[Gandalf_The_Gray]

You can’t get to Iwo Jima or Midway or Wake without a special permit that I can’t get.

I bought a DVD that begins with the landings and carries through the land battles and ends with an honors ceremony for the troops of both sides. Iwo Jima is an enormous cemetery and and allows visits only once a year. I don't know anything about permits but visitors are restricted to relatives of those interred on the island.

Regards,
GtG

[Fai Mao]

“I don’t know anything about permits but visitors are restricted to relatives of those interred on the island.”

Yeah, exactly. There is only a weather station on Wake and Midway. You have be part of a USGS team to go to either of them.

I had a great uncle who was at Iwo Jima but survived. He was awarded a Sliver Star for valor at (I think) Kawajelien. He died after the war was over when he fell off a gangway into the harbor as he was boarding a ship to be taken home. He had his (pack and gear on). What a shame, he went through most of the major battles only to drown in an accident

Anyway. Saipan and Guam are pretty easy to get to. The flight cost about the same as going to Hawaii. They are both worth seeing

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

iHe said it was a war unlike any other fought by the US. He said he, and all the Marines with him hated the Japanese. They’d fight while shaking with malaria and when they could barely stand from dysentery. He also said the Japanese hated them in equal measure.

Not universally true.

In the DVD I mentioned in my previous post, a Japanese soldier who survived the sixteen inch shelling from our battle ships was found by our Marines when the shelling stopped. They loaded him on a stretcher and carried him to one of our aid stations where he was treated. He spoke at the honors ceremony and showed no signs of hatred. He was one of the very few that lived through the entire action.

Regards,

GtG