Remembering One Marine at Iwo Jima

Most Marines of the Fourth Division that we were taking to Iwo Jima were veterans of island operations, including  the conquest of Saipan and Tinian.  Those island brought the war closer to Japan and provided the platform from which to bomb the Japanese mainland.  Most veterans I had conversations with were reluctant to discuss past battles or the one ahead.  A new member of the division was different.

This young Marine, about my age, would be taking part in his first military action, and he  was nervous about it. I'll never forget one thing he said, "They have given us five days to take the island, but the guys are real determined and I think we'll take the island in no more than two or three days."  We soon found out how wrong he was.

The USS Pickens became an auxiliary hospital ship and our boats that landed men on Iwo soon came back with wounded Marines.

I often wondered what happened to that young Marine.  Was he wounded or killed in the first days;  was he one of those kids who took a bag of grenades and made a suicide charge against the machine guns emplacements; or  did he survive the fierce fighting and return in sound mind and body and is even now enjoying his grandchildren and great grandchildren?