thedrifter
10-07-07, 11:14 AM
Dave Bakke: Iwo Jima survivors tour Civil War history
The State Journal-Register
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Just after noon on Friday, Shirley Franklin, the mayor of Atlanta, Ga., walked into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. I was there, so we howdy'd and shook. Had it been any other day, I would have been asking to interview her for a column.
No offense, Mayor, but a few yards away from you, in the museum's restaurant, sat five survivors of the battle of Iwo Jima. That is who I was there to see.
Bill Worf of Missoula, Mont; Harold Miller from Forsyth; Charlie Sears from Fayetteville, Ark.; Ralph Swartsell of Indianapolis; and Claro Bergevin from Walla Walla, Wash., hit town to a police escort Friday morning. They were whisked to the door of the museum, then given commemorative plaques designed by Sam Cooper, technical director of the museum.
The men were in Company B, Fifth Tank Battalion, Fifth Marine Division ("The Spearhead"). They landed on Iwo Jima in February 1945.
Someone who has seen battle, the way these men saw it, regards the Civil War portions of the Lincoln museum differently. There is an understanding between these men and the rebs and bluecoats of the 1860s - as well as with the soldiers patrolling in Iraq.
"Not many people realize how many died in the Civil War," Bergevin said during their lunch break. "What was it, 600,000? I don't think we lost 300,000 in World War II."
The Marines arrived on Iwo Jima, eight square miles of land, to find 21,000 Japanese troops honeycombed throughout the ground, converting tunnels that had been mines into defensive positions. Rooting them out took flames, close-quarter fighting and tough slogging. The Marines suffered 23,573 casualties on Iwo Jima; some 6,800 died. Nearly 20,000 of the Japanese were killed.
"They thought it would take us three days to take the island," Bergevin said. Instead, it took a month of hard fighting.
"They were going to send us on to Okinawa after that," Miller said, "but we were so damn beaten up after Iwo that they couldn't."
As tough as they had it, the men feel sorry for the Americans in Iraq. There is no front. There are no hills to be taken. "And at least we knew who the enemy was," Bergevin said.
There is renewed interest in Iwo Jima as the result of Clint Eastwood's two movies - "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima." Ken Burns' extensive documentary on World War II week.
Swartsell said he couldn't finish watching "Flags of Our Fathers" after he bought it. It was too graphic. But he did see all of what he considers the best account of the battle, "Heroes of Iwo Jima," a documentary narrated by actor Gene Hackman, an ex-Marine.
Along with the five veterans in town Friday were two women whose husbands were members of B Company - Mary (husband, Bill) Hume of Carlisle, Ind., and Inda (husband, Sandy) Adams of Madison, Tenn. Inda is secretary for the group, which gets together every year. The youngest is 80.
During a break in their tour, the men said they thought the museum was terrific.
"I've heard," Worf said, "that it is one of the best, if not the best, presidential museum in the country." He said he had seen nothing that would challenge that opinion.
Sixty-two years after the battle, Joe Rosenthal's famous picture of the flag raising is its most lasting image. But, as the men reminded me Friday, the first flag was raised on Mount Suribachi hours before Rosenthal's photograph.
"When that first flag was raised," Worf said, "that's when a great cheer went up, because it meant we'd taken that mountain. But, no, it wasn't the end."
The men of Company B eventually were sent to occupy Nagasaki just after the dropping of the atomic bomb.
"That was a mistake," Bergevin said, recalling walking down the middle of the flattened city full of radiation. A number of the members of Company B later died, probably from its effects.
"My husband always said he'd die of cancer," Mary Hume said, "and he did."
The Iwo Jima survivors finished their lunches and, with their friends and family, completed their tour of the museum and its Civil War history. The men landed on Iwo Jima only 80 years after the Civil War ended.
Everybody has a story. The problem is that some of them are boring. If yours is not, contact Dave Bakke at 788-1541 or dave.bakke@sj-r.com. His column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
Ellie
The State Journal-Register
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Just after noon on Friday, Shirley Franklin, the mayor of Atlanta, Ga., walked into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. I was there, so we howdy'd and shook. Had it been any other day, I would have been asking to interview her for a column.
No offense, Mayor, but a few yards away from you, in the museum's restaurant, sat five survivors of the battle of Iwo Jima. That is who I was there to see.
Bill Worf of Missoula, Mont; Harold Miller from Forsyth; Charlie Sears from Fayetteville, Ark.; Ralph Swartsell of Indianapolis; and Claro Bergevin from Walla Walla, Wash., hit town to a police escort Friday morning. They were whisked to the door of the museum, then given commemorative plaques designed by Sam Cooper, technical director of the museum.
The men were in Company B, Fifth Tank Battalion, Fifth Marine Division ("The Spearhead"). They landed on Iwo Jima in February 1945.
Someone who has seen battle, the way these men saw it, regards the Civil War portions of the Lincoln museum differently. There is an understanding between these men and the rebs and bluecoats of the 1860s - as well as with the soldiers patrolling in Iraq.
"Not many people realize how many died in the Civil War," Bergevin said during their lunch break. "What was it, 600,000? I don't think we lost 300,000 in World War II."
The Marines arrived on Iwo Jima, eight square miles of land, to find 21,000 Japanese troops honeycombed throughout the ground, converting tunnels that had been mines into defensive positions. Rooting them out took flames, close-quarter fighting and tough slogging. The Marines suffered 23,573 casualties on Iwo Jima; some 6,800 died. Nearly 20,000 of the Japanese were killed.
"They thought it would take us three days to take the island," Bergevin said. Instead, it took a month of hard fighting.
"They were going to send us on to Okinawa after that," Miller said, "but we were so damn beaten up after Iwo that they couldn't."
As tough as they had it, the men feel sorry for the Americans in Iraq. There is no front. There are no hills to be taken. "And at least we knew who the enemy was," Bergevin said.
There is renewed interest in Iwo Jima as the result of Clint Eastwood's two movies - "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima." Ken Burns' extensive documentary on World War II week.
Swartsell said he couldn't finish watching "Flags of Our Fathers" after he bought it. It was too graphic. But he did see all of what he considers the best account of the battle, "Heroes of Iwo Jima," a documentary narrated by actor Gene Hackman, an ex-Marine.
Along with the five veterans in town Friday were two women whose husbands were members of B Company - Mary (husband, Bill) Hume of Carlisle, Ind., and Inda (husband, Sandy) Adams of Madison, Tenn. Inda is secretary for the group, which gets together every year. The youngest is 80.
During a break in their tour, the men said they thought the museum was terrific.
"I've heard," Worf said, "that it is one of the best, if not the best, presidential museum in the country." He said he had seen nothing that would challenge that opinion.
Sixty-two years after the battle, Joe Rosenthal's famous picture of the flag raising is its most lasting image. But, as the men reminded me Friday, the first flag was raised on Mount Suribachi hours before Rosenthal's photograph.
"When that first flag was raised," Worf said, "that's when a great cheer went up, because it meant we'd taken that mountain. But, no, it wasn't the end."
The men of Company B eventually were sent to occupy Nagasaki just after the dropping of the atomic bomb.
"That was a mistake," Bergevin said, recalling walking down the middle of the flattened city full of radiation. A number of the members of Company B later died, probably from its effects.
"My husband always said he'd die of cancer," Mary Hume said, "and he did."
The Iwo Jima survivors finished their lunches and, with their friends and family, completed their tour of the museum and its Civil War history. The men landed on Iwo Jima only 80 years after the Civil War ended.
Everybody has a story. The problem is that some of them are boring. If yours is not, contact Dave Bakke at 788-1541 or dave.bakke@sj-r.com. His column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
Ellie