If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Newport
Date of Passing Feb 17, 2019
Location of Interment Saint Columbus Cemetery - Middletown, Rhode Island
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Iwo Jima Operation
From Month/Year
February / 1945
To Month/Year
March / 1945
Description The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945), or Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the entire island, including its three airfields (including South Field and Central Field), to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands. This five-week battle comprised some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II.
After the heavy losses incurred in the battle, the strategic value of the island became controversial. It was useless to the U.S. Army as a staging base and useless to the U.S. Navy as a fleet base. However, Navy SEABEES rebuilt the landing strips, which were used as emergency landing strips for USAAF B-29s.
The Imperial Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with a dense network of bunkers, hidden artillery positions, and 18 km (11 mi) of underground tunnels. The Americans on the ground were supported by extensive naval artillery and complete air supremacy over Iwo Jima from the beginning of the battle by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviators.
Iwo Jima was the only battle by the U.S. Marine Corps in which the Japanese combat deaths were thrice those of the Americans throughout the battle. Of the 22,000 Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima at the beginning of the battle, only 216 were taken prisoner, some of whom were captured because they had been knocked unconscious or otherwise disabled. The majority of the remainder were killed in action, although it has been estimated that as many as 3,000 continued to resist within the various cave systems for many days afterwards, eventually succumbing to their injuries or surrendering weeks later.
Despite the bloody fighting and severe casualties on both sides, the Japanese defeat was assured from the start. Overwhelming American superiority in arms and numbers as well as complete control of air power — coupled with the impossibility of Japanese retreat or reinforcement — permitted no plausible circumstance in which the Americans could have lost the battle.
The battle was immortalized by Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the raising of the U.S. flag on top of the 166 m (545 ft) Mount Suribachi by five U.S. Marines and one U.S. Navy battlefield Hospital Corpsman. The photograph records the second flag-raising on the mountain, both of which took place on the fifth day of the 35-day battle. Rosenthal's photograph promptly became an indelible icon — of that battle, of that war in the Pacific, and of the Marine Corps itself — and has been widely reproduced.
MARSHALL ISLANDS OPERATION
Occupation of Kwajalein and Majuro Atolls: 29 January - 8 February 1944.
1 Star
ASIATIC-PACIFIC RAIDS - 1944
Truk attack: 16 - 17 February 1944.
Palau, Yap, Ulithi, Woleai raid: 30 March - 1 April 1944.
Truk, Satawan, Ponape raid: 29 April - 1 May 1944.
1 Star
HOLLANDIA OPERATION
Aitape - Humboldt Bay - Tanahmerah Bay: April - 1 June 1944.
1 Star
MARIANAS OPERATION
Capture and occupation of Saipan: 11 June - 24 June 1944.
Battle of Philippine Sea: 19 - 20 June 1944.
Third Bonins raid: 3 - 4 July 1944.
Capture and Occupation of Guam: 12 July - 15 August 1944.
Palau, Yap, Ulithi raid: 25 - 27 July 1944.
1 Star
WESTERN CAROLINE ISLANDS OPERATION
Capture and occupation of South Palau Islands, 6 September - 14 October 1944.
Assaults on the Philippine Islands: 9 - 24 September 1944.
1 Star
LEYTE OPERATION
Third Fleet supporting operations for Okinawa attack: 10 October 1944.
Northern Luzon and Formosa attacks: 13 - 14 October 1944.
Luzon attacks: 15 October - 16 December 1944.
Battle of Surigao Strait: 25 - 26 October 1944.
1 Star
LUZON OPERATION
Third Fleet supporting operations - Formosa attacks: 3 - 21 January 1945.
Lingayen Gulf landing: 4 January - 16 February 1945.
Third Fleet supporting operations - Luzon attacks: 6 - 7 January 1945.
Third Fleet supporting operations - China Coast attacks: 12 - 16 January 1945.
Third Fleet supporting operations - Nansei Shoto attack: 22 January 1945.
1 Star
IWO JIMA OPERATION
Fifth Fleet raids against Honshu and the Nansei Shoto: 15 February - 4 March 1945.
1 Star
OKINAWA GUNTO OPERATION
Assault and occupation of Okinawa: 17 March - 28 May 1945.
.png?ixlib=java-2.3.0&w=100&s=c49280a91b79826dbff47dc198f1bbf0 "Honorable Discharge Emblem (WWII)")
