Seventy-nine years ago today

[Bill in Oregon]

The United States Marines began their assault on Iwo Jima. Thank God for the Greatest Generation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uc2F7Vq7hY&t=6s

[Grizz]

The United States Marines began their assault on Iwo Jima. Thank God for the Greatest Generation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uc2F7Vq7hY&t=6s

Thanks for the link Bill. i've been seeing pacific war history on the History Channel, now called Story. Learn something new every time. Sobering to see what they did. They bought us a lot of time is what they did.

[Bill in Oregon]

Grizz, in that brutal 35-day fight, we suffered nearly 7,000 American boys dead and nearly 20,000 wounded. The odds were one in three that you would get hit.

[Ray Newman]

As said by Fleet Admiral Nimitz concerning the Marines who served on Iwo Jima: "Uncommon valor was a common virtue."

[black river smith]

I was fortunate to meet and have dinner with a man, several years ago, that Survived being in a Tank on Iwo Jima. I just asked to shake his hand so that some of his luck would rub off. He just laughed and shook my hand at the dinner table. I did not ask any other questions of him. I had purchased and watched a lot of the war documentary DVD's that came before that time and truly new better.

[lonesome dave]

my uncle was wounded twice on the beach head. R I P HUEY.

[Ysabel Kid]

Thanks for posting this Bill!

[samsi]

Thanks for the reminder. The father of my best friend from high school hit the beach at Iwo as a sergeant (real Old Corps, enlisted in '38). It was his third "hot" beach landing, and he'd never told any of his kids about it until I was home on leave from the Marines one time. His family stood there in shock with their mouths open, they had no idea. After that he told me a number of firsthand tales from the Pacific that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. RIP John.

[Grizz]

Grizz, in that brutal 35-day fight, we suffered nearly 7,000 American boys dead and nearly 20,000 wounded. The odds were one in three that you would get hit.

Churns mi estomago. Tonight on the history channel I watched a color film documentary made by marine cameramen in the battle for Tarawa. Those troops are peerless.

the armchair history buff in me was grinding his gums over the lack of air cover and the stupidity of sending the boats into shallow water. whoever made that call should be spanked. they could have blasted a channel in the coral and saved LOTS of lies. but i wasn't there and don't qualify to run a battle. but'cept i AM qualified to operate a boat and know how to make beaching work. AND WHERE IS THE TOP COVER ????? i wonder if the naval barrage killed any body? Do you know? I think the tunnels were secure from the big guns, have you ever seen damage assessment of the tunnels and caves?