From a Rest Camp in the Pacific

[SunBat]

Today is the sixty-sixth anniversary of the landing of Marines on Iwo Jima.  My grandfather was there.  This is a letter that he wrote to his brother that was subsequently published in an advertisement for the Alcoa Aluminum Company where my Great Uncle worked.  I think what he wrote is a fitting tribute to the brave men who, 66 years ago today, landed on a small island where many would lose their lives and the rest would have their lives changed forever.  They did it for us and our allies.  I salute them all.

Dear Glen,

The folks have probably let you know that I am back here.  Your letter was here when I arrived.  

No Glen, I didn’t fill my pants when the shells started dropping but that old Hoosier expression “p-----g like a fox” is quite true, when one is under fire he smokes almost continually and urinates every few minutes.  It was truly rough.  I never believed in Hell but now I know what to expect.  It is a place where one lies flat and tries to bury face down in the sand, where bits of clothing, flesh and guts from your friends are blown into your face, where you sleep with the ten day dead, whose bloated bodies are working with maggots and from whom the big blue slow moving flies alight on the rim of your canteen as you raise it to drink, where you cower in your hole at night and watch the enemy moving up toward your lines as he is momentarily silhouetted in the light of a flare, where you must move forward at someone else’s command even though you know you’re walking into an ambush, where you sleep very little and grow gaunt and lean without realizing the pain of hunger, where your lips parch and crack and the dust causes your rifle to malfunction, where you know no emotion other than fear, where you pray and think of home and your kids as shells burst overhead, where you learn how far we really are from being civilized.  

That, Glen, was Iwo Jima.  

I’ve never fought the Germans and I don’t want to, but I know it is different.  The Hun is at least a man.  He doesn’t live under-ground like a mole.  He doesn’t fight to the last and then blow himself to kingdom come.  He doesn’t wear split-toed black tennis shoes that give him an animal aspect.  He doesn’t, singled-handed appear from nowhere and drop down into a hole full of Marines.  He doesn’t crawl into a bunker full of his own rotting soldiers and lie there in wait for days.  He just can’t be as unholy an enemy as the Jap.  

I’m still scared, Glen.  I won’t feel safe in my own back yard.  Right now I feel like a man who had two white balls and one black one in a hat.  I’ve drawn one white one and can only hope I don’t have to again.  

We lost lots of men, fighting men who had been through other battles with the Nip, Winners of the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross, Silver Star, but the law of averages got them.

Got a letter from Buss (Merrill Christopher - Ex Operator on Extrusion Press 31) yesterday.  He had been evacuated for combat fatigue but he is O.K. now and is back in Guam with his outfit.  He was a flame thrower and his first sergeant told me that after thirteen days at the front that he petered out.  Very few last that long.  

They’re blowing taps so I will close and address this in the morning.  Let me hear from you.  Tell everyone hello.  

Pfc. Dean W. May                                                   Dean

[AAJagerX]

Wow man...  Thanks for sharing. 

A big to your grandfather.

[grizz441]

 

Absolutely fantastic literary piece.  A gifted writer he was.

[007Rusty]

                    Thanks for sharing                 

[Guppy35]

Wow!  Very cool Sunbat.  Any idea what unit he was with?  Lots of Iwo stuff on the shelves here.  Got to know an Iwo vet back when I was in college.   He was much more interested in talking about Custer and the 7th Cav, but every once in a while I could get him to talk about his Iwo experience.  No idea how those guys got through that mess.

[Dichotomy]

 

[MarineUS]

Semper Fi Devil Dogs

Thank you for the read 

[Boxboy]

My Dad was there Sunbat, 3rd Division, 28th Marines, company I.  They were supposed to be in reserve but the hit the island on the 3rd day and took the air fields in the center of the island.  Prior to Iwo he saw action on Guam.  Read "Uncommon Valor was a common vertue" it gives the best account of the action, when I read that book I can hear my dad telling us boys about the battle.

[Changeup]

SunBat:

Thanks...

V/r

Changeup

[Frodo]

 

[CAP1]

 

[SunBat]

Wow!  Very cool Sunbat.  Any idea what unit he was with?  Lots of Iwo stuff on the shelves here.  Got to know an Iwo vet back when I was in college.   He was much more interested in talking about Custer and the 7th Cav, but every once in a while I could get him to talk about his Iwo experience.  No idea how those guys got through that mess.

He was in the 5th Pioneer Battalion.  My grandpa would not talk about the war to me and my brother at all when we were young, so I don’t know much about what happened.  However, he did get very sick once when I was in college and I think he thought he was going to die.  I came home to see him and visited with him in the hospital.  I had a long talk with him and he opened up about a lot of things that he did in his life.  One of the things that he told me about was how he was on watch the night before they were going to leave the island.  They were at an airfield and he was one of the perimeter guards.  He saw a large group of Japanese emerge and head across the air field.   A big fight broke out and he killed one of the Japanese officers.   I didn’t know it at the time, but he got the Japanese officer’s saber, his dogtags, and his Japanese flag with a bunch of writing on it.  My uncle has those items to this day.  I saw them after my grandfather passed away.  If you have any other information on his Battalion it would be cool to hear about it.  My uncle says that it was a predominately African American Unit with my Grandpa being one of the few white guys in the Battalion.  I don’t know if that is accurate, but it would be interesting to find out.  I'm going to do more research.  I have been meaning to but just keep getting side tracked. 

[SunBat]

My Dad was there Sunbat, 3rd Division, 28th Marines, company I.  They were supposed to be in reserve but the hit the island on the 3rd day and took the air fields in the center of the island.  Prior to Iwo he saw action on Guam.  Read "Uncommon Valor was a common vertue" it gives the best account of the action, when I read that book I can hear my dad telling us boys about the battle.

Wow.  Salute to your Dad.  I would like to read that book.  I’ll get it and read it soon.   

[gyrene81]

Semper Fi to those Marines... 

[Slash27]

Thank you very much for that Sunbat.