The Medics of Iwo Jima

 It was this time of year back in 1945 when approximately 60,000 men of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions, were involved in the bloodiest single battle in the Pacific theater against 20,000 Japanese defenders. The initial landing on Iwo Jima began at 0200 on February 19, 1945 and the island wasn’t secured until thirty-six miserable days later on the 26th of March. Just six days after the landing, an American flag was raised on Mt. Suribachi, the highest point on the island. Of the six marines that appear in photographer Joe Rosenthal’s famous photo, one was a Navy combat medical corpsman attached to the fleet marines. He was a second class petty officer and his name was John Bradley. As most of you know, the Marine Corps is a branch of the Navy and as such they draw their medical personnel from the Medical Corps of the Navy.

 On November 13, 1944, I was sworn into the Navy and started boot camp in San Diego. After about twelve weeks of training and a battery of tests, I qualified for hospital corps school at the Naval Hospital in Balboa Park. At the conclusion of my studies in early April, I received orders, along with several others, to report to the Naval Hospital at Camp Lejeune, NC for duty. While waiting for transportation, we received news that President Roosevelt had died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in Warm Plains, GA. The nation was in mourning. My military service in WWII was void of combat, consisting of O.R. duty at Camp Lejeune and later semi-independent duty at a small dispensary at the Naval Amphibious Base in Little Creek, VA. Fortunately for me, although attached to the Marines, my defective vision -- mixed astigmatism -- disqualified me from the combat medical corps.

 Not so with those Navy doctors and corpsmen attached to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions. There is an official Medical Corps Monument located along side the National Iwo Jima flag raising monument at the National Iwo Jima Memorial Monument Park in Newington, CT. The inscription on the monument is as follows: “Combat medical corps personnel saved the lives of hundreds of the combat wounded. They treated and restored the bodies of the wounded and relieved the pain of the dying.” However, not without tremendous cost.

 Official statistics verify that during the battle for Iwo Jima, nearly 7,000 Americans were killed in action, along with more than 20,000 American casualties. It is said that about one-third of all marines killed in action in WWII lost their lives at Iwo Jima, making it the highest number of casualties in any battle in Marine Corps history. During the 36-day battle, 27 Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded to Marines and Navy personnel. That’s more than were awarded in any other battle in our country’s history. After the battle, Admiral Nimitz said, “Uncommon valor was a common virtue.” As for the Medical Corps alone, 758 Corpsmen and 21 Medical Doctors were killed or wounded. Four Medals of Honor were awarded to the Medical Corps in the battle for Iwo Jima.

 Of the six flag raisers on Mt. Suribachi, three were killed in action a few days later. Three survived and returned to the States. The Navy corpsman, John Bradley, received the Navy Cross for gallantry in action, having saved several lives although he himself was wounded. Bradley outlived the other two and died at age seventy-one at his home in Antigo, WI, on January 11, 1994. He once said, “The real heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who didn’t come back.” His six sons served as pall bearers. One of the sons, James Bradley, has written a fine tribute to his medical corpsman father and the other five marines who raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi in his book, “Flags Of Our Fathers.” The late Stephen Ambrose called it, “The best battle book I ever read.” As for me, I recommend it highly.

 And so, fifty-eight years have come and gone since the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history was underway, and Navy combat medical corpsmen were in the thick of it. Additional statistics reveal that out of every 100 men wounded in the Navy and Marine Corps in WWII, 97 recovered. Pretty impressive record, I say. Although my non-combatant service in WWII was a long way from the volcanic ash of Iwo Jima and the flag raising on Mt. Suribachi, I’m still proud to have once been a member of the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps. They have quite an honorable history.