I was reminded by someone on my Facebook page of the anniversary. Then a quick question to Siri revealed that it was a few days ago, on February 19th.
On the 75th Anniversary, I made the 50 mile drive to Stockton, CA to hear 2 old Marines who were there describe their times.
One of them, Bill White, was the oldest Marine at 104. He has since passed away. His friend, Frank Wright, was in his mid 90s at the time. I felt that I was listening to living history. They mentioned things that only veterans would remember, such as the deaths from Marines trying to transition on the rope ladders between the ship and the Higgins Boats, with a sea that moved the boats 6′ up and down. Some were crushed before they even got to the shore.
Frank did most of the reminiscing and the things he said have remained with me.
As an aside, I got into a discussion with a Facebook friend on the revelation of the Marine at the “flag raising” who was for decades identified as Navy Corpsman John Bradley who was replaced by Marine Harold Schultz.
Of the 6 “flag raisers” made famous by the Joe Rosenthal photograph, 3 would be later be killed in battle along with the Marine combat photographer, Bill Genaust, who filmed this on his 16mm camera.
If you read the wonderful book by James Bradley (son of John Bradley), you knew that he never talked about that time. It was only after he died and his family want through his trunk in the attic that they discovered his (then) notoriety in helping to raise the flag. At the time of the book’s publishing nothing was known of Harold. His replacement from John was the result of a history buff that brought his suspicions to the Marine Corps who after investigation replaced John with Harold.
For those who read the book, James was saying with each anniversary the phone would be ringing with reporters, and the children was told to tell them that their father was “fishing in Canada”.
Of the 3 who were sent on a bond tour, all were reluctant “heroes”, saying that the real heroes were still on Iwo. One, Ira Hayes, died an alcoholic.
As to my opinion, there were 2 times that an American flag was raised. On the first attempt, a pipe was used that was too small to be seen by the ship crewmen at sea, much less the Marines not on Suribachi. I suspect that John Bradley was in that first group.
Sometime later the word came that these Marines were wanted on a bond tour, and those that had survived and could be found were sent.
Anyway I suppose I am getting off the topic of hearing these 2 Marines talk of their time on Iwo.
It was a memorable afternoon.