# Iwo Jima



## 03Fox2/1 (Feb 19, 2007)

In loving memory of the U.S. Marines and Naval corpsman who died or were wounded fighting on the island of Iwo Jima. This includes my Dad, a young Marine of only 16 years old who landed with the 4th Marine Division and was wounded.
 Rest in Peace and Semper Fidelis.


* I recently finished another book, "Iwo" by Richard Wheeler and I am once again in awe of the sacrifice and bravery displayed by so many unknown heroes.


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## Bombardier (Feb 20, 2007)

R.I.P and Semper Fi


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## John A Silkstone (Feb 20, 2007)

Rest in Piece dear soldier, Rest in Piece.

Silky


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## Reloader (Feb 20, 2007)

Rest in Peace.


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## 03Fox2/1 (Jun 26, 2007)

*Helped raise 1st flag over Iwo Jima*

From Associated Press, June 26, 2007
By Chris Williams


Richfield, Minn. -- Charles Lindberg, one of the U.S. Marines who raised the first American flag over Iwo Jima during World War II, died Sunday.
  He was 86.
  Lindberg spent decades explaining that it was his patrol, not the one captured in the famous Associated Press photograph by Joe Rosenthal, that raised the first flag as U.S. forces fought to take the Japanese island.
  In the late morning of February 23, 1945, Lindberg fired his flamethrower into enemy pillboxes at the base of Mount Suribachi and then joined five other Marines fighting their way to the top. He was awarded the Silver Star for bravery.
  "Two of our men found this big, long pipe there," he said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2003. "We tied the flag to it, took it to the highest spot we could find and we raised it."
  "Down below, the troops started to cheer, the ship's whistles went off, it was just something that you would never forget," he said. "It didn't last too long, because the enemy started coming out of the caves."
  The moment was captured by Sgt. Lou Lowery, a photographer from the Marine Corps' Leatherneck magazine. It was the first time a foreign flag flew on Japanese soil, according to the book "Flags of Our Fathers," by James Bradley with Ron Powers. Bradley's father, Navy Corpsman John Bradley, was one of the men in the famous photo of the second flag-raising.
  "We thought it would be a slaughterhouse up on Suribachi," Lindberg said in the book. "I still don't understand why we were not attacked."
  Three of the men in the first raising never saw their photos. They were among the more than 6,800 U.S. servicemen killed in the five-week battle for the island.
  By Lindberg's account, his commander ordered the first flag replaced and safeguarded because he worried someone would take it as a souvenir. Lindberg was back in combat when six men raised the second, larger flag about four hours later.
  Rosenthal's photo of the second flag-raising became one of the most enduring images of the war and the model for the U.S. Marine Corps memorial in Washington, D.C.

*SEMPER FIDELIS


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## Reloader (Jun 28, 2007)

R.I.P., Marine Charles Lindberg. sal;


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## 03Fox2/1 (Jun 28, 2007)

*Taking letters from "Iwo Jima" for a correction*

From Associated Press, June 21, 2007
Story by Hans Greimel

The Battleground-- The 1945 battle for Iwo Jima pitted some 100,000 U.S. troops against 22,000 Japanese deeply dug into a labyrinth of tunnels and trenches. Nearly 7,000 Americans were killed capturing the island, and fewer than 1,000 of the Japanese would survive.
  The Americans occupied the island after the war, and returned it to Japanese jurisdiction in 1968. The U.S. Navy still uses an Iwo To airstrip to train pilots who operate from aircraft carriers.--Associated Press


Tokyo -- Japan has changed the name of the Pacific Island of Iwo Jima, site of the famous World War II battle, to its original name of Iwo To after residents there were prodded into action by two recent Clint Eastwood movies.
  The new name in Japanese looks and means the same as Iwo Jima - or Sulfur Island - but sounds different, the Japanese Geographical Survey Institute said.
  The institute announced the name change Monday after discussing the issue with Japan's coast guard. An official map with the new name will be released September 1.
  Iwo Jima was the site of the World War II battle immortalized by the famous photograph of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on the islet's Mount Suribachi.
  Before the war, however, the volcanic island was known as Iwo To by the 1,000 or so civilians who lived there.
  They were evacuated in 1944 as U.S. forces advanced across the Pacific. Some Japanese navy officers who moved in to fortify the island mistakenly called it Iwo Jima, and the name stuck. Agter the war, civilians weren't allowed to return and the island was put to exclusive military use by both the U.S. and Japan, cementing its identity.
  Never satisfied that the name Iwo Jima took root, locals took action in March after the release of Eastwood's two films, "Letters From Iwo Jima" and "Flags of Our Fathers" spot-lighted the misnomer.
  "Though we're happy for Iwo To, which has been forgotten by history, the islanders are extremely grieved every time they hear Iwo To referred to as Iwo Jima," the local Ogasawara newspaper reported at the time.


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## 03Fox2/1 (Jun 28, 2007)

Addendum to "Taking letters from Iwo Jima" post

As I have expressed myself before, I am not a fan of those that try to rewrite history, for either political expediency or to save face for past war crimes. I see no logical reason for Japan to rename the island of Iwo Jima. The residents of this lonely island had long ago been forcibly removed and if they had not been, they surely would have died during the Marine assault of Iwo Jima. The World War II battle is the only reason anyone remembers this small godforsaken island and to change the name now, reeks of another Japanese charade. It is another attempt by them to change the perception of their actions and consequences during World War II. The following is a letter, written to the editor of the Charlotte Observer, following their publication of the previously posted article about renaming Iwo Jima.  Semper Fi

TO ME THAT BLOODY ISLAND WILL ALWAYS BE IWO JIMA

In  response to "Taking letters from Iwo Jima for a correction" (June 21)
  "As a Marine, a Browning automatic rifleman, I was engaged in the battle to take that miserable place from the Japanese.
  My platoon landed February 19, 1945. Blue Beach No. 2, about 2 miles long, was littered with boats, amphibious tractors and equitment knocked out by Japanese mortar and artillery fire. We made it in a few hundred yards before being stopped.
  On the morning of February 23 my hard-luck platoon - decimated the previous June on Saipan - was caught in an ambush by at least two Japanese machine guns and small arms fire. It was the day of the famous flag-raising.
  We lost all but eight men, and I was told later in the hospital that all the remaining were killed or wounded during the next 30 days of the battle.
  Here's to all those young heroes who struggled so desperately on that place and didn't make it.
  The name will always be etched in my mind as Iwo Jima, not 'Iwo To' whether our Japanese friends like it or not.
   Semper Fi !
  Fred F. Miller
  Charlotte, N.C.


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## Frisco-Kid (Jun 29, 2007)

My Aunt Clara's brother-in-law was Ray Royal. He was a Marine on Iwo Jima and had lost an eye in the battle. When I was a kid I would spend the summer with my Aunt Clara, Uncle Kenny, and cousins Steve and Mike. We would often go over to the Royal's house.

Ray worked nights at the Tracy, CA, Army Supply Depot so slept during the day. We would sometimes catch him sleeping on the couch in the living room before leaving for work. Now us kids thought Ray was pretty cool, and not just because he was a good guy, but because he had a glass eye that wouldn't close when he slept. Us kids would often stand over him sleeping on the couch and study his eye up close. Pretty cool, and a little scarey stuff when you're 8-9yrs. old. To make it even more cool, at one time he temporarily had a different colored eye as he was getting fitted for a new one. As time passed, and micro-surgery became more perfected, the VA finally got Ray's eye to where he could blink and close it when he slept. By then, us kids were old enough to where we out grew the novelty of it.

While home on leave before going to Vietnam, I went to visit my aunt and uncle. Ray and his wife happened to be there. At one point, he took me aside and told me he was proud of me for stepping up to serve my country. The words meant alot to me coming from a man that had seen war so up close and personal. The only advice he gave me was to listen to my NCO's. Turned out to be good advice on several occasions.

Ray has been gone several years, now. SEMPER FI to Ray and all of the other Marine's that died and bled on Iwo Jima.

Everybody Stands A Little Taller When A Marine Walks By


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## 03Fox2/1 (Jul 3, 2007)

Tom,
   That was good advice from your friend Ray. Our military has had its up and downs but one of the mainstays has usually been the leadership displayed by our nco's based on their experience and knowledge gained over the years. I have always had a rather positive prejudicial opinion about nco's, as my Dad was one his entire career in the Marine Corps. My Dad is the one that taught me that all Marines should be color blind. Marine green and blood red are the only colors that really matter. You judge a man by what he does more than by what he says and color is irrelevant.
Semper Fi... to you and all paratroopers everywhere


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