thedrifter
07-29-08, 10:44 AM
Man determined to find remains of slain Iwo Jima photographer
Sixty-three years after Sgt. William H. Genaust died in combat on Iwo Jima, military investigators may be closer than ever to bringing the Marine Corps photographer home.
BY DAVID SINGLETON
STAFF WRITER
Published: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 4:11 AM EDT
Sixty-three years after Sgt. William H. Genaust died in combat on Iwo Jima, military investigators may be closer than ever to bringing the Marine Corps photographer home.
An 11-member search team arrived on the Japanese island last week in an attempt to locate and recover the remains of Genaust, zeroing in on sites initially identified by Scranton businessman Bob Bolus.
“It’s kind of pegged as a 50-50 shot right now, which is a lot better than we had before,” Bolus said Monday. “We really believe it is going to be a successful mission.”
A combat photographer with 28th Marines, Genaust filmed the raising of the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945. He stood near Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, whose iconic photo would win a Pulitzer Prize.
Genaust, then 38, was shot and killed nine days later while helping fellow Marines secure a cave; his body was never recovered.
Last summer, prodded by Bolus and based largely on his research, a seven-member team from the Defense Department’s Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command identified two collapsed caves on Iwo Jima’s Hill 362A where Genaust might have been killed.
The team recommended excavation. Another two-person JPAC team returned in April to better define the excavation areas.
The team now on the island — nine Americans and two representatives of the Japanese government — will be there until at least Aug. 11, said Staff Sgt. Matthew Chlosta, a spokesman for the Hawaii-based JPAC.
Although finding Genaust’s remains is the driving force behind the mission, the team will pursue any other leads that might come up, Chlosta said. Genaust is one of more than 200 American servicemen still missing from the Iwo Jima campaign.
“The mission here is to find everybody,” Chlosta said.
Bolus, who took up the crusade to recover Genaust’s remains after reading about the Marine three years ago, said he is confident searchers are closing in on the area where they will be found.
He had hoped to take his own team — including a forensic anthropologist, geologist and photographer — to Iwo Jima to participate in the latest JPAC mission, but he was denied permission by the Defense Department.
Bolus said he is committed to recovering Genaust’s remains and will not rest until the Marine is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
“This mission will get completed one way or another,” Bolus said. “I won’t let it die.”
dsingleton@timesshamrock.com
Ellie
Sixty-three years after Sgt. William H. Genaust died in combat on Iwo Jima, military investigators may be closer than ever to bringing the Marine Corps photographer home.
BY DAVID SINGLETON
STAFF WRITER
Published: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 4:11 AM EDT
Sixty-three years after Sgt. William H. Genaust died in combat on Iwo Jima, military investigators may be closer than ever to bringing the Marine Corps photographer home.
An 11-member search team arrived on the Japanese island last week in an attempt to locate and recover the remains of Genaust, zeroing in on sites initially identified by Scranton businessman Bob Bolus.
“It’s kind of pegged as a 50-50 shot right now, which is a lot better than we had before,” Bolus said Monday. “We really believe it is going to be a successful mission.”
A combat photographer with 28th Marines, Genaust filmed the raising of the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945. He stood near Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, whose iconic photo would win a Pulitzer Prize.
Genaust, then 38, was shot and killed nine days later while helping fellow Marines secure a cave; his body was never recovered.
Last summer, prodded by Bolus and based largely on his research, a seven-member team from the Defense Department’s Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command identified two collapsed caves on Iwo Jima’s Hill 362A where Genaust might have been killed.
The team recommended excavation. Another two-person JPAC team returned in April to better define the excavation areas.
The team now on the island — nine Americans and two representatives of the Japanese government — will be there until at least Aug. 11, said Staff Sgt. Matthew Chlosta, a spokesman for the Hawaii-based JPAC.
Although finding Genaust’s remains is the driving force behind the mission, the team will pursue any other leads that might come up, Chlosta said. Genaust is one of more than 200 American servicemen still missing from the Iwo Jima campaign.
“The mission here is to find everybody,” Chlosta said.
Bolus, who took up the crusade to recover Genaust’s remains after reading about the Marine three years ago, said he is confident searchers are closing in on the area where they will be found.
He had hoped to take his own team — including a forensic anthropologist, geologist and photographer — to Iwo Jima to participate in the latest JPAC mission, but he was denied permission by the Defense Department.
Bolus said he is committed to recovering Genaust’s remains and will not rest until the Marine is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
“This mission will get completed one way or another,” Bolus said. “I won’t let it die.”
dsingleton@timesshamrock.com
Ellie