes, especially since the horrors of 9/11/01, I get a stray, almost unpatriotic thought. Is there really much difference between those teenage American and Japanese boys who fought and died on Iwo Jima, and the brainwashed Islamic children of today who are also willing to sacrifice their lives for causes they can only dimly comprehend?
Maybe the reason Americans still love the Iwo Jima story is because it represents the last war we actually won. All since have been losses or stalemates leading to the next war. The older I get, the more strongly I feel that wars should be forgotten, not glorified by statues and memorials. Self-destructive mankind must quickly find a way to end all wars, because very soon there will be no one left to build the statues.
Ted Sherman is a retired corporate PR manager and executive speech writer. Today he's a humor and travel writer, and occasional contributor of jokes to a major TV comedy show. He's a graduate of the University of the Arts and the University of Penn Grad. School of Communications, and a US Navy veteran of WWII and the Korean War.
Ellie
By Ted Sherman
Nov 10, 2006
Today's officially Veterans Day, as well as the 231st birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps. Semper fi, Gyrenes, past and present. You’re truly the few and the proud! The current Clint Eastwood movie about the World War II battle for Iwo Jima, “Flags Of Our Fathers”, has brought new interest to one of the most dramatic moments in Marine and US history. Glorious as the battle was to civilians, politicians and historians, it was something entirely different for those who lived ... and died ... it.
My Navy troopship was part of the fleet that carried Marines into the battle on February 19, 1945. By the time the slaughter ended 36 days later, 7,000 Marines had died on that dirty little island, including three of the six guys (five Marines and a Navy medical corpsman) who raised the flag in the photo. At least 22,000 Japanese defenders were killed, virtually the total defensive force on the island.
Although every Hollywood film about World War II has used actors in their 20s and 30s to portray Marines, the reality is that almost all who actually fought on Iwo Jima were teenagers. I was 19 and felt like an old man among them. Many of the Marines were 15 and 16, boys who had lied about their age and faked parent signatures on enlistment papers to join the Corps.
Was it all worth it? I often wonder, especially knowing that absolutely nothing has changed in the 61 years that have followed Iwo Jima. Young Marines are dying again. Virtually the entire globe is at war again. Recruiters and politicians still lie about the honor, glory and adventure of military service to country. Mothers and fathers still proudly give up their children to war. International hate propaganda, especially against the US, is worse now than it ever was in World War II. Movies and computer games glorify war. The cliché is true. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And repeat it. And repeat it.
Governments, terrorists, rebel gangs, political outcast groups, religious fanatics and cults all over the world use basically the same historic routine to get cannon fodder. They take the healthiest teenagers, put them through rigid indoctrination, select an enemy to hate and then send the boys and girls out to kill or be killed by other teenagers.
Whenever I see the famous Iwo Jima flag-raising photo these days, memories of 1945 and thoughts of old Marine and Navy friends come flooding back. But sometimes, especially since the horrors of 9/11/01, I get a stray, almost unpatriotic thought. Is there really much difference between those teenage American and Japanese boys who fought and died on Iwo Jima, and the brainwashed Islamic children of today who are also willing to sacrifice their lives for causes they can only dimly comprehend?
Maybe the reason Americans still love the Iwo Jima story is because it represents the last war we actually won. All since have been losses or stalemates leading to the next war. The older I get, the more strongly I feel that wars should be forgotten, not glorified by statues and memorials. Self-destructive mankind must quickly find a way to end all wars, because very soon there will be no one left to build the statues.
Ted Sherman is a retired corporate PR manager and executive speech writer. Today he's a humor and travel writer, and occasional contributor of jokes to a major TV comedy show. He's a graduate of the University of the Arts and the University of Penn Grad. School of Communications, and a US Navy veteran of WWII and the Korean War.
Ellie