thedrifter
12-27-08, 07:34 AM
Treating Iwo Jima wounded
By RALPH NIFONG as told to ABBY WEINGARTEN
Published: Friday, December 26, 2008 at 1:00 a.m.
As a 25-year-old enlistee, Ralph Nifong had no idea he was headed to Iwo Jima for one of the bloodiest battles in World War II. But when his Marine Corps unit arrived there in 1943, he undertook an unenviable job -- caring for the wounded strewn across the eight square miles of island. During the conflict, 85,000 men (61,000 Marines and 24,000 Japanese) fought until 26,000 were dead and another 16,000 were wounded, but Nifong survived without a scratch. As part of the Marine Corps Evacuation Hospital No. 1, Nifong, an Elkhart, Ind.-native, picked up bodies on the sand, treated amputees and witnessed nightmarish injuries. After his service ended in 1946, he worked for Sulmer Band Instrument Company and retired in 1983. Now 90 and a widower, Nifong lives in Sarasota and sharply recalls the events of his 17 days on Iwo Jima.
'I went down to enlist in the service, and at first, they said I was too old. (I was 25.) So I went back home, disappointed, and when I got back, my greetings were in the mail. I tried to go in the latter part of 1943 and I got my mail in 1944. I got out of the service in 1946.
First, I was in the Navy. When I went in the Navy, I went up to Great Lakes for boot camp and then they put me into training in the corpsman medical school. They sent me to Saint Alban's Hospital on Long Island, N.Y., and I took care of people who were involved in the Normandy invasion.
I had a wife and two kids at the time, one that was 4 and one that was almost 1, so it was really tough. There was nothing to do except on the weekends, going to socials and parties, and as a married man, I was bored with that. I wanted to get out.
A notice came up for FMF (Fleet Marine Force) volunteers and I jumped at the chance to volunteer. Everybody thought I was crazy at the time. They called and took me down to Camp Lejeune, N.C. A bunch of people were put in the corps evacuation hospital training. We joined up with the Fifth Marine Division, and from there we went to Hawaii and then to Iwo Jima. We didn't know we were even going there at the time.
There were 195 corpsman killed and 529 wounded on Iwo Jima, I found out later. Seven doctors were killed, 12 were wounded, and it was only eight-and-a-half square miles of sand on that island. It was quite an occasion, something to witness. We were just like a MASH outfit, like on the TV show, except we didn't have any women in our unit. We set up our own hospital on the island. We went out in the battlefields every day and picked up the wounded soldiers. We gave them morphine and blood plasma. We had special people come in and take them back to their base hospital. I was in the field the whole time and it was awful.
I always carried Smith cigarettes with me even though I myself didn't smoke. The soldiers always wanted a cigarette when they were lying there in pain. As medics, we slept out in foxholes with them. The troops secured the island in 39 days. They thought they'd get in done in a week, but oh boy, the opposition they faced. It took a lot longer.
These Japanese soldiers had caves that they lit up just like cities, and they would stay down in there without us knowing. When I first hit the beach, I saw dead people, but I didn't see one dead Japanese soldier until the fourth day because they were in these caves. The submarines the American troops used had flamethrowers in them and they bombed these Japanese caves. I think we only captured about 300 or 400 Japanese men; the others were killed.
I saw one guy, one of the American soldiers, lying there with his intestines out. I saw guys with no legs and no arms. Everyone had dog tags, so we would look for a dog tag to identify them. We'd keep one dog tag with the body and take the other one back after they buried the men in those graves on the island. It was quite an ordeal.
I was never injured. I was so lucky. I think two out of three people on Iwo Jima were either killed or hurt, but I never was. We all came back to Hawaii after that, to Maui, and stayed there. We thought we were going to go to battle in Japan after Iwo Jima, but thank God, the atom bomb was dropped. A lot of people say we shouldn't have ever done that. Thank God we did because I wouldn't be here right now if we didn't.'
Abby Weingarten may be contacted via e-mail at AbbyWeingarten@Gmail.com.
Ellie
By RALPH NIFONG as told to ABBY WEINGARTEN
Published: Friday, December 26, 2008 at 1:00 a.m.
As a 25-year-old enlistee, Ralph Nifong had no idea he was headed to Iwo Jima for one of the bloodiest battles in World War II. But when his Marine Corps unit arrived there in 1943, he undertook an unenviable job -- caring for the wounded strewn across the eight square miles of island. During the conflict, 85,000 men (61,000 Marines and 24,000 Japanese) fought until 26,000 were dead and another 16,000 were wounded, but Nifong survived without a scratch. As part of the Marine Corps Evacuation Hospital No. 1, Nifong, an Elkhart, Ind.-native, picked up bodies on the sand, treated amputees and witnessed nightmarish injuries. After his service ended in 1946, he worked for Sulmer Band Instrument Company and retired in 1983. Now 90 and a widower, Nifong lives in Sarasota and sharply recalls the events of his 17 days on Iwo Jima.
'I went down to enlist in the service, and at first, they said I was too old. (I was 25.) So I went back home, disappointed, and when I got back, my greetings were in the mail. I tried to go in the latter part of 1943 and I got my mail in 1944. I got out of the service in 1946.
First, I was in the Navy. When I went in the Navy, I went up to Great Lakes for boot camp and then they put me into training in the corpsman medical school. They sent me to Saint Alban's Hospital on Long Island, N.Y., and I took care of people who were involved in the Normandy invasion.
I had a wife and two kids at the time, one that was 4 and one that was almost 1, so it was really tough. There was nothing to do except on the weekends, going to socials and parties, and as a married man, I was bored with that. I wanted to get out.
A notice came up for FMF (Fleet Marine Force) volunteers and I jumped at the chance to volunteer. Everybody thought I was crazy at the time. They called and took me down to Camp Lejeune, N.C. A bunch of people were put in the corps evacuation hospital training. We joined up with the Fifth Marine Division, and from there we went to Hawaii and then to Iwo Jima. We didn't know we were even going there at the time.
There were 195 corpsman killed and 529 wounded on Iwo Jima, I found out later. Seven doctors were killed, 12 were wounded, and it was only eight-and-a-half square miles of sand on that island. It was quite an occasion, something to witness. We were just like a MASH outfit, like on the TV show, except we didn't have any women in our unit. We set up our own hospital on the island. We went out in the battlefields every day and picked up the wounded soldiers. We gave them morphine and blood plasma. We had special people come in and take them back to their base hospital. I was in the field the whole time and it was awful.
I always carried Smith cigarettes with me even though I myself didn't smoke. The soldiers always wanted a cigarette when they were lying there in pain. As medics, we slept out in foxholes with them. The troops secured the island in 39 days. They thought they'd get in done in a week, but oh boy, the opposition they faced. It took a lot longer.
These Japanese soldiers had caves that they lit up just like cities, and they would stay down in there without us knowing. When I first hit the beach, I saw dead people, but I didn't see one dead Japanese soldier until the fourth day because they were in these caves. The submarines the American troops used had flamethrowers in them and they bombed these Japanese caves. I think we only captured about 300 or 400 Japanese men; the others were killed.
I saw one guy, one of the American soldiers, lying there with his intestines out. I saw guys with no legs and no arms. Everyone had dog tags, so we would look for a dog tag to identify them. We'd keep one dog tag with the body and take the other one back after they buried the men in those graves on the island. It was quite an ordeal.
I was never injured. I was so lucky. I think two out of three people on Iwo Jima were either killed or hurt, but I never was. We all came back to Hawaii after that, to Maui, and stayed there. We thought we were going to go to battle in Japan after Iwo Jima, but thank God, the atom bomb was dropped. A lot of people say we shouldn't have ever done that. Thank God we did because I wouldn't be here right now if we didn't.'
Abby Weingarten may be contacted via e-mail at AbbyWeingarten@Gmail.com.
Ellie