Veterans discuss military service with local rotarians

Nine veterans of World War II were among the 100-plus attendees to the annual Honor Our Veterans Breakfast held at the Villa Chanticleer Annex by the American Legion Sotoyome Post 111 and the Rotary Club of Healdsburg Sunrise.
The speaker was Dr. Charles Greene, a Navy Corpsman survivor of the World War II battle of Iwo Jima.
“Thank you, all you aging warriors for your past service and for continuing to lead our youth,” said Dr. Greene, a retired industrial chemist and educator.
Sotoyome Post Commander Tom Grimes and program chair John Reyes, USMC, served as hosts. Rotary club president Larry Orr also welcomed the crowd to the event.
World War II veteran Betty Crandall gave the invocation and the young and gifted singer, Dallas Deunas sang the National Anthem and the six songs of the service branches of the U.S. Military.
The breakfast was prepared and served by the women of the Sotoyome Post Auxiliary.
Local elected officials attending included county supervisor Mike McGuire, Healdsburg city councilmember Shuan McCaffery and Windsor Town Council member Debora Fudge.
Dr. Greene recounted the bloodiest 36 days of the Pacific War in 1945 when American troops invaded the heavily armed, five square-mile island of Iwo Jima, located just 625 miles southeast of Tokyo.
Of the 70,000 Marines and other U.S. soldiers that landed on the island, there were 26,000 casualties, including 6,800 killed in action. Of the 22,060 defending Japanese soldiers, who fought from heavily-armed gunner pillboxes, connected by 12 miles of underground tunnels, 18,844 died either from fighting or by ritual suicide. Just 216 Japanese survived to surrender.
The small island was considered highly strategic by the United States. The Iwo Jima battle took place five months before the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on mainland Japan, resulting in the end of the war .
Prior to that, U.S. forces were flying daily B-29 bombing raids on Japan, flying near or over the Iwo Jima area. Military leaders though capturing Iwo Jima would shorten the B-29 flights and secure better safety, and a possible emergency landing area.
Dr. Greene was part of the 3rd Marine Division that landed along with 30,000 other Marines and Navy Seabees.
“It was a terrifying noise,” he said. “There were the mortars and Japanese artillery and the Navy shelling and air strikes all happening at once.”
He said that is why all World War II vets wear hearing aids today.
“We were always told to dig your foxhole big enough for three people,” he said, adding you needed a buddy or two to give you the courage to jump out of your hole when the attack was ordered.
“I say it’s the same with the rest of life. Always dig your foxhole with enough space for comrades,” he said.
The photograph of five Marines and a Navy Corpsman raising the U.S. flag over Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima quickly became the most iconic image of the Pacific War against the Japanese Empire. The photograph by Joe Rosenthal was the model for the U.S. Marine statue at the National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
“Most people think that (flag raising) marked the end to the battle, but it wasn’t,” Dr. Greene said.
The flag raising took place on the fifth day of the battle. The fight for the island was to continue for another 31 days.
Today, no visitors are allowed on the small island. “Just like our Gettysburg, the Japanese consider Iwo Jima their sacred ground,” Dr. Greene said.