Two U.S. Marines lie where they fell on Iwo Jima, among the first victims of Japanese gunfire in the early hours of the American assault on the strategic Japanese volcanic island on February 19, 1945. Photographed by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press, who would later photograph the famous flag raising atop Mount Suribachi.Japanese defenders fought almost to the last man, despite having no prospect of victory because they could not retreat and could not be reinforced. Of 21,000 Japanese troops on the island, just 216 surrendered or were captured. Nine days later, my father’s best friend from his childhood days in Walton, NY, Robert Flynn, never made it ashore as the landing craft bearing him toward the beach received a direct hit from Japanese artillery, killing him instantly, on February 28, 1945.
Robert’s name is the ninth from the bottom on the tablet memorializing the men from Walton, NY killed during World War II. The memorial is located in front of the town’s armory (visible in the background).
