Just a quick reminder, something many of you I am sure know already; 68 years ago at this time United States Marines were slugging it out with the Japanese on Iwo Jima. My dad, Frank Anderson, who passed about 10 years ago, helped fight for this prized piece of Pacific real estate. He would turn 21 on March 16 1945, and leave the campaign with not so much as a scratch! 6,700 Marines and others would pay the ultimate price however along with some 26,000 Japanese troops killed on this volcanic island. Everything after Iwo Jima was gravy dad used to say.

He told me he saw the first Boeing B-29 Superfortress land on Iwo while fighting still raged on around the Marines. This haven for the B-29's and also a place for escorting Republic P-47N Thunderbolts and North American P-51D Mustangs, was a critical step in the defeat of Japan.

Just thinking of dad today and wondered if any of you others had similar memories? Take care and never forget. Russell

Russ,

Thanks for this touching post. My Dad turned 18 on March 15 while steaming towards that dreaded volcanic island which would claim the lives of so many brave American and Japanese young men. He landed on the first day of the battle in support of the 5th Marine division as a Navy Corpsman assigned to help staff and establish a beach collection and evacuation station for Marines wounded in the battle. As the battle raged, he was deployed closer and closer to the front because so many men had gone down collecting litter cases. On his final trip to the shelves during the second day of the battle, he was wounded by mortar fragments carrying a wounded Marine and had to be evacuated himself.

My Dad was a humble man when it came to speaking about his war experiences and it took me many years to get the above information from him. It always came in bits and pieces and I learned not to ask him for a narrative of what happened because that would always lead to him pausing for a moment, lost in recollection. As soon as that happened I knew the conversation was over. The memories of those days were so painful after so many years. I learned to ask him specific questions about equipment he used, how he got on the island, things like that. But it would always end with those long pauses. One time, when I asked about the Purple Heart he had earned he asked me never to speak of it again. He said that he had seen men torn apart so badly that they were barely recognized as such as they cried for their mothers. Very powerful indeed, especially for a kid who had just turned 18. Thats when I stopped asking. My Dad passed in 2008 and I miss him very much.

Dwayne

Thank you for your reply Dwayne, truly a great generation of men have left us. Russell

Russell, I remember you've told me some of your dad's war memories a while ago in my assembly line thread. Fortunatly my dad was too young to fight in the war (he was exactly 10 years old when VE-Day came) but one of my uncles flew a Henschel Hs 129 on the Eastern Front. You might remember telling me that. And both my grandfathers fought in the war, my father's father with the Navy in Italy and my mother's father with the Cavallery in Russia. Luckily everyone of my family came back, but some after many years in soviet captivity. Because my mum's dad was already 51 years old at the end of the war the Soviets let him go pretty soon. He fought already somewhere in France during WW 1 and died 1971. My other grandfather, captured by the Americans in Austria, died in 1988. His brother was also captured in Austria, but by the Soviets, as he fought on the Eastern front. My flying uncle passed away in 2004. His older brother also was a soldier but I don't know where. I hardly know him.
My mother was heavily wounded in the final days of the war by attacking fighter bombers from the VVS while fleeing from the east to the west before the Red Army came. She was only an 8 years old girl then (she was the youngest of 5 girls)and lost a lot of blood but barely survived. The scars the shells left in her back are still visible today.
So every of our families had to bear some burden of the damn war.

Torsten

Hi Torsten, thank God Europe has been more or less at peace for the last 68 years. War is never a good option. It is the breakdown of our civilization in many ways, too many wars are fought for no really good reason. I guess part of the reason I am drawn to WWII history, is not just because my dad, who has been gone now ten years, participated in it in the Pacific; but WWII seems like one of those turning points in human history. Certainly as someone interested strongly in aviation history, some of the greatest flying machines ever participated in this terrible conflict. I like to think we are evolving away from conflict but sometimes, I am not sure. Russell

Hi Bob,

Thank you for the reminder of Russell's letter. Russell was a good guy and a popular member here on Aeroscale.

Russell,

I just saw this (also just joined the Forum). Your father was a real American hero and it was good you had him with you for all those years beyond the war. There are a few interesting stories in the book "Samurai" by Saburo Sakae; much is mentioned about the Japanese experiences at Iwo Jima.

It is good to remember those who have fallen for our country, and the sacrifices of the "greatest generation". The one thing they all had in common was their sense of duty and purpose. They also didn't talk much about what they saw and experienced.