Whatever you do, don't miss this (H/T to Seamus):
The New York Giant Who Died on Iwo Jima
W. Thomas Smith, Jr .
We’ve seen it countless times: The stirring photograph snapped 62-years-ago of five U.S. Marines and one Navy Corpsman raising the second (larger than the first) American flag atop Mount Suribachi on the Japanese-held island of Iwo Jima...
...What most Americans forget, however, is that the battle was far from over. Three of the six men who raised the flag on February 23, 1945 would soon be killed in action. And from February 19 through March 17, nearly 7,000 Americans would perish as they wrested control of the island from the enemy: most of those Americans unsung or a least unknown in general American culture...
...One of those Americans was 1st Lieutenant Andrew Jackson “Jack” Lummus Jr., a Texas-born Marine officer and recipient of the Medal of Honor (MOH) who was – and is – quite literally the epitome of all that is wrapped up in what it means to be a Marine...
Read the whole thing here, and have the kleenex ready.
The text of Lummus' Medal of Honor citation is here.
"Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima,
uncommon valor was a common virtue."
-- (Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN, 16 March 1945.)
The New York Giant Who Died on Iwo Jima
W. Thomas Smith, Jr .
We’ve seen it countless times: The stirring photograph snapped 62-years-ago of five U.S. Marines and one Navy Corpsman raising the second (larger than the first) American flag atop Mount Suribachi on the Japanese-held island of Iwo Jima...
...What most Americans forget, however, is that the battle was far from over. Three of the six men who raised the flag on February 23, 1945 would soon be killed in action. And from February 19 through March 17, nearly 7,000 Americans would perish as they wrested control of the island from the enemy: most of those Americans unsung or a least unknown in general American culture...
...One of those Americans was 1st Lieutenant Andrew Jackson “Jack” Lummus Jr., a Texas-born Marine officer and recipient of the Medal of Honor (MOH) who was – and is – quite literally the epitome of all that is wrapped up in what it means to be a Marine...
Read the whole thing here, and have the kleenex ready.
The text of Lummus' Medal of Honor citation is here.
"Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima,uncommon valor was a common virtue."
-- (Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN, 16 March 1945.)
Graphics in this post by Doug Kidd
Labels: Fallen Heroes, Iwo Jima, tributes, USMC
(right click image, then "Save as")
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