American Valor Quarterly Issue 2 - Spring 2008 | Page 14

person I know who, as a
fact, captured a Japanese
soldier. I know people who
have talked to them and
brought them out of caves,
but he actually went in and
captured somebody, and it
happened on Guam. Plus,
he was an outstanding
scout on Guam, and they
changed his MOS and they
moved him into our
platoon—and thank God.
Also in our platoon was a
young
man
from
Washington, DC. His name
was Jimmy Trimble, and he
went to at St. Albans
School. He was an
outstanding baseball pitcher
and had signed with the
Washington Senators,
receiving a $5,000 bonus—
a lot of money in 1943. However, instead of sending him to a
farm team, the team’s owner, Clark Griffith, sent him to Duke
University to go to college and play on their baseball team. Jimmy
Trimble, in turn, left Duke and enlisted in the Marines, went
through Combat Intelligence School with me, and we ended up
in the same platoon with Jim White. We left Guam, where I had
been a replacement, for Iwo Jima on February 8, 1945. On
February 10, I turned 19 years of age.
Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone, one
of America’s greatest heroes of World
War II. His story will be portrayed in the
upcoming HBO series, “The Pacific,”
produced by Stephen Spielberg and
Tom Hanks, and scheduled to air in
2008. Chuck Tatum has served as an
advisor on the project, and will also be
portrayed in the series.

U.S. Marine Corps Photos

We were told, our platoon and our company, that in all probability
we would not go ashore. It would be over in 72 hours. Well, that
was b.s. In 48 hours, I was climbing down the side of the ship
with 84 pounds of material on my back and heading toward the
beach, and all that food that I was eating didn’t stay down. I got
seasick, and so did everyone else on that Higgins Boat—it was
just a mess.
When I landed on Iwo, it was D+2, and I was in for the shock
of my life. I had never seen anything like it, and never expect to
see anything like it again. There were bodies all over. There were
pieces of bodies. There were bodies without heads, without arms.
There were bodies that were completely eviscerated. They hadn’t
started to bury the dead, and it was just one holy mess. There was
equipment all over, much of it broken. There were dead Japanese,
and dead Americans floating in the water. The odor of a decaying
body you will never forget. And there’s an odor that, when you
first smell it, you don’t know what it is. But once you do smell it,
you will recognize it immediately. It is when someone is hit in the
neck artery, and you smell the fresh blood. It is one of the most
absolutely stressful things to watch happen to a friend of yours—
you can do nothing about it.

I was with an eight man squad, and we went to go ashore to clear
a 200 by 200 area for General Erskine, our commanding General,
to set up his sleeping quarters and his command post. And as we
walked into this acre, south of the first airfield on D+2, Jimmy
Trimble was with me, and he looked off to the left and said, “If
we’ve got to go up that mountain, we’re going to die.” He was
pointing toward Suribachi. Thank God the Third Marine Division
didn’t make a left turn; we made a right turn and the Fifth Division,
28th Marines went up that mountain, and some of those boys are
here with us today.
We knew we were in trouble when I took a phosphorous grenade
and I threw it into a pillbox. And a fella by the name of Rodney
Harm turned around and said, “Donald!” And I turned around,
and smoke from the grenade was coming out of a hole, pluming
30 feet behind me. We then realized that there were tunnels
throughout the island. There were 17 miles of tunnels. All the
bombing, all the strafing, all the shellfire—all it did was rearrange
the volcanic ash on this island, and the Japanese I don’t think felt
one concussion—
they
were
all
underground.
After we went
ashore, and the
headquarters was set
up for the General, I
did guard duty with
Trimble. We guarded
the General’s tent for
three days, and that
Jimmy Trimble, who before joining the
was good duty. But
Marines was a top pitching prospect for the
our lieutenant called
for eight volunteers Washington Senators, was thought by many to
be the next Bob Feller.
to go out on a
patrol, and this patrol was to find out where the spigot mortars
were. Now, a spigot mortar is the size of a 55 gallon oil drum.
It’s rocket propelled, and 168 mm. Years ago, and maybe they
show it now on TV, there were the Bugs Bunny cartoons with the
Road Runner and the coyote. The coyote is always looking up to
watch as a piece of furniture was falling on him, or a car or truck
comes at him to lay him flat. Well, when you see a spigot mortar
coming at you, that’s what happens to you. They can’t aim them,
but they can lob them into you. After the rocket fires burn out, it
tumbles, and you can see it tumbling. And it would clear out an
area the size of this room. Erskine wanted to know where these
spigot mortars were coming from, so he sent out an eight man
patrol at night, so he could see them better.
I’ll never forget them, the eight of us that went. There was Cpl.
Reed, who was married and been stationed in Cuba. Joe
McCloskey, who that night just disappeared, and they found him
in pieces later on. Warren Nietzel who was wounded. Garrett,
the old man of the outfit, with three children—he was 2