A veteran recalls Iwo Jima 64 years after the U.S. landed there
By Alia Wilson
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Posted:02/19/2009 01:30:34 AM PST


CAPITOLA-- Tucked away in a binder filled with black and white photos, sealed within a Ziplock bag, rest tiny black pieces of sand from the beaches of Iwo Jima, where World War II veteran Arvy Geurin landed on this day in 1945.

The sand was given to him by Joe Rosenthal, the photographer who took the iconic picture of soldiers raising the American flag on the island.

Sixty-four years later, he sits in his Capitola home with his wife and stares at the wall of his Navy photos and certificates, remembering the journey from beginning to end as clearly as the day it happened.

As a baker's assistant in Bakersfield, Geurin had dreams of owning his own bakery with his cousin, V.E. As tensions overseas escalated, his family knew it was only a matter of time before Geurin, his elder brother, Elton, and V.E. would enlist in the war.

Before Geurin was even 18, he requested that his father sign him up to join the Marines, but because of a lazy eye, he was forced to go with his second choice, the Navy.

"We weren't heroes or extraordinary men," Geurin says in his memoirs. "We were farm boys and city jocks; scholars and drop-outs; rich and poor. We were just young boys brought together by a common goal."

To honor his country and follow in the footsteps of his brother and cousin, Arvy could not wait to join them in battle. Nothing could truly prepare him, however, for the devastation he was going to encounter. Before he entered the war, he was given the news that V.E.'s plane had been shot down in France. His dreams of sharing a bakery shattered.

Iwo Jima also was a shock.

"There wasn't anything clean about the sea off Iwo Jima. It was another jolt toward the reality of what we were heading toward," Geurin recalled.

Once on shore, it was Geurin's job to set up ship-to-shore radio contact, an assignment that required three men. But as soon as the radio antenna went up, the small crew became targets. Their radio was destroyed that day, and only Geurin was left standing.

Pushed into services as a stretcher bearer, he spent the rest of the day dashing up rocky hillsides of Iwo Jima, fearing for his own life while he carried injured and dead Marines back to the American position as shells and gunfire filled the air around him.

Geurin, now 89, is still amazed with his luck that day, as he looks to his wife Gale standing by the photos of their family and their days of service.

"I don't consider myself a hero, I was scared to death, but I did the best job I could," Geurin said. "I was the happiest guy to go home when it was all over."

After listening to his remembrances, his wife documented the whole story in a book called "Walking Through Fire," capturing the smells of the bakery, the bloodiness of the waters in Iwo Jima and everything in between.

"He's my hero," Gale Geurin said with a smile.

Ellie