Iwo Jima 65 years later

My Thoughts

Dr. Bill Atwood

(Updated: Thursday, March 11, 2010, 12:50 PM)

Five weeks in Hell was in store for the first guys on the beaches and 84% of those going in became a casualty. 4,926 were killed in the action and an additional 1,401 died later from their wounds. 19,217 were wounded in the battle and 494 were never found. A total of 26,038 made the sacrifice to take the island of Iwo Jima.

The first attack by the Americans on the home islands of Japan was fierce. The battle raged on from February 19 until March 26, 1945 and in those 36 days the world saw some of the fiercest fighting of the entire war.

Joe Rosenthal's famous photograph of the flag raising on Mount Suribachi has become the symbol of that battle. Whether that flag was the second flag raised or not during that skirmish is not really important. The importance of that battle is the story of the sacrifice that the men of our military made for the defense of liberty.

Major General Graves Erskine told those at the dedication of the Iwo Jima Cemetery in March of 1945 that even after the people who remember the dead as an immediate loss are dead the nation will still mourn the lost at Iwo Jima. Erskine told those in attendance that the outcome of the battle was never in doubt as the Americans outnumbered the Japanese and that the Japanese had no place to flee. The only doubt for the battle planners was the cost. How many would pay the price to take that island? Erskine even commented that the U.S. would win even if it meant that the last Marine would die knocking out the last Japanese gun and gunner.

Those of us who did not fight that fight can never fully understand what hellish things those Marines and a few other military men went through and saw. They came away from that battle changed. Nightmares haunted them from visions that their minds couldn't erase. My dad was there and fortunately was part of the 16% who did not become a casualty except mentally. When I was growing up dad would retreat from time to time into the bedroom and his cold sweats would soak the sheets. He called it a Malaria attack or Dingy Fever. Only later after his death would I discover that many of those who had lived through Iwo Jima had the same problem. It was the flashbacks that haunted dad.

Dad hated to talk about the war and he spoke little of Iwo Jima. I learned lessons from him that related to the battles he fought there. I learned about the guys "left behind." Those were the heroes and those were the guys that should never be forgotten.

I learned that dad's buddy, Jim Naumann, and dad had a special bond that was sacred to both. I learned all the words to the Marine Corps Hymn before I learned the words to the National Anthem.

Dad told my brother and me that the movie, "Sands of Iwo Jima" wasn't like what he had seen but he liked John Wayne pictures so it was OK for viewing. Dad hated the glorification of war. He would explain his role in few words. "We did what we had to do" and "Sometimes men have to do things because we are men."

During his adult years my dad had lost his sense of smell. I just assumed some allergy had struck or an illness had taken away his smell senses. I wonder now if the smell of the sulfur of Iwo Jima along with the smell of the burned bodies, the stench of corpses rotting on the sands awaiting burial was so horrific that dad's brain turned off the sense of smell to preserve his sanity.

Most of the men who fought that battle have gone to their reward in heaven. The Marine Hymn speaks to the fact that the streets of heaven are guarded by the United States Marines. What sight that will be to see -- Angels in full dress blues.

Take some time today to give thanks for your freedom bought and paid for by American veterans and please remember that for 36 days 65 years ago a group of young brave Marines did their duty in hell.

Semper Fi!