bulletin of the marine corps historical progl...the soon-to-be-famous artist in the months following...

FORTITtJDIiBULLETIN OF THE MARINE CORPS HISTORICAL PROGLHISTORICAL BULLETIN VOLUME XXIV SPRING 1995 NUMBER 4'

50 YEARS LATER, AN EVENTFUL DAY ON Iwo JIMA.. . COMMAND MUSEUM TAKES ACTWE EDUCATIONAL

ROLE FOR SAN DIEGO RECRUITS. . . VIETNAM BOOBYTRAP BIBLE ADDED 10 COLLECTION. . . PENDLEIDNVOLUNTEERS OVERHAUL AND RESIORE 4o-YEAR-OLD LVI. . . ThE SATISFYING MARINE CAREER OF 'FOG' HAYES

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FORTITLJD INEMotto of the United States Marine Corps in the 1812 era.

Historical Bulletin Volume XXIV Spring 1995 No. 4

This quarterly bulletin of the Marine Corps historical program is published for Marines, atthe rate of one copy for every nine on active duty, to provide education and training in theuses of military and Marine Corps history. Other interested readers may purchase single co-pies or four-issue subscriptions from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. GovernmentPrinting Office. The appropriate order form appears in this issue.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Marine Corps Historical CenterBuilding 58, Washington Navy Yard

901 M Street, SoutheastWashington, D.C. 20374-5040

Telephone: (202) 433.3838, 433-3840, 433.3841

DIRECTOR

BGen Edwin H. Simmons, USMC (Ret)Secretary to the Director Mrs. Patricia E. Morgan.

DEPUTY DIRECTOR

Col Alfred J. Ponnwitz, USMC(Acting)

HISTORICAL BRANCH

Head: LtCol Thomas A. Richards, USMC. Histories Section:Mr. Benis M. Frank, Chief Historian; Dr. Jack Shulimson;Mr. Charles R. Smith; CaptJohn T. Quinn II, USMC. OralHistory Unit: Mr. Richard A. Long. Reference Section: Mr.DannyJ. Crawford; Mr. Robert V. Aquilina; Mrs. Ann A.Ferrante; Miss Lena M. Kaljot; Mrs. Shelia Gramblin. Ar-chives: Mr. FrederickJ. Graboske; Miss AmyJ. Cantin, Per-sonal Papers; Mrs. Joyce C. Hudson, Cpl Darian E. Hines,USMC, Official Papers.

MUSEUMS BRANCH

Head/Officer-in. Charge, Air-Ground Museum, Quantico:Col AlfredJ. Ponnwitz, USMC. Operations Officer Vacant.Museums Section: Mr. Charles A. Wood, Chief Curator, Mr.Kenneth L. Smith-Christmas, Material History; Mr. John G.Griffiths, Ordnance; Mr. Joseph E. Payton, SSgt Mitch Gar.ringer, USMC, Restoration; Mr. Michael E. Starn, Aeronau-tics; Mr. Ronald J. Perkins, Mr. Ronnie D. Alexander,Exhibits; Mrs. Nancy E King, Uniforms; Mrs. Jennifer L.Castro, Registrar, Mrs. Kathryn R. Trout, Programs Assis-tant. Security: SSgt Hurel J. Ward, USMC; Sgt Daryl L.Clark, USMC; Sgt Vincent L. Wright, USMC; Sgt Pete K.Basabe, USMC; Cpl Jose G. Rodriguez, USMC; LCpI KanayaT. Easley, USMC; LCpI Wesley C. Simpson, USMC; LCpIJeffrey B. Jones, USMC; LCpI David Nieves, Jr., USMC.

MARINE CORPS MUSEUM UNIT, WASHINGTON, D.C.

Exhibits: Mr. James A. Fairfax; Mr. Gordon H. Heim; CplTracey W. Thomas, USMC. Marine Corps Art Collection:Mr. John T. Dyer, Jr.

SUPPORT BRANCH

Head/Division Executive Officer LtCol Dave Beasley, Jr.,USMC. Editing andDesign Section: Mr. Robert E. Struder;Mr. William S. Hill; Mrs. Catherine A. Kerns. Library: MissEvelyn A. Englander. Administration: lstLtJohn T Simpson,USMC; SSgt Dawn M. Carey, USMC; Sgt Exkchart Rat-tanachai, USMC; CplJean P. Duckett, USMC; CpI MichaelJ. Miksovsky, USMC; Cpl Todd M. Halacy, USMC. Security

Unit: SSgt Treaty N. Williams, USMC.

Mr. Robert E. StruderSenior Editor/Editor; Fortitudine

Memorandum from the Director: A Day Spent on Iwo JimaBGen Edwin H. Simmons, USMC (Ret) 3

Gift of McKeever Cartridge Box Helps to Solve MysteryKenneth L. Smith-Christmas 10

Readers Always JVrite: Setting the Record Straight on the Ortiz Team's Mission 11

The Command Museums: Recruit Training First Goalof San Diego Depot Museum

Major Bruce H. Norton, USMC (Ret) 12

Historical Center Collects Marine Operational RecordsFrederick]. Graboske 14

Personal Papers Unit Range Broadened by VolunteersAmyj Cantin 15

Center Receives Walt MemorabiliaDr Jack Shidimson 15

Historical Quiz: Marines in KoreaSarah B. Robbins 16

Volunteers Restore Korean War-Era Amphibious VehideMa] James R. Davis, USMC 17

New Books: A Bonanza of Summer Reading for Military ProfessionalsNancy A. Frischmann 18

Answers to Historical Quiz: Marines in Korea 18

Mentioned in Passing: Pioneer Aviator, Assistant Commandant Charles HayesCol Charles]. Quilter II, USMCR (Ret) 19

Field History Conference Maps Joint Operations SOPCol Dennis P Mroczkowski, USMCR 22

Marine Corps Chronology: January-April 1946Robert V AquilIna 23

THE COVER

"Iwo Jima: The Beach at Dusk," by Lt Mitchell Jamieson, USNR, is a product of a visit bythe soon-to-be-famous artist in the months following the ferocious World War II battle forthe island, to the scene of the Marine landing. ". . . the tragic section of beach below Sur-ibachi becomes unearthly and ghostlike in the fading light . . . . The beach is deserted ex-cept for the wrecks which litter its entire length ...," LtJamieson annotated the watercolorwhich is now a part of the U.S. Navy Art Collection. Visiting IwoJima 50 years later, BGenSimmons joined U.S. andJapanese veterans at memorial services and walks, and heard NavySecretary John Dalton announce the nomination by the President of the 31st Commandantof the Marine Corps, Gen Charles C. Krulak. Gen Simmons writes about his participationin his "Memorandum from the Director:' beginning on page 3. In a decision which under-scored the historic nature of the change of command, before taking office Gen Krulak locat-ed his transition office at the Marine Corps Historical Center in Washington, D.C., andsubsequently released the space to Gen Carl E. Mundy, Jr., the 30th Commandant, also foruse as a transition office. Gen Mundy is organizing his official papers and additionally leav-ing the Historical Center an oral history of his career experiences of mote than 40 years.

Fortitudine is produced in the Editing and Design Section of the History and Museums Division. Thetext for Fortitudine is set in 10-point and 8-point Garamond typeface. Headlines are in 18-point or24-point Garamond. The bulletin is printed on 70-pound, matte-coated paper by offset lithography.

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, shington, D.C. 20402.

2 Fortitudine, Spring 1995

HISTORYAND MUSEUMSDIVISION

Memorandum from the Director

A Day Spent on Iwo Jima

BGen Simmons

I WOJIMA IS NO impressive as you comein upon it from the air, just a iow gray-

green lump standing starkly in the sea. Ithas a somber, uninviting look and lacksthe coral necklaces and flora exuberancesof the Pacific atolls to its east and south.Even so, approaching it stirs up excite-ment, particularly if you are a Marine.

So it was on the morning of 14 Marchas the Commandant's C-9 transport circledthe island and prepared to land. It was abright, clear, sunny day with white puffyclouds against a brilliant blue sky. Onboard, in addition to the Commandant,Gen Carl E. Mundy, Jr., were LtGenCharles C. Krulak, Commander, MarineFbrces, Pacific, and their respective ser-geants major, Harold G. Overstreet andLewis G. Lee.

Arriving on separate aircraft were form-er Vice President Walter Mondale, now theU.S. Ambassador to Japan; Secretary of theNavy John H. Dalton; and Adm Richard

C. Macke, USN, the tall, lean, and per.sonable Commander-in-Chief Pacific. Theairfield, now totally Japanese, stretchedacross the wide part of the island, near thenorthern tip called Kitano Point, which iswhere the World War II fight for Iwo Jimahad ended. The runway more or less fol-lowed the trace of a wartime field, whereafter the capture of iwo Jima, thedamaged B-29s, returning from over-flying Japan, could land. Probably notsince the war's end in 1945 had the air-field bustled with such activity. It is nowa small, handsome airfield, well.maintained, as you would expect, by cur-rent occupants, the Japanese Self-DefenseForce.

I WO HAl) REVERTED to Japan in 1968.The Americans, military and civilian,

were on the island with the forbearanceof the Japanese and under conditions setby them. The veterans, most of them Ma-

rines, began arriving from Saipan andGuam in sleek Boeing 727 jets belongingto, or at least leased by, ContinentalMicronesia. The Japanese had backed offan earlier agreement to allow three DC-lOsto land, saying they were too heavy for therunway, so Continental Micronesia had toscratch to find six of the smaller 727swhich would be permitted.

Counting wives, children, and others,including just interested persons, therewere about nine hundred of these Ameri-can visitors. Iwo had no overnight accom-modations for them so they had to arriveon the morning of the ceremonies and beoff the island by nightfall.

The 727s taxied almost to the doors ofthe large Japanese-built hangar that wasbeing used as a visitors center. The III Ma-rine Expeditionary Force band serenadedthe visitors' arrival. The band was unoffi-cially augmented by a drummer and piperuniformed in Marine Corps utilities, both

Atop Suribachi, 30th Commandant Gen CartE. Mundy, Jr., left, announcement of his nomination to become 31st Commandant.joined Director of Marine Corps History and Museums, BGen Gen Simmons, a China Marine, veteran of W/orfd W"ar II andEdwin H Simmons, centei andLtGen Charles C. Krulak, Corn- Korea, and a senior commander in Vietnam, joined other Ma-mander Marine Forces, Pacific, who moments before heard the rrne veterans at the day-long commemoration of the island battle.

Fortitudine, Spring 1995 3

somewhat older than the Marines in theband. They were, it was said, from Atlan-ta, Georgia.

A RAGGED RECEPTION line formedwith Gen Mundy as the focal point.

He greeted virtually every arrival with ahandshake, a few words of welcome, anda clap on the back.

Three sides of the interior of the han-gar were lined with modular World WarII exhibits from the Marine Corps Histor-ical Center, and other displays. Tables inthe middle were laden with folders thatcontained, among other things, copies ofour World War II pamphlet, Closing In:Marines in the Seizure of Iwo Jima.

Leader of the veterans group was LtGenLarry F. Snowden, who retired as chief ofstaff of Headquarters, Marine Corps, in1979. On 19 February 1945 he had land-ed at Iwo as a captain and company com-mander in the 23d Marines, 4th MarineDivision. Wounded early and evacuated toGuam, he absented himself without leavefrom the hospital, found his way back tothe island, and finished out the battlewith his company.

Also prominent among the Marineveterans were retired LtGen Alpha L.Bowser, who commanded a 105mm howit-zer battalion, the 3d Battalion, 12th Ma-rines; and retired MajGen Fred E. Haynes,who as a captain had landed with the 28th

Marines, 5th Marine Division, the leftflank regiment at Iwo.

IWOJIMA HAS BEEN compared, over andover again, to a bad-smelling pork

chop, burned black and sizzling in a fry-ing pan. The location of Iwo Jima is whatmade it strategically important. Five mileslong and two and a half miles wide, abouteight square miles in all, it lay at the mid-point of a straight line drawn from theB-29 bases in the Marianas to Tokyo.

The Japanese had completed two air-fields on the island and were working ona third. Interceptors from these airfieldsthreatened the B-29s. Even more impor-tantly, the B-29s, on their way back fromJapan, needed a recovery site if they weredamaged or low on fuel. They were flyingat extreme range and there was that busi-ness of the 200-mile-an-hour head windsover the Empire, as the B-29 pilots alwayscalled the Japanese home islands.

LtGen Tadamichi Kuribayashi com-manded the Japanese at Iwo. He had pub-lished a set of "Courageous Battle Vows"and these were pasted to the inner wallsof the concrete emplacements of whichthere were many. One of the vows was"Each man will make it his duty to kill tenof the enemy before dying." In all, therewere between 21,000 and 23,000 Japanesedefenders. Photo interpreters counted atotal of 642 blockhouses, pillboxes, and

gun emplacements. The bony knob at theshank end of the pork chop was 556-feet-high Mt. Suribachi. Suribachi, with sevensuccessive galleries of defenses, was a for-tress in itself.

LTGEN HOLLAND M. SMITH was theCommanding General, Expeditionary

Troops, for the assault against Iwo. Land-ing Force was the V Amphibious Corpsunder MajGen Harry Schmidt, with theveteran 3d and 4th Marine Divisions andthe new 5th Marine Division. The 4th Di-vision, commanded by Clifton B. Cates,would come forward from Hawaii, aswould the 5th Marine Division underKeller E. Rockey, to be in the assault. The3d Division, coming from Guam and un-der Graves B. Erskine, would be in float-ing reserve.

Intermittent Army Air Force and Navyair attacks pounded the island for 74 daysbefore the landing. The immediateprelanding naval gunfire preparation waslimited to three days, not as much timeas the Marines would have liked.

Prevailing winds dictated a landingacross the eastern beaches. As there wasno barrier coral reef, landing craft andships would be able to beach. Seven bat-talions were in the assault. The first waveof armored amphibian tractors toucheddown at 0902. The troop-carrying tractors


The volcano Mt. Suribachi is the dominant feature in this 1945photograph of the Marine landing on Iwo Jima. The island fivemiles long and two anda half miles wide, was defended by nearly

23,000 Japanese troops manning, among other positions, 642blockhouses, pilboxes, and gun emplacements. Suribachi itselfwas a fortress, with seven successive galleries of defenses.

Photo by Cpl Paul S. Royston, USMC

Marines of the 31st MEU provided sup-port, including transportation for veteransin five-ton trucks to Suribachi ceremonies.

began disgorging their passengers threeminutes later.

GATES' 4TH DivisioN landed on theright, its 23d and 25th Marines com-

ing across Yellow and Blue beaches. Theirimmediate objective was Airfield No. 1.Rockey's 5th Division landed on the left,across Green and Red Beaches, the 27thMarines on the right and the 28th Marineson the left.

Suribachi was taken on 23 February andthe flags had gone up, but the main at-tack northward came almost to a halt. Thebelt of fortifications between Airfields No.1 and No. 2 had no flanks and it was worsethan Suribachi. The 21st Marines from the3d Division came ashore and put into theattack against Airfield No. 2. Soon there-after Erskine landed with the remainderof the 3d Division, except for the 3d Ma-rine Regiment which was held in floatingreserve.

With three divisions abreast, HarrySchmidt drove toward the north coast ofthe island. On 16 March, Kuribayashi senta last message to Imperial General Head-quarters: "I ... humbly apologize to HisMajesty that I have failed to live up to ex-pectations. . . . Bullets are gone and waterexhausted. . . . Permit me to say farewell

Marines think of Iwo Jima as solely aMarine Corps battle, but the Marines werenot entirely alone. As always, there wereNavy chaplains and Navy doctors andhospital corpsmen. Some Army and Army

Air Force personnel also came ashore.Among the first of these to land were theArmy's 471st and 472d Amphibian TruckCompanies. Unlike the Marines amphib-ian tractors, these Army amphibian trucks(better known as "DUKWs") had largerubber tires and were very useful in land-ing artillery and artillery ammunition. Thetruck drivers in these companies wereAfrican-Americans. The DUKW driverswere not the only black Americans on thebeach at Iwo. The Shore Party included anammunition company and three depotcompanies of black Marines.

Q N i6 MARCH, Kitano Point, thenorthernmost point on the island,

was taken and the island was declared se-cured. Adm Nimitz could well have beenspeaking for both attacker and defenderwhen he said of this bitterly fought bat-tle, "Uncommon valor was a commonvirtue."

Twenty-seven Medals of Honor weregiven for Iwo; 22 to Marines, of which 12were posthumous, and five to Navy men,of which two were posthumous. In all ofWorld War II, only 81 Marines received theMedal of Honor, and almost a third of


Map by Col Charles H. Waterhouse,

these were for Iwo.Exact casualty figures are always elusive,

but the best count available indicates thatof the 71,245 Marines who went ashore atIwo, 5,931 were killed and 17,272 werewounded, a total of 23,203 Marine casual-ties. The Navy lost 881 dead and 1,917wounded. The Army's losses were 9 killedand 28 wounded. This gives a total of26,038 American casualties.

No one knows the exact number ofJapanese killed, but of perhaps 23,000defenders, only 216 were taken prisonerand most of these were Korean conscriptlaborers.

sary reunion, veterans of the 4th MarineDivision had staged through Saipan,where many of them had also fought andwhere hotel accommodations are now lux-urious. Veterans of the 3d and 5th Divi-sions had come through Guam where thehotels are equally luxurious. The 3d Di-vision had fought on Guam and beforethat on Bougainville. The 5th Division wasa new division for Iwo, but many of itsmembers had been parachute Marines orRaiders in the Solomons. Tourists on bothSaipan and Guam are now most oftenJapanese and they tend to be young,without memories of the war.

There were others, besides Marines, inthe veterans group: Navy men, both thesea-going and SeaBee kind (and bothquick to make the distinction); a few Armymen, mostly Army Air Forces, includingsome B-29 crew members who said theyowed their lives to the Marines who tookIwo Jima; a Coast Guardsman or so; andat least one former Navy nurse who hadflown on evacuation flights from Iwo toGuam.

Perhaps 500 active-duty Marines, incamouflage utilities, were on the island,having come from Okinawa, the largestnumber being from the 31st Marine Ex-peditionary Unit. A working party of Ma-rine engineers and such had been on Iwofor a week or more cutting grass, doing

US. andJapanese national flags fly over their respective monuments—Jive in all, onefor the US. Marine Corps — on the crest of Mt. Suribachi. Bottled water against theledge of a Japanese memorial was left to slake the thirst of the spirits of dead soldiers.

Photo by Cpl Paul S. Royston, USMC

W AS Iwo JIMA worth its terrible cost?Any B-29 crew member from the

Twentieth Air Force will tell you that itwas. On 4 March the first of many crip-pled B-29s made an emergency landing atIwo. By the end of the war, 2,251 Ameri-can heavy bombers, with crews totalling24,761, had found reason to make emer-gency landings on the island.

Roughly speaking, for the 50th anniver-


IWO JIMA TODAY

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T

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MIIe L

LEGEND:1. Reunion of Honor Memorial2. Invasion Beach3. Mount Suribachi4. Naval Guns5. Hospital Cave6. Sandstone Sculpture

7. LtGen Kurlbayashi'sHeadquarters Cave

8. Tenzan Memorial9. Requiem Hill

10. Marine CorpsCemetery Marker

some road scraping, setting up chairs, andin general getting things ready.

I N CONTRAST 10 the Marines in utili-ties, the small Japanese naval garrison

of the island was turned out in sparklingwhite uniforms.

There was no visible friction betweenthe Japanese and American visitors. Norwas there much intermingling. The moodwas one of exquisite politeness.

The veterans gathered for a memorialservice at 1100 at the monument whichwas dedicated on the 40th anniversary ofthe landing. The monument is above thehigh-water mark on the invasion beach,about on the boundary between the 4thand 5th Divisions. The speaker's podiumfaced inland. The shallow crescent ofchairs set up by the Marine working party

for the visitors faced the sea.The Japanese visitors were dressed con-

servatively, the men mostly in dark suitswith white shirts and sober ties, the wom-en mostly in dark dresses. Very few ofthem were actual survivors of the battle.Most appeared to be relatives, widows, orpossibly the children ofJapanese who hadfought and died on Iwo. The older theJapanese, it seemed, the more somber theclothing. There were many fewerJapanesevisitors than American, perhaps a hundredin all.

JAPANESE MEN are bigger now than they

were in 1945, but so are American Ma-rines. The average Marine who landed atIwo in February 1945 was probably five feeteight or nine and weighed in at about 140or 150 pounds. Now he seems to be five

feet ten or so, 170 or 180 pounds, andmuch more heavily muscled around theshoulders and arms. Today's Marines treat-ed the veteran Marines with great defer-ence, almost awe.

Some tears were shed but not so manyas the media would lead one to believe.The American visitors were dressed for themost part in bright-colored sport clothes,as though on their way to the golf course,wearing the ubiquitous white walkingshoes of relatively recent invention. As oldlegs tired, comments were heard of wish-ing they had their old "boondockers," thefamous rough-side-out, high-top Marineshoe of World War II.

The long sequence of speeches, double-lengthed by the necessity of translatingEnglish into Japanese and Japanese intoEnglish, was largely repetitive. The Ameri-can speakers, keynoted by AmbassadorMondale, carefully avoided soundingcelebratory. Kuribayashi was repeatedly ex-tolled as a brilliant and heroic general.American generals and admirals got onlypassing mention.

The Japanese speakers equally careful-ly avoided anyreference to American vic-tory or admission of Japanese war guilt.No Japanese of cabinet rank was present.Messages were read in Japanese by personsof lesser rank and translated into English.The burden of theJapanese messages wasthat they mourned for both the Japaneseand American dead.

Former Marine Cpl Charles Lindberg, lastsurviving member of the team that raisedthe first US. flag on Mt. Suribachi, holdsflags he intends to give his grandchildren.

Photo by J..CpI Vincent R. Oropesa, USMC


Photo by LCpI Vincent R. Oropesa, USMC

First memorial service of the day — a joint one with Japanese veterans —was held atthe 40th anniversary monument above the high-water mark on the invasion beach.Marines presenteda wreath for each of the US. Armed Services taking part in the battle.

Brothers and both Marine veterans are former SSgt Robert Barnett, left, and formerSgt Douglas Barnett, who served together during the battle for Iwo Jima. The twoattended the memorial service on the invasion beach, with Suribachi in the background

Photo by LCpI Vincent R. Oropesa, USMC