60 years ago, today, "D-Day" (the day marking the beginning of an invasion) occurred on Iwo Jima as the United States Marines launched their bid to take the piece of land that would be the strategic lynchpin to ending the war in the Pacific.

My grandfather was among the 110,000 marines and sailors who began the fight for Iwo Jima on February 19th, 1945. He was a member of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 26th Regiment, of the U.S. Marine's 5th Division. Like many other companies fighting on Iwo Jima, F-2-26 sustained heavy casualties over the course of the 36 day battle for an island only 7 and a half square miles in size; volcanic atoll, with little or no vegitation, and the enemy dug in, and fighting from a system of underground tunnels and fortified pill boxes. In fact, the Marines fighting on Iwo Jima rarely saw the enemy, despite killing almost all of the nearly 21,000 Japanese who defended the island to the death.

Of the approximately 250 members of my grandfather's company, 98% would be KIA or WIA. My grandfather was one of many Marines to succumb to "combat fatigue" after fighting for 13 days on Iwo. He was evacuated on March 3rd. I had the fortune to find a close buddy of his from Iwo Jima last year. For several days, Howard "Pop" Meyers commanded the squad adjacent to my grandfather's in battle. On several nights, they "dug in" together, between their squads.

Howard related devastating stories of what the battle was like for him and my grandfather. A particularl sad example was that of a mortar shell which landed in a fox hole where two of my grandfather's marines were dug in. One of the kids was a pitching prospect for the Detroit Tigers, PFC Mettling. My grandfather tended to him first, but was told that his buddy was hurt worse. My grandfather turned to tend to the other marine, but he was already dead. When he turned back to Mettling, he too was dead.

This story is just one of thousands like it that occurred on Iwo Jima. The great sacrifices that men made there in the middle of the Pacific ended up being vital to the eventual winning of the war in the Pacific. The island from which Japanese fighters were able to run roughshot over Allied bombers on their way to Japan, now served as a safe haven for wounded planes returning from combat, saving (astonishingly) many more American lives than were cost in the battle.

May the men who fought and died on Iwo Jima always be remembered and honored.

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Fox Company Casualties on Iwo Jima

From today's WSJ

A story on History.net

The World War II Memorial

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Edited to add: "Flags of Our Fathers" is a must-read book for anyone interested in Iwo Jima. It is written by the son of one of the 5 marines and 1 navy corpsman seen in the famous picture above, and details much about the battle, as well as the lives of the 6 flag raisers before and after the battle. The lives of these 6 men are diverse, and represent an interesting cross-section of the men who fought in WWII both in the Pacific and in Europe. Sadly, their casualty rate is also representative of the broader group who fought on Iwo Jima. Only 3 of them made it off the island alive. Buy "Flags of Our Fathers" here.

- served up by Nomad @ 5:14 PM