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My most vivid memory that goes with Flag Day is a personal moment in American history that was both historically poetic, yet horribly tragic. I was a crewman aboard a Navy attack transport during World War II, and we carried Marines into combat. On the early morning of February 19, 1945, more than 30,000 Marines landed on the little volcanic island Iwo Jima. The famous flag raising occurred after days of heavy fighting on February 23.

The invasion happened following months of bombing by our carrier aircraft and more than 24 hours of heavy shelling by our battleships and cruisers. Because of all the preparations, the operation was supposed to be a very easy one. However, the Japanese had been anticipating the battle, and had fortified the island with hundreds of underground caves and bunkers, and manned it with heavy weapons and their best troops, who were dedicated to dying in the battle.

Today, two generations later, Americans may consider the Iwo Jima invasion ancient history, the stuff of movies, statues and other reproductions of the famous photo. They know the flag-raising photo quickly became a symbol of Marine and Navy heroism in World War II. However, they may not be aware of one of the most tragic aspects of that moment in a war that was just a few months away from ending with the Japanese surrender.

Most of those Marines who fought and died on Iwo Jima were teenagers, primarily recruited right out of high school, because after four years of heavy war casualties, including the Normandy invasion, the Bulge and other European battles. I knew many of the Marines on our ship, some as young as 15, had lied about their ages and forged parent signatures on enlistment forms. At the time, I was an old Navy salt of 19, and memory of those boys is as vivid today as it was then.

With our Navy troopship full of proud young Marines;
Every deck overflowing in their camouflage greens.

When they weren't playing poker or shooting craps,
They cleaned rifles and bayonets on their laps.

If you heard them talk, they were tough and brave,
But most of them hadn't yet started to shave.

A few had seen combat, but most were mere boys,
Less than six months from their high school joys.

They all laughed about the next place they'd land,
An easy assault on some little hunk of sand.

Then we sailed in close on D-Day minus one;
While battlewagons and cruisers got the job done.

We cheered when each salvo made the island shake;
This Iwo Jima invasion would be a piece of cake.

Then the ship's squawk box set their course
With the traditional "Land the landing force"!

Over the side went our two thousand Marines,
Now tough fighting men, no longer mere teens.

Onto the black sand beach they stormed ashore;
First a dozen boys fell, then hundreds more.

But a few brave Marines survived the test,
And fought their way up Suribachi's crest

Once there, six Marines raised the flag and pole,
But in the fierce battle, three had paid the toll.

With six thousand of their brother's bands,
Today they sleep forever under Iwo's sands

Whenever Flag Day comes around each June,
We recall what those boys did on Iwo's dune.

They filled each American's heart with love,
To see our flag forever wave proudly above.

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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