The Pittsburgh Press (March 15, 1945)
Tears fill Marine general’s eyes at official flag-raising on Iwo
Banner signifies victory on island
By William McGaffin
BULLETIN
GUAM – U.S. Marines have lost under 4,000 dead in the 25-day campaign on Iwo, Vice Adm. Richmond Kelly Turner indicated today.
“Their [Marine] death casualties are less than one-fifth of those of the defenders,” Adm. Turner said.
Jap deaths on Iwo officially were announced as 20,000, indicating American fatalities were under 4,000.
V AMPHIBIOUS CORPS HQ, Iwo Jima (March 14, delayed) – High up on Mt. Suribachi where the Stars and Stripes were raised on February 23, after capture of the 500-foot volcano, the flag came down today.
Instead, another flag went up – the official Stars and Stripes, signifying that Iwo Jima was ours after 23 days of the hardest fighting in Marine Corps history.
There were tears in the eyes of Lt. Gen. Holland Smith, commander of the Marine group, as a bugler blew the Colors and Old Glory went up on an abandoned Jap pillbox.
‘Worst battle yet’
“This is the worst battle we’ve had yet,” Gen. Smith said. Obviously, he was thinking of his boys who had fallen on this foreign shore.
The doughty 63-year-old general himself came within a few inches of stopping a Jap bullet yesterday while watching an intense firefight on the north end of the island.
His voice echoed with emotion when he said today:
It is a victory that was not accomplished by any one service but by a brotherhood of all services, formed in the holocaust of battle… Let us bow our heads in commemoration of their gallantry… Well done.
Sounds Attention
The ceremony began when John E. Glenn of New Orleans, a 21-year-old sandy-mustached bugler, sounded Attention.
As the group stood at attention the corps personnel officer, Col. D. A. Stafford of Spokane, Washington, read the proclamation from Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz “to the people of the Volcano Islands.”
U.S. forces under my command have occupied this and others of the Volcano Islands. All the powers of the government of the Japanese Empire in the islands so occupied are hereby suspended. All the powers of government are vested in me as military governor and will be exercised by subordinate commanders under my direction.
All persons will obey promptly all orders given under my authority. Offenses against the forces of occupation will be severely punished.
After the proclamation, printed in both English and Japanese, was read, the bugler sounded the Colors and Pvt. Thomas J. Casale of Herkimer, New York, sent the flag up the pole.
After the colors were hoisted, the bugler sounded “Carry On” and the men broke up to walk back along the dusty road to their various tasks.
Although Iwo is ours, enemy resistance has not ended. In the extreme northern end, there are small Jap pockets, including a strongpoint on a 900-yard ridge running south from Kitano Point. It probably will take several days before the island finally is declared “secured.”
A United Press dispatch from Guam quoted Pacific Fleet headquarters as estimating the number of Jap dead on Iwo at 20,000 through Wednesday.
There has been no announcement of U.S. casualties since March 3, when 2,050 Americans were listed as dead. An NBC broadcast from Guam said unofficial information indicated U.S. losses would be “very high.” An NBC commentator in Washington predicted they would total 17,000, including 3,000 dead.