thedrifter
06-29-07, 10:16 AM
Published Thursday, June 28, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Woman Has Enemy Flag From Battle
By Bill Rufty
The Ledger
LAKELAND — Linda Byak will take a special item to be appraised at PBS's 'Antiques Road Show' in Orlando on Saturday. But it is one she will never part with.
What the Lakeland resident
holds so dear is a Japanese flag taken on Iwo Jima by her late father who led the most forward patrol moving up Mount Suribachi during one of the bloodiest battles of World War II.
In its place other Marines raised an American flag. The photograph of that moment is one of the most famous images of the war.
'I just want someone to authenticate it and tell me what the Japanese writing on the flag says,' she said.
The emotional value of the flag far exceeds whatever monetary worth might be attached to it, Byak said Wednesday.
Her father, Sherman Watson, an Iowa farm boy and a sergeant in the Marines, led three other men to the top of the famous mountain as his company fought its way up the steep sides on Feb. 23, 1944.
Reaching the top, his daughter recalled his explanations to her, the patrol removed the flag and was called back down the mountain by the platoon leader.
On the way back down they passed others heading to the top, some of whom likely were the ones to raise the American flag.
Of the four-man squad, two — Louis Charlo and George Mercer — were killed in later fighting on the small volcanic island where 22,000 Japanese defenders had dug in and held out for six weeks.
Mercer was wounded and had been taken to a field hospital on the island, but was killed when Japanese overran the hospital, Byak said her father told her.
Watson was wounded on the island and was sent to a hospital ship and then to San Francisco. He later corresponded with the wives of the two dead men.
The fourth member of the squad, Ted White, apparently left Iwo Jima without serious injury and went back to Illinois. Byak said she has lost touch with him.
After the war, Watson married, fathered two daughters and became an executive at a steel company. He later became a vice president of another manufacturing company.
He retired to Lakeland in the early 1980s.
Watson died five years ago and his flag that he had kept all those years from that horrific battle went to Byak.
'Dad is mentioned in the book ‘Flags of Our Fathers' and another book. There is still controversy over the first or second raising of the American flag up there, but his squad had already been called back by that time,' Byak said.
'He didn't talk to me about Iwo Jima. Toward the later part of his life he told me a little bit about it, but only a little,' she said.
The battle for Iwo Jima, considered essential for the eventual invasion of Japan is
thought by historians to be the bloodiest battle of the war in the Pacific. Some 6,800 Marines and sailors were killed and more than 18,000 were wounded.
On the Japanese side, whose leaders preached no surrender and that suicide was preferred over capture, almost 21,000 of the 22,000 defenders died
.
Twenty-six Medals of Honor were awarded to Marines and sailors in the conflict, 12 posthumously.
Bill Rufty can be reached at bill.rufty@theledger.com or 863-802-7523.
Ellie
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Woman Has Enemy Flag From Battle
By Bill Rufty
The Ledger
LAKELAND — Linda Byak will take a special item to be appraised at PBS's 'Antiques Road Show' in Orlando on Saturday. But it is one she will never part with.
What the Lakeland resident
holds so dear is a Japanese flag taken on Iwo Jima by her late father who led the most forward patrol moving up Mount Suribachi during one of the bloodiest battles of World War II.
In its place other Marines raised an American flag. The photograph of that moment is one of the most famous images of the war.
'I just want someone to authenticate it and tell me what the Japanese writing on the flag says,' she said.
The emotional value of the flag far exceeds whatever monetary worth might be attached to it, Byak said Wednesday.
Her father, Sherman Watson, an Iowa farm boy and a sergeant in the Marines, led three other men to the top of the famous mountain as his company fought its way up the steep sides on Feb. 23, 1944.
Reaching the top, his daughter recalled his explanations to her, the patrol removed the flag and was called back down the mountain by the platoon leader.
On the way back down they passed others heading to the top, some of whom likely were the ones to raise the American flag.
Of the four-man squad, two — Louis Charlo and George Mercer — were killed in later fighting on the small volcanic island where 22,000 Japanese defenders had dug in and held out for six weeks.
Mercer was wounded and had been taken to a field hospital on the island, but was killed when Japanese overran the hospital, Byak said her father told her.
Watson was wounded on the island and was sent to a hospital ship and then to San Francisco. He later corresponded with the wives of the two dead men.
The fourth member of the squad, Ted White, apparently left Iwo Jima without serious injury and went back to Illinois. Byak said she has lost touch with him.
After the war, Watson married, fathered two daughters and became an executive at a steel company. He later became a vice president of another manufacturing company.
He retired to Lakeland in the early 1980s.
Watson died five years ago and his flag that he had kept all those years from that horrific battle went to Byak.
'Dad is mentioned in the book ‘Flags of Our Fathers' and another book. There is still controversy over the first or second raising of the American flag up there, but his squad had already been called back by that time,' Byak said.
'He didn't talk to me about Iwo Jima. Toward the later part of his life he told me a little bit about it, but only a little,' she said.
The battle for Iwo Jima, considered essential for the eventual invasion of Japan is
thought by historians to be the bloodiest battle of the war in the Pacific. Some 6,800 Marines and sailors were killed and more than 18,000 were wounded.
On the Japanese side, whose leaders preached no surrender and that suicide was preferred over capture, almost 21,000 of the 22,000 defenders died
.
Twenty-six Medals of Honor were awarded to Marines and sailors in the conflict, 12 posthumously.
Bill Rufty can be reached at bill.rufty@theledger.com or 863-802-7523.
Ellie