Pictures from 65th Anniversary of flag raising on Iwo Jima – Parade Sacaton, AZ

Sgt. Grit,

This last Saturday I had the honor to be able to attend the 65th Anniv of the Flag Raising on Iwo Jime Parade in Sacaton, Az home of Ira Hayes.

Attached are pictures that I took at the parade on Saturday, due to the cold & rain my wife and I could not stay for the entire parade we were there for the first 90 minutes of the parade and it was only half done when we left. We were very disappointed that we were not able to stay for the events scheduled after the parade. read more

My dad was a tank commander

Sgt. Grit,

My Dad was a US Marine during WWII. He was on the USS HUDSON, he was on Okinawa, Guam and Guadalcanal. I have ooodles of old photo's and no way to find out when or where or with whom they were taken. If any of your readers could help me out with names and places I would really appreciate it. My email is slf1228[at]tx[dot]rr[dot]com. read more

The Pacific

Sgt. Grunt,

My father was a Marine Torpedo Bomber (TBF) aircrew in VMTB-143 on Guadalcanal in the October 1942 time period. He has been watching “The Pacific” with great enthusiasm and he related to me that, after watching what the line companies went through, he realized he had it pretty good after all. Of course he didn’t realize it at the time, but his war was so much different from the line companies. Some of the things he related: read more

RIP SSGT Gene S. Richards

Several months ago you ran a picture of my dad in Sasebo Japan and one of myself in Desert Storm in Sgt. Grit. I have attached that picture again.

My dad Gene S. Richards passed away Sunday May 9th in Salt Lake City Utah. He was an Iwo Jima Marine and watched the second flag go up, participated in the occupation of Japan and was a drill instructor after the war at MCRD San Diego. In Nov. 1940 half of his bootcamp platoon would later go to Wake Island. read more