Sixty-nine years ago today the United States attacked the small but heavily defended Japanese island of Iwo Jima. For three days the Navy had shelled and bombed the island to seemingly little effect.
Our ship, the USS Pickens, APA 190, was one of the ships carrying the Fourth Marine Division, a unit that included veterans of other battles and also Marines who would see action for the first time.
My regular job aboard ship was as a radar operator, but during battle conditions I manned phones at a debarkation station on the starboard side of the ship and near the stern. From there I saw our boats put into the water and the Marines climb down into the boats. Our boats joined those from other ships in making a formation and then moving toward the island.
It wasn't long until some boats returned with wounded men to be treated on board as we served as an auxiliary hospital ship.
Some of the fiercest fighting of any war, and many acts of exceptional bravery, went on until March 16. Of the 22,000 Japanese on the island, only 216 were taken prisoner, the others being fatalities. Marine casualties, wounded and killed, exceeded those of the Japanese, the only time this happened to the Marines.
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