Remember Iwo Jima

It was 9 a.m., Feb. 19, 1945 - 65 years ago today - when the Fourth and Fifth Marine Corps Divisions landed their assault waves on the island of Iwo Jima.

Operation Detachment was under way. It was America's first offensive on Japanese soil in World War II.

For the next 36 days, the United States Marines fought Japanese soldiers dug in on the 5-mile-long, 2-mile-wide island in the Pacific Ocean. An estimated 18,000 Japanese awaited them, in caves, tunnels and bunkers, determined not to give up the island, considered key to the Pacific Campaign.

Robert L. Rohrscheib, today a Dalton Gardens resident, was there. In a note to The Press he wrote about Iwo Jima, roughly 650 miles south of Tokyo and about halfway between Japan and American bomber bases in Saipan and Guam.

"Because many bombers were being lost it was decided that Iwo Jima had to be neutralized and converted to an emergency landing field," he wrote.

The result would be some of the fiercest fighting in World War II, pitting a superior American force against a Japanese force pretty much hidden deep underground.

The Marines prevailed, but not without paying a terrible price.

In that single assault, nearly 7,000 U.S. men - 5,931 Marines - were killed, another 19,217 wounded. That compares to roughly 850 Marines killed in the past six years of the Iraq war.

Of Japan's troops at Iwo Jima, nearly all were killed, with only 216 captured. The number of Medals of Honor awarded to Marines totaled 26.

The battle also became famous for a picture by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal of the second U.S. flag raising, on the fifth day of fighting, on top of Mount Suribachi.

Today, across the country, there will be programs and air shows and ceremonies to mark the anniversary of that battle. Some veterans will recount what they endured. Others will decline to talk about it.

It's difficult to find the right words to show appreciation for what the American veterans like Robert Rohrscheib did at Iwo Jima. Still, we want to honor these men for the sacrifices they made and let them know we will never forget the lives that were lost. So we'll defer to Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who put it simply on March 16, 1945:

"Among the Americans who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue."