thedrifter
04-22-08, 07:17 AM
Iwo Jima memorial brings past alive
4/21/2008 10:20:02 AM
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By Jeff Kiger
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
WASHINGTON -- Standing at the Iwo Jima Memorial, many of the Minnesota veterans remembered the event first-hand.
Charles Sehe of Mankato, Minn., a Pearl Harbor survivor, remembered watching the first flag being raised as he stood on the deck of the USS Nevada. Another Honor Flight vet said he would have gratefully traded places.
"I'd rather have been where you were that day," said Darol "Lefty" Lee of Winona.
Lee, who also saw the flag raised on Feb. 23, 1945, was in a pitched battle against some Japanese gunmen in "pillboxes" or concrete bunkers.
"We were pretty busy. We weren't paying much attention to what was happening behind us," Lee said standing by the larger-than-life statue of the flag raising. "We did hear the honking and the shouting when the flag went up. We paused momentarily and then got back to it."
8 days on Iwo Jima
What was keeping Lee busy was providing cover fire for Medal of Honor winner Woody Williamson as he attacked the bunkers with a flame-thrower.
Williamson and the riflemen covering him, including Lee, took out a half a dozen bunkers in a four-hour battle on the Japanese-held island.
Meanwhile, the USS Nevada, was providing support fire for the Marines and GIs as it had at so many other landings in the South Pacific war.
Sehe says his war experience put him at the Normandy, southern France, Okinawa and Aleutian Islands invasions, as well as others.
He explains that ships like his and others that were raised and retrofitted after Pearl Harbor were too slow compared to the new ships.
"So we went everywhere, in the middle of everything, as support," he said.
For Lee, who saw action in the invasions of Guadalcanal, Bogenville and Guam, Iwo Jima was different than all of the others.
"Those eight days on Iwo were tougher than all the other battles put together," Lee said.
'So many names'
Even though he was injured on July 21, 1944, on Guam, Iwo Jima cut deeper.
"Of the 160 men in my unit on Iwo Jima, only 18 left the island alive," he said pausing to look at the memorial. "There are so many names. You come out here and you remember all those guys that didn't come home."
Lee himself was carried off the island after being injure.
"There were five of us running and a rocket exploded," he said. The three in the middle were killed. I was thrown into the air, because I was on one side."
That ended his time on the island. Full of shrapnel, he was taken off for medical treatment.
Now, 64 years year, he had a chance to remember his comrades and his experience at the memorial.
"This is fantastic. How can you top this?" Lee said.
Ellie
4/21/2008 10:20:02 AM
(0) Comments
By Jeff Kiger
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
WASHINGTON -- Standing at the Iwo Jima Memorial, many of the Minnesota veterans remembered the event first-hand.
Charles Sehe of Mankato, Minn., a Pearl Harbor survivor, remembered watching the first flag being raised as he stood on the deck of the USS Nevada. Another Honor Flight vet said he would have gratefully traded places.
"I'd rather have been where you were that day," said Darol "Lefty" Lee of Winona.
Lee, who also saw the flag raised on Feb. 23, 1945, was in a pitched battle against some Japanese gunmen in "pillboxes" or concrete bunkers.
"We were pretty busy. We weren't paying much attention to what was happening behind us," Lee said standing by the larger-than-life statue of the flag raising. "We did hear the honking and the shouting when the flag went up. We paused momentarily and then got back to it."
8 days on Iwo Jima
What was keeping Lee busy was providing cover fire for Medal of Honor winner Woody Williamson as he attacked the bunkers with a flame-thrower.
Williamson and the riflemen covering him, including Lee, took out a half a dozen bunkers in a four-hour battle on the Japanese-held island.
Meanwhile, the USS Nevada, was providing support fire for the Marines and GIs as it had at so many other landings in the South Pacific war.
Sehe says his war experience put him at the Normandy, southern France, Okinawa and Aleutian Islands invasions, as well as others.
He explains that ships like his and others that were raised and retrofitted after Pearl Harbor were too slow compared to the new ships.
"So we went everywhere, in the middle of everything, as support," he said.
For Lee, who saw action in the invasions of Guadalcanal, Bogenville and Guam, Iwo Jima was different than all of the others.
"Those eight days on Iwo were tougher than all the other battles put together," Lee said.
'So many names'
Even though he was injured on July 21, 1944, on Guam, Iwo Jima cut deeper.
"Of the 160 men in my unit on Iwo Jima, only 18 left the island alive," he said pausing to look at the memorial. "There are so many names. You come out here and you remember all those guys that didn't come home."
Lee himself was carried off the island after being injure.
"There were five of us running and a rocket exploded," he said. The three in the middle were killed. I was thrown into the air, because I was on one side."
That ended his time on the island. Full of shrapnel, he was taken off for medical treatment.
Now, 64 years year, he had a chance to remember his comrades and his experience at the memorial.
"This is fantastic. How can you top this?" Lee said.
Ellie