Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: SunBat on February 19, 2011, 02:58:12 PM
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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
(http://dasmuppets.com/public/Sunbatt/letter.jpg)
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Wow man... Thanks for sharing.
A big :salute to your grandfather.
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:salute
Absolutely fantastic literary piece. A gifted writer he was.
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:salute Thanks for sharing :salute
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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.
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:salute
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Semper Fi Devil Dogs
Thank you for the read :salute :salute :salute
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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.
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SunBat:
Thanks... :salute
V/r
Changeup
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:salute
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:salute :salute
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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.
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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.
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Semper Fi to those Marines... :salute
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Thank you very much for that Sunbat. :salute
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Thank you for sharing. :salute
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:salute all I can say is wow.
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Thanks for posting your Granpa's letter Sunbat. Its terrible what some of those guys had to go through.
<S> Dean
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:salute
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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.
On it. I'll see what I can find.
Just a quick look found this online. Looks like Grandpa was there that day for the assault on the Air Corps tents where a bunch of guys from the 21st FG were killed by that last suicide attack. I'd heard of that bit before. Didn't know of the connection to the 5th Pioneers. attached to the 27th, 5th Marine Division.
http://www.marineswwii.com/pdfs/THE%20END%20OF%20THE%20END.pdf
Looks like amazing stuff he went through
And there is a history of the Marine Pioneers too. Not too bad a price. Might be worthwhile for ya
http://www.schifferbooks.com/newschiffer/book_template.php?isbn=0764302272
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It was the evening of 25 March, D+34, and the amphibious assault on the rocky fortress of Iwo Jima finally appeared over. The island grew strangely quiet. There were far fewer illumination shells. In the flickering false light, some saw shadowy figures, moving south, towards the airfield.
Grandpa was a lucky man to still be around for so long. Wow!
"General Schmidt received the good news that the 5th Marine Division had snuffed out the final enemy cave in The Gorge on the evening of D+34. But even as the corps commander prepared his announcement declaring the end of organized resistance on Iwo Jima, a very well-organized enemy force emerged from northern caves and infiltrated down the length of the island. This final spasm of Japanese opposition still reflected the influence of Kuribayashi's tactical discipline. The 300-man force took all night to move into position around the island's now vulnerable rear base area, the tents occupied by freshly arrived Army pilots of VII Fighter Command, adjacent to Airfield No. 1. The counterattacking force achieved total surprise, falling on the sleeping pilots out of the darkness with swords, grenades, and automatic weapons. The fighting was as vicious and bloody as any that occurred in Iwo Jima's many arenas.
The surviving pilots and members of the 5th Pioneer Battalion improvised a skirmish line and launched a counterattack of their own. Seabees and elements of the redeploying 28th Marines joined the fray. There were few suicides among the Japanese; most died in place, grateful to strike one final blow for the Emperor. Sunrise revealed the awful carnage: 300 dead Japanese; more than 100 slain pilots, Seabees, and pioneers; and another 200 American wounded. It was a grotesque closing chapter to five continuous weeks of savagery."
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Thanks for showing us this Bat. Very cool. :aok
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Grandpa was a lucky man to still be around for so long. Wow!
It was the evening of 25 March, D+34, and the amphibious assault on the rocky fortress of Iwo Jima finally appeared over. The island grew strangely quiet. There were far fewer illumination shells. In the flickering false light, some saw shadowy figures, moving south, towards the airfield.
General Schmidt received the good news that the 5th Marine Division had snuffed out the final enemy cave in The Gorge on the evening of D+34. But even as the corps commander prepared his announcement declaring the end of organized resistance on Iwo Jima, a very well-organized enemy force emerged from northern caves and infiltrated down the length of the island. This final spasm of Japanese opposition still reflected the influence of Kuribayashi's tactical discipline. The 300-man force took all night to move into position around the island's now vulnerable rear base area, the tents occupied by freshly arrived Army pilots of VII Fighter Command, adjacent to Airfield No. 1. The counterattacking force achieved total surprise, falling on the sleeping pilots out of the darkness with swords, grenades, and automatic weapons. The fighting was as vicious and bloody as any that occurred in Iwo Jima's many arenas.
The surviving pilots and members of the 5th Pioneer Battalion improvised a skirmish line and launched a counterattack of their own. Seabees and elements of the redeploying 28th Marines joined the fray. There were few suicides among the Japanese; most died in place, grateful to strike one final blow for the Emperor. Sunrise revealed the awful carnage: 300 dead Japanese; more than 100 slain pilots, Seabees, and pioneers; and another 200 American wounded. It was a grotesque closing chapter to five continuous weeks of savagery.
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As a child growing up i knew my grandfather served in the pacific in the 81st Infantry Wildcat division as a radio-man. And at that time i did not realize what he had went through. His brother was a navigator in a B-17 and i was more interested in his stories. I just didnt realize at that age what really went on in the pacific. You would hear about "Omaha beach", "Battle of the bulge" and the Germans. Just not much about the pacific. I look back and I feel the guys in the pacific was not givin as much lime light as the euro campaign(thats just an opinion).
Just like many others who served in the pacific, they dont talk about it much. My grandfather is now 91 and is still trucking along like a 60 year old. Still has all his whits and hearing. As i have gotten older he tells me more and more stories a little more everytime. I enlisted in the marine corp right out of high school.Needless to say he was not to happy about that choice. For he knows what serving in the military could hold.
I asked my grandad if he was ever hurt? His answer was "just my feelings". Did you ever shoot anybody? he shrugs his shoulders and tries to change the subject. He said that when he got home he just wanted to forget about the whole thing.. He says one thing that sticks in his mind every night while he tries to go to sleep is.. One morning on Peleliu, the sheeling started, went on all day, all night and into the next night. He said he was so tired the palm trees would turn into japs. Him and somebody cant recall who he said, had crawled into a hole to try and get some sleep, he said he did doze off for a little bit, but the heat from the sun had woke him . And he realized that he had been laying on a bunch of dead guys.I said grandad what did you say to the guy in the hole with you? He said "Nothing, he was dead.I think he shot himself in the middle of night but im not sure."
So to my grandfather and all those who served in any war a BIG :salute. And a even bigger thank you..
I think Tom Brokaw said it best in the title of his book. "The Greatest Generation"..
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Very cool, I work for an Alcoa(now Sapa) Aluminum Extrusion plant myself. Thanks for the post.
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:salute
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:salute
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Wow! Thanks for digging that up Corky. That validates his story completely. It's surreal to read accounts of battles like that and know your own grandfather was there. That book looks like a good one; I'll get it and give it a read. I really appreciate the info and the tip on the book, Corky. I'm going to do some more digging and get with my uncle who has all of his military records and see what else I can learn.
That's an amazing story too remy1dog. Treasure your granddad while you still have him. Give him a big :salute for me.
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Wow! Thanks for digging that up Corky. That validates his story completely. It's surreal to read accounts of battles like that and know your own grandfather was there. That book looks like a good one; I'll get it and give it a read. I really appreciate the info and the tip on the book, Corky. I'm going to do some more digging and get with my uncle who has all of his military records and see what else I can learn.
That's an amazing story too remy1dog. Treasure your granddad while you still have him. Give him a big :salute for me.
And of course you will let us know what you learn too right? :)
Needless to say I eat this stuff up
I knew of it because of my interest in the VLR Mustangs off Iwo. It was the 21st FG tents that got hit and they lost their Group CO in the Japanese attack. The fairly recent Osprey book "Very Long Range P51 Mustang Units of the Pacific War" by Carl Molesworth, has some eyewitness descriptions too from the pilots and ground crew. They initially thought the Marines were messing with them when the gunfire broke out.
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I have a leaflet that was dropped on peleliu by a japanese plane. I tried to scan it but it turned out not readable (its in pretty bad shape). but it reads.
POOR, RECKLESS YANKEE-DOODLE
Do you know about the naval battle one by the american 58th fleet at sea, near taiwan (Tomosa) and Philippine.
Japanese powerful air force had sank their 19 aeroplane carriers, 4battleships, 10 several cruisers and destroyers along with sending 1,261 ship aeroplanes into the sea. From the result, we think that you can imagine what shall happen next around palau upon you. The fraud Rousevelt, hanging the president election under his nose and from his policy ambition, worked not only poor NIMMIT but also maccasir like a robot.Like this, WHAT IS PITTY!!
must be sacrifice you pay. Thanks for your advice notes of surrender.But we havn't any reason to surrender to those who are fated to be totally destroyed in a few days later. ADD TO YOU AGAINST THE MANNER OF YOUR ATTACK PAYING NO HEED TO HUMANITY, YOUR GOD SHALL MAKE JAPANESE FORCE TO ADD RELATIVE ATTACK UPON YOU.
JAPAN MILITARY
I also have maps for artillery cords from alot of the islands he was on. I will try and scan them . So i can share them with you guys they are real neat. Maps on where to attack. And where the enemy was supposed to be. But like i said everything i have traveled a long way to get back to the states so most of it just wont turn out when scanned..
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After hearing and reading first-hand accounts I often wonder if I could have ever done what these people did in WW2. I can never come to a conclusion. I get in myself stuck in this circular logic, it starts with, "I'm a mentally and physically tough person, there were those with less that came through." But then always cycle around and think about what they saw, smelled and heard, and think to myself, "How tough is tough enough?" And then the part that really gets me is some people did everything right; obeyed orders and fought smart. Yet there is some sort of metaphorical dice somewhere that decided that shell was going to land right next to someone, or perhaps that one stray bullet was the end of it. That, in it's self, would be the best and worst part for me to mentally absorb. Best, because once I realized it that I could only control so much, the inherit dangers of chance would be pushed to the back of my mind. However, at the same time it would be the worst because sometimes it's those things that are kept at the back of one's mind that can send one over the edge.
It's nuts to me that it's reading things like this can keep me up at night.
:salute to all past, current, and future servicemen.
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:salute Unimaginable what that man has seen, words wont even get you close.
My Grandfather's Brother served and died at IWO, I have received a rubbing with his name on the memorial last year and have it framed.
Thank you for sharing, so many good honorable men died at that battle.
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Remy, that letter from the Japanese is actually kind of funny. It would be cool if you could get it and the rest of that stuff scanned.
Sector, I often have similar thoughts when I consider what it must be like to do what they did. The very fact that we can't get our mind around it is a testament to the greatness of what they did for us.
:salute to your great uncle, dad'.
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Thanks for posting Sunbat. Very cool.