Marines home from Iraq honor WWII veteran of Iwo Jima
JEAN MITCHELL (online@rgj.com)

SPECIAL TO THE DAYTON COURIER
October 24, 2007



John Bailey, 85, shows-off the Iwo Jima flag which was a gift from three young Marines who were home on leave from Iraq. The trio met Bailey when he gave them a mine tour in Virginia City recently. (KARREN RHODES/DAYTON COURIER/RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL)

September 12th was just another day for 85-year-old John Bailey, a Ponderosa Mine tour guide in Virginia City for the past 11 years.

But one recent tour was different. There were three young Marines on leave from Iraq in his group, and they started shooting the breeze with Bailey. In the course of conversation, Bailey told them that he was a Marine veteran who had served in the Iwo Jima invasion in 1945.

The following Saturday, after his first tour, Bailey emerged from the depths of the mine and noticed that his next tour time had been bucked up 15 minutes. He didn't think much about it and had absolutely no clue about what was to happen.

A conspiracy was afoot that had been well-engineered by the bartender at the Ponderosa Saloon and the three young Marines. Everyone in the saloon knew what was about to happen, but Bailey remained oblivious to the scheming above ground.

The people gathering in the saloon watched with baited breath as those three Marines, in full-dress uniform, marched in and presented John Bailey with a three-by-five-foot commemorative flag imprinted with the world-famous photograph of the American flag being raised on Iwo Jima's Mt. Suribachi. The young men had each signed the flag, making it even more precious to Bailey. There wasn't a dry eye in the place as the water level rose inside the saloon -- despite the regional drought.

The three young local Marines, Jesse Cunnally, Michael Boyd and Shawn Bradford, are now back on duty in Iraq.

Bailey was deeply moved by their thoughtful gesture, a gesture, he emphasized, he will never forget. The flag holds a place of honor on his living room wall. Bailey plans to get a pole for the flag so it can be carried during future parades. Ironically, he did not witness the actual flag raising on Iwo Jima because he was working with his unit on another part of the island, though he did become aware of the now historical flag-raising later on.

Bailey tells the story that he was assigned to the Marine 5th Division, which landed nearest the base of Mt. Suribachi. He was on Iwo Jima for 30 days of the 35 days it took to capture the island. Mt. Suribachi presented formidable obstacles. An extinct volcano, it was protected at its base by a ring of concrete pillboxes and fortified caves and underground tunnels, linked to other tunnels all over Iwo.

At 556 feet, Siribachi made a superb observation post from which the Japanese could track American troop movements and naval positions. That is why the island had to be taken out early in the invasion. The ferocious battle to achieve that goal is one of the reasons why raising the American flag at the summit of the mountain became so significant.

That John Bailey survived Iwo Jima and the rest of his war in the Pacific without a scratch is a small miracle. The bloody battle for those eight square miles of vital real estate had the highest casualty rate of any engagement in 168 years of Marine Corps history.

Shortly after Bailey and his wife, Nina, moved to Dayton in 1994, he became involved with the Veterans of Foreign Wars in creating Dayton Valley VFW Post 8860 and was its first commander.

Jean Mitchell is an active Dayton senior who has revived her writing career with this column.

Ellie