We Get Letters

All Hands:

Fox News, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,284834,00.html says the
Japanese government intends to change the name Of Iwo Jima to Iwo To.  They
claim that is the original name of the sea mounts, and that the name was
changed by naval officers sent there to fortify it against our Marine Corps.

Personally, it does not matter what they choose to call that terrible 8
square miles of death, it will always be Iwo Jima to the Marines and
Corpsmen who fought and died on it.

As most of you know, I was on Iwo Jima last March, and I was waiting for a
good time to explain my thoughts while on Iwo Jima.  This is a good time.

I live on the Battlefield of Gettysburg, the site of the bloodiest battle in
our Nation's history.  Gettysburg belongs to our Nation, and thousands come
to Gettysburg every year to experience the battlefield.  Gettysburg is
perhaps the best preserved battlefield in the world, and it is certainly the
most important battlefield in our history.

While Gettysburg belongs to our Nation, Iwo Jima belongs to the Marines and
Corpsmen who fought and died there.

With that said, when we flew over Iwo Jima, our Marine pilots, who work for
Continental Micronesian Airlines, flew the 757 at 2,000 feet, in a left
turn, for 4 laps around Iwo, to give the passengers on the port side a
lasting aerial view of Iwo Jima.  They then did the same for us on the
starboard side.  When I first saw the sea mount (it is not an island or an
atoll) it looked to me as if a sitting Buddha (Mt Suribachi)had gotten sick
and blew about 8 square miles in front of him.  This impression never left
me for the entire day on Iwo, and it will be with me always.

I saw no birds, and I saw one, little grasshopper the entire day.  It
smelled of death, which is from the sulfur that emanates from the earth
everywhere on Iwo.  When I was on Green Beach, to collect the Sand I took
home, I could almost see and hear the Marines and Corpsmen bleeding and
dying on that black sand.  With Col John Ripley's narrative still strong in
my memory, I never want to go back to that terrible beach.

When we went up to the top of Mt Suribachi, there is nothing but ocean for
750 miles.  I have never been in a place where one can scan 360 degrees and
see absolutely nothing but ocean.  Looking down at Green Beach from 550 feet
up, it was easy to imagine how easy it was for the Japanese to kill Marines
on that Beach.  I imagine it was also easy for the Japanese, from Mt
Suribachi, to see nearly 500 ships and 70,000 Marines coming to kill them.
I never want to go back to that terrible hill.

Nearly 8,000 Marines were killed, we had 25,000 casualties, and 22,000
Japanese were killed on that terrible place.

Today, there is a tree like weed that has made it sort of "green."  There
are a few dirt roads, and a Japanese Naval base that maintains an 8,000 ft
runway and some radar antennas.  There are about 200 Japanese sailors
stationed there, which have to be the worst liberty port in the world.  Even
worse those 29 Palms.

I was there and I would not trade this experience, and I never want to go
back.

Semper Fi,

Seamus