Dad was offshore on a battlewagon and saw the flag on Suribachi. A great cheer went up from the ship. May we never forget what those brave men did in that battle.

Three of the six guys in the picture did not survive the battle. God bless all them.

Amen!

7,000 American dead to take 8 square miles of nasty land. At least reworking Iwo's airfields allowed P-51s to escort B-29s to Japan and the island also allowed a place for damaged and distressed bombers to land if they needed to on their way back to the Marianas.

I see the Dept of War just did a quick refresh, with a "lessons learned" sub-part, to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the battle.

https://www.war.gov/News/Feature-St...iwo-jima-80-years-later-lessons-learned/

Peleliu, in the fall of 1944 was almost as bloody and ended up having less strategic value. Over 10,000 American casualties to take 5 square miles. Some truly brutal fighting...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Peleliu

Today's American public can't fathom those kinds of battlefield losses.

Exactly. And I pray that we never have to see such losses for such small amounts of territory ever again. I give credos to Pete Hegseth or who ever did that little web post about how lots of shells and bombs doesn't necessarily mean the enemy is defeated.

I love the non-Marine Navy and the Air Force but in the end only infantry finally clears and holds ground so dam well figure out what ground is worth taking in blood against a serious enemy.

My grandfather left his knee in Peleiu, and they rolled him off a 30 foot cliff to save his life.

So, you might not be here if he hadn't of survived?

My dad was,one of the volunteers who went island to island getting the tunnel rats enemy soldiers that the war was over , sadly like so many others he rarely ever talked about his service and you made darn sure was in a good mood if you asked him anything about the war !

They were truly the best generation !

We owe so much to all Veterans, past and future. Those that have the "Nad's to stand up, take arms, and do what is necessary.

respect to all our past, current and future veterans has anyone here met any German, Italian or Japanese soldiers seen a few videos of our soldiers shaking hands with the enemy and saluting each other

I talked with a couple of former viet cong back in 1988. We got along ok.

Yup.

If only we would have known in 1945 that the Viet Minh were more nationalist (wanting one country) than communist, a lot of blood and toil might have been averted.

Why the U.S. ever allowed the French to try and take back their Southeast Asian colonies after WWII has always been baffling to me. I guess we had to play that our defeated but then resurrected allies could still have part of their empire back. However, the Vietnamese had different ideas and by 1954, it was all over for the French besides the leaving...