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thedrifter
11-20-08, 06:03 AM
Los Osos High School gets Iwo Jima sand
Canan Tasci, Staff Writer
Created: 11/19/2008 09:20:02 PM PST

RANCHO CUCAMONGA - Arthur Bustamonte is sharing a little bit of himself with Los Osos High School students.

After being impressed in December by the students' oral history project on veterans, Bustamonte, president of the Chaffey Joint Union High School District and a former Marine, donated sand he brought back from a trip to Iwo Jima, the island that was the site of a bloody battle near the end of World War II.

A vial of the sand is on display in a glass case in Los Osos High's administration entrance. It is next to a copy of Joe Rosenthal's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of American soldiers raising the flag atop Mount Suribachi, where Bustamonte got the sand.

The capture of Iwo Jima, 650 miles from Japan, was a key victory in the final months leading up to the Japanese surrender.

"A lot of blood was shed on that sand," said Bustamonte, who served in the Vietnam War in 1970.

The battle of Iwo Jima lasted from Feb. 19 to March 26, 1945, and resulted in the death of about 27,000 soldiers on both sides.

The sand grains of Mount Suribachi, a volcano, are coarse, black and gray.

Bustamonte described the sand as a difficult surface on which to move.

Principal Chris Hollister said having the vial of sand brings Bustamonte's experience and the experience of many other veterans to life.

"We are so appreciative of the sand," he said. "We're so honored to have Mr. Bustamonte entrust the students with something that means so much to him."

Hanging on the wall near the vial are two photos taken from the unconditional surrender ceremony aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945.

The photos were donated by Robert Pate of American Legion Post 772 in Fontana.

The Veterans' Oral History Project was intended to allow students to gain knowledge to the personal history of veterans, to save information given to them, to interview them and create biographical essays.

It also gives students a fresh perspective to a historical event seen through someone else's eyes, Hollister said.

"War became personalized to them as opposed to something seen as a national event," he said.

While the project is not being done again this year, Bustamonte said the project gives student a chance to hear about the reality of war - that it's not all glamorous and it can end in death.

Bustamonte brought back a couple of cups of sand from Iwo Jima. He said he's given a lot of it away to fellow Marines and keeps an hourglass filled with the sands at his home.

But, he said, having the vial at Los Osos High means more to him because it enables students to connect with the subject and envision what took place at Iwo Jima.

"They are the future of our country and will be fighting our future battles," he said. "Every time I walk by it my heart just sinks."

Ellie