thedrifter
07-26-08, 07:56 AM
Never too late
Widow of Iwo Jima survivor given autograph of Clint Eastwood
By Nanci G. Hutson
staff writer
Article Last Updated: 07/26/2008 02:14:08 AM EDT
BRIDGEWATER -- U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. John Roma Sr. didn't need Clint Eastwood's Hollywood version of the Iwo Jima flag-raising, which became an American symbol of military grit and valor, to understand the triumph of the moment and the horror of the combat.
In Roma's modest home hangs the Japanese bayonet rifle the squad leader commandeered more than 60 years ago from an enemy soldier who fired into his foxhole on the South Pacific island.
Roma, who died last year at age 83, was on duty Feb. 23, 1945, the day Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal took a Pultizer-Prize-winning shot of five Marines and a Navy corpsman struggling to plant the second flag raised on Mount Sirabachi.
Roma was part of the story behind the photograph that gripped a nation, one that became a symbol of victory in one of the bloodiest battles of a war that took its toll the world over.
Roma -- who earned a Purple Heart for wounds he suffered at Iwo Jima -- is actually front and center in another picture from that day, one Rosenthal called his "gung-ho photo."
In that image, Rosenthal snapped the entire group of jubilant Marines who made their way to the summit, a key position they captured during a month-long mission.
All these years later, that photograph is one of many the Roma family treasures of a quiet, happy man who lived an honorable life before, during and after his service in the Marines from 1942 to 1946.
"If Clint Eastwood had seen this picture of my father (a portrait of Roma in his Marine dress uniform) he would have thought he would have made a good movie star," bragged Roma's son, Barry, of New Milford. "He was a very good-looking man."
This week Roma's widow, Mary, 87, was given an autographed picture of Eastwood as he directed the 2006 films "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima." They are American and Japanese perspectives of the mission that cost the Marines almost 7,000 men and another 18,000 wounded -- some of the biggest casualty totals of World War II.
The Japanese defended the island with 22,000 soldiers.
"My husband would be so proud," Mary said about the autographed photo.
Naugatuck firefighter Tim Andrews obtained the autograph -- it took more than a year -- after reading in a local newspaper that Roma was an Iwo Jima survivor and arranging to meet him in February 2007. He said it was the least he could do for Roma, who gave Andrews a copy of the gung-ho print with his signature, something Andrews said he will always treasure.
"To meet any one of these men would be an honor," Andrews said. "Anyone can get an autograph from an actor, but this (Roma's signature) is the ultimate."
Coincidentally, Roma was not Bridgewater's only Iwo Jima survivor. Tracy Worden, who moved to town in the 1950s, also survived the battle and is now in a nursing home.
The two men were not acquainted during the war and for years were unaware of their connection, Barry Roma said.
When the Iwo Jima movie was released, Roma's health was failing, his wife said. Yet she recalls he enjoyed the movie and felt it was a relatively accurate interpretation of the battle and flag raising.
John Roma was a personal friend of one of the immortalized flag-raisers, Ira Hayes, an American Indian. Barry Roma wears a bracelet made of aircraft aluminum from a Pearl Harbor plane that Hayes engraved with the words Iwo Jima and the dates of the fighting there.
"Most of it was true," Mary Roma said, paraphrasing her husband's film review. "Some he didn't agree with."
The Roma family and friends recall that John, who spent his post-Marine years as a stone mason, was not reticent about sharing his war stories. In addition to being stationed at Iwo Jima, he was in the first unit deployed into Nagasaki after an atomic bomb was dropped there.
"He remembered a lot of stories you don't read about," his son said. "Some of them were good and some weren't."
"I tried to get him to write a book," Mary said with a sigh.
In the Roma living room is an entire wall of Iwo Jima and Marine memorabilia, including Roma's service revolver and a plaque that depicts the famous Iwo Jima photograph.
Next to his military medals, including a Silver Cross, and photographs of Roma as a young soldier -- he was just 22 at Iwo Jima -- is the marble urn his grandson made for his ashes. The front panel is engraved with the Iwo Jima flag-raising image.
But Roma's greatest legacy was not what he did during his military service, but his love of his fellow man, his willingness to always do things for others, and the greater good of the community, his family and friends said.
"He'd do anything in the world for you. He was very honest. He had more sons than just me and my brother," said Barry of his father, who was also a longtime Bridgewater fire chief and town selectman. "He was everybody's father, everybody's uncle. Kids going into the military would come to him for advice."
A hobby fisherman, Roma was once fishing at Roxbury Falls when an 8-year-boy slipped and fell. He dived in to save him from drowning.
"He was terrific," said fellow Marine Marc Isolda, who served in Vietnam. "If you were down, he'd get you laughing."
Mary Roma smiled.
"He was always there for me," she said. "That's why I miss him so much."
Contact Nanci Hutson at
nhutson@newstimes.com
or at (860) 354-2274.
Widow of Iwo Jima survivor given autograph of Clint Eastwood
By Nanci G. Hutson
staff writer
Article Last Updated: 07/26/2008 02:14:08 AM EDT
BRIDGEWATER -- U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. John Roma Sr. didn't need Clint Eastwood's Hollywood version of the Iwo Jima flag-raising, which became an American symbol of military grit and valor, to understand the triumph of the moment and the horror of the combat.
In Roma's modest home hangs the Japanese bayonet rifle the squad leader commandeered more than 60 years ago from an enemy soldier who fired into his foxhole on the South Pacific island.
Roma, who died last year at age 83, was on duty Feb. 23, 1945, the day Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal took a Pultizer-Prize-winning shot of five Marines and a Navy corpsman struggling to plant the second flag raised on Mount Sirabachi.
Roma was part of the story behind the photograph that gripped a nation, one that became a symbol of victory in one of the bloodiest battles of a war that took its toll the world over.
Roma -- who earned a Purple Heart for wounds he suffered at Iwo Jima -- is actually front and center in another picture from that day, one Rosenthal called his "gung-ho photo."
In that image, Rosenthal snapped the entire group of jubilant Marines who made their way to the summit, a key position they captured during a month-long mission.
All these years later, that photograph is one of many the Roma family treasures of a quiet, happy man who lived an honorable life before, during and after his service in the Marines from 1942 to 1946.
"If Clint Eastwood had seen this picture of my father (a portrait of Roma in his Marine dress uniform) he would have thought he would have made a good movie star," bragged Roma's son, Barry, of New Milford. "He was a very good-looking man."
This week Roma's widow, Mary, 87, was given an autographed picture of Eastwood as he directed the 2006 films "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima." They are American and Japanese perspectives of the mission that cost the Marines almost 7,000 men and another 18,000 wounded -- some of the biggest casualty totals of World War II.
The Japanese defended the island with 22,000 soldiers.
"My husband would be so proud," Mary said about the autographed photo.
Naugatuck firefighter Tim Andrews obtained the autograph -- it took more than a year -- after reading in a local newspaper that Roma was an Iwo Jima survivor and arranging to meet him in February 2007. He said it was the least he could do for Roma, who gave Andrews a copy of the gung-ho print with his signature, something Andrews said he will always treasure.
"To meet any one of these men would be an honor," Andrews said. "Anyone can get an autograph from an actor, but this (Roma's signature) is the ultimate."
Coincidentally, Roma was not Bridgewater's only Iwo Jima survivor. Tracy Worden, who moved to town in the 1950s, also survived the battle and is now in a nursing home.
The two men were not acquainted during the war and for years were unaware of their connection, Barry Roma said.
When the Iwo Jima movie was released, Roma's health was failing, his wife said. Yet she recalls he enjoyed the movie and felt it was a relatively accurate interpretation of the battle and flag raising.
John Roma was a personal friend of one of the immortalized flag-raisers, Ira Hayes, an American Indian. Barry Roma wears a bracelet made of aircraft aluminum from a Pearl Harbor plane that Hayes engraved with the words Iwo Jima and the dates of the fighting there.
"Most of it was true," Mary Roma said, paraphrasing her husband's film review. "Some he didn't agree with."
The Roma family and friends recall that John, who spent his post-Marine years as a stone mason, was not reticent about sharing his war stories. In addition to being stationed at Iwo Jima, he was in the first unit deployed into Nagasaki after an atomic bomb was dropped there.
"He remembered a lot of stories you don't read about," his son said. "Some of them were good and some weren't."
"I tried to get him to write a book," Mary said with a sigh.
In the Roma living room is an entire wall of Iwo Jima and Marine memorabilia, including Roma's service revolver and a plaque that depicts the famous Iwo Jima photograph.
Next to his military medals, including a Silver Cross, and photographs of Roma as a young soldier -- he was just 22 at Iwo Jima -- is the marble urn his grandson made for his ashes. The front panel is engraved with the Iwo Jima flag-raising image.
But Roma's greatest legacy was not what he did during his military service, but his love of his fellow man, his willingness to always do things for others, and the greater good of the community, his family and friends said.
"He'd do anything in the world for you. He was very honest. He had more sons than just me and my brother," said Barry of his father, who was also a longtime Bridgewater fire chief and town selectman. "He was everybody's father, everybody's uncle. Kids going into the military would come to him for advice."
A hobby fisherman, Roma was once fishing at Roxbury Falls when an 8-year-boy slipped and fell. He dived in to save him from drowning.
"He was terrific," said fellow Marine Marc Isolda, who served in Vietnam. "If you were down, he'd get you laughing."
Mary Roma smiled.
"He was always there for me," she said. "That's why I miss him so much."
Contact Nanci Hutson at
nhutson@newstimes.com
or at (860) 354-2274.