WWII veterans recall Iwo Jima
The iconic flag raising occurred 72 years ago today.
Feb. 23, 1945, is a day that is forever etched into the mind of retired Marine and Roman Bobby Blair.
It was the day U.S. Marines raised the flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima — an island in the Pacific Ocean — five days into one of the deadliest battles in American military history.
The date is also engraved onto a metal poster of the flag raising that Blair holds dearly.
It is signed by 16 Rome area World War II veterans who fought at Iwo Jima. Only two of them are alive today, U.S. Navy veteran Jack Runninger, of Rome, and former Marine Alton Cadenhead, of Calhoun.
The other Rome area veterans who autographed the poster include Lee Mowry, James Braden, Wallace Cook, Louie Schwartz, W.H. Morgan, T.B. Bing, Winston Kilgo and Bill Fricks.
Fricks and Morgan were Navy Corpsman, Kilgo was with the Army Air Corps, and the others were all Marines.
Cadenhead, a corporal in the Marine Corps, was a rifleman when he landed on Iwo Jima during the second day of the assault.
Long before he went ashore, Cadenhead said the cohesiveness of the assault had been “shot to pieces” by the Japanese in the first two hours of the landing.
“The combat was terrible,” he said. “Every square foot on that island had been designated (for coverage) to take out that land you were on. There was nowhere on that island where you were safe.”
Blair recalls that Morgan, who later lived in West Rome, was one of the survivors of the assault on Iwo Jima.
Blair said Morgan held a unique distinction of having survived both the D-Day assault at Normandy, France, and the landing at Iwo Jima.
“How many people made both those landings and survived,” Blair said.
Retired Marine Col. Hal Gosnell, of Rome, said Iwo Jima was the only battle in the Pacific Theater where the U.S. sustained more casualties than the enemy. Approximately 12,000 were killed in action and another 50,000 were wounded. Gosnell said the estimates indicated there were approximately 21,000 Japanese on the island. 216 Japanese surrendered, the rest were either killed or committed suicide.
Cadenhead said at the time he couldn’t understand the swapping of so many lives for a piece of real estate.
Gosnell said the importance of taking the island was evident after it was taken and converted for use as a refueling depot for many B-29 bomber missions prior to the end of the war.
Runninger, an ensign in the Navy, was a combat information officer aboard one of the Navy transport ships that carried the Marines to the island.
“I thought Iwo Jima was going to be a cinch, but it
wasn’t,” he said. “It wasn’t much fun being there with all the bombardments going on.”
Neither Runninger nor Cadenhead actually saw the Marines raise the flag on Mount Suribachi. Runninger was still aboard his ship and recalls seeing the flag through the smoke from the artillery fire shortly after it was raised.
Cadenhead was involved in combat to secure one of the main airstrips on the island.
“I didn’t know about it until the next day,” he said.
Blair served in the Marines Corps during the period around the Korean War. His unit was sent to Iwo Jima in 1954 as part of the ordinance removal effort to locate and dispose of live munitions on the island.
He recalls going into one of the many caves on the island and finding an entire case of .45-caliber weapons that looked as if it might have never been opened.
Blair also found the remains of eight Japanese soldiers. He said the temperature inside the caves and more than 11 miles of tunnels dug by the Japanese preserved the bodies in remarkable condition over the nine year interim.
Blair said he attended a special meeting of Iwo Jima veterans in Cartersville many years ago; it was there that he got the poster signed by the local veterans.