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thedrifter
02-23-08, 12:00 PM
Iwo Jima vet one of the few -- the proud

Published: February 23, 2008

By STARLA POINTER
Of the News-Register

Each Feb. 19, Tooter Laughlin joins some of his fellow Marines for a few hours of reminiscing.

They have a good meal in a comfortable setting and enjoy pleasant conversation. It will be a community center in Sutherlin this year.

Things were far different on their first Feb. 19 together, back in 1945.

They hit the gritty beach on the island of Iwo Jima, as American forces began one of the bloodiest battles of World War II's Pacific Theater.

"I didn't realize what I was getting into," said Laughlin, who had been logging in Yamhill just a year earlier.

"As soon as we got on the beach, though, I knew," he said. "Lying there on the sand, I thought, 'What have I got myself into?'"

Only 19 at the time, Laughlin was one of the youngest of the 30,000 Marines involved in the fight to take the small but strategically located island.

Laughlin, who now lives in McMinnville, joined the Marines right after he turned 18. He figures he chose the Marines because he was in such good physical shape.

"I had been working in the woods just before I went to basic training," he said. Besides, he joked, "I liked the green uniforms."

He served in E Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Marines - part of the 5th Marine Division. For some reason, however, he said, he was listed as being in the 4th Division when he helped with the occupation of Japan for six months after the surrender.

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Iwo Jima was his first battle. He was in the second wave to land.

"We were like a bunch of scared sheep," he said.

Unlike today's soldiers, the WWII Marines had minimal protective equipment - a helmet, but no body armor.

They carried M-1 rifles, grenades, canteens of water and a few survival tools. Each night, they dug a foxhole and huddled down, pulling their ponchos over their heads to keep themselves warm and dry.

"The second night we were there, it poured. We got soaking wet because the foxhole filled up with water," he recalled.

They couldn't leave their foxholes after dark, he said, because anything that moved would likely get shot.

Japanese troops were already entrenched on Iwo Jima when the Marines landed. They were dug into bunkers in the ground and caves and tunnels cut into Mount Suribachi, the island's highest point.

As a flame-thrower operator, the Yamhill teen's job was to flush the enemy out of hiding places.

He quickly learned that his opponents wouldn't come out voluntarily. They aimed to kill Marines, and if they couldn't, they were prepared to die rather than surrender.

"The flame-thrower was a cruel weapon, but we had to use it," he said.

Laughlin also qualified as an expert marksman, which entitled him to a $5 bump in the standard pay of $25 a month.

His talent with guns came from his early experiences on the family farm near Yamhill.

"We always had 22s and shotguns," he said. "If we needed food, we went out and shot it."

He killed his first deer when he was 13 or 14. Hunting alone, he dressed it out in the field using a pocket knife.

Since his family had no refrigerator or freezer, it dined well on the fresh venison, then canned the rest. "When I got out of the service in '46, I finally got Mom a refrigerator," he recalled.

Laughlin returned to Oregon as one of the few Iwo Jima veterans who hadn't been injured. "I kid that they shot and killed the big guys first," he said.

He saw many of his buddies die. One died of burns from the very flame-thrower that was meant to save his life. Another was shot by a sniper while standing right next to Laughlin.

"I guess if it's ain't your time, it ain't your time," he said.

Today, Laughlin has Iwo Jima veteran license plates and a Semper Fi sticker in his living room window. A jar, of course, black sand from an Iwo Jima beach sits on the mantle. An American flag waves in the backyard.

He and his wife, Rosemary Rush Laughlin, have watched numerous shows about Iwo Jima and other battles of World War II. They were moved by "Flags of Our Fathers," Clint Eastwood's movie about the men who raised the U.S. flag on Mt. Suribachi.

They wanted to see "Letters from Iwo Jima," which examines the Japanese perspective, but didn't like the subtitled format.

He was eager to attend the Iwo Jima reunion when he first heard about it. Now it's an annual event on his calendar.

Oregon veterans started getting together about 13 years ago. Lloyd Keeland, formerly of Yamhill, got the ball rolling when he ran into a fellow veteran and they realized 50 years had passed since the battle.

Their numbers - like the numbers of all WWII vets - are dwindling. This year, 16 made it.

They were joined by 50 or so relatives. A few veterans of other campaigns and current service members also attended.

McMinnville's Gunny Brandon, who lost his elder brother on Iwo Jima, often attends the reunions, Laughlin said. And several of Laughlin's fellow veterans have Yamhill County ties, including Keeland, whose sister still lives in Carlton, and former McMinnville resident David Wind.

According to Laughlin, the point of the reunion is two-fold: to enjoy a get-together with fellow veterans and to honor the 6,000 dead and 18,000 wounded that the Marines suffered on Iwo Jima.

"I'm not a hero," he said. "The heroes were the guys who lost their lives. You never, ever want to forget them."

Ellie