Iwo Jima Pictures

ausrere

ausrere

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Lisa
A friend emailed me this link to pictures of Iwo Jima aircraft. I thought you guys might enjoy. It's a shame to see so many crashed beautiful old birds, but fascinating pictures none-the-less. It really brings home what these guys faced over there. Apologies if it's been posted before.
 
Makes one wonder how many P-51 and B-29 parts are buried at Iwo Jima or in the waters off shore.
 
Thanks for posting those. When you see the rows and rows of aircraft and other equipment that we produced here, it gives you some perspective on the enormity of it.

Something that I think is worth keeping in mind - 70 years later (and it's worth remembering that it's been the better part of a century, as well), there's not a one of us that wouldn't sell a body part to take a ride in any of the aircraft from WWII, much less fly or even own one. But, we should remember that there was a time when people our ages or younger wanted nothing more than to walk away from, both in good health and for all time.
 
What I find astonishin are the number of crashes (and resultant burns) on departure. These birds were tough but were flown even harder. Every man did his duty. The raid in the spring of 1945 in which the remaining 300 surviing Japanese soldiers attacked the OQ would have been very very unnerving.
 
My God.

Gives pause, as my Dad (who served in the Pacific for over three years during the war) sits in hospital, recovering (one hopes) from hip replacement surgery.
 
SCCutler said:
My God.

Gives pause, as my Dad (who served in the Pacific for over three years during the war) sits in hospital, recovering (one hopes) from hip replacement surgery.
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Hope all goes well.
 
ausrere said:
A friend emailed me this link to pictures of Iwo Jima aircraft. I thought you guys might enjoy. It's a shame to see so many crashed beautiful old birds, but fascinating pictures none-the-less. It really brings home what these guys faced over there. Apologies if it's been posted before.
Click to expand...

Awesome pics. Thanks for posting.

A while back I read Flags of Our Fathers, real good book
about Iwo.

RT
 
Great photos. Look at the confidence in these faces!
 
bbchien said:
What I find astonishin are the number of crashes (and resultant burns) on departure.
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Landing too! I was also surprised that that the airfield takes up virtually the whole island.
 
Wow, outstanding!

What those boys did, it is hard to comprehend.
 
Today, I was working at the Savannah River Site (the Atomic Weapons facility in Barnwelll, SC) and had an escort to keep an eye on us in a couple of contaminates areas. This guy's ID badge lanyard had the USMC logo all around it, an our conversation turned to the Marine Corps Museum near Quantico. This guy served in S.E. Asia, and I'd have put his age 60-ish. Next week he is escorting a fellow marine, a Navy Corpsman actually, back to Iwo Jima for the 65th anniversary of the battle. His friend, in his 80's landed on Saipan, Iwo Jima and Tinian. Heaven surely has a special place for the Corpsman and medics of any war.
There will be almost 80 survivors on the trip and 100 others accompanying them. Also there will be about a dozen Japanese survivors. Of 21,000 Japanese troops on the island, only about 300 were known to survive. Many of those were comatose, and thought dead until burial teams found out they were alive, and took them prisoner (if they were lucky).
What an awesome, and awe inspiring trip this would be. I kept thinking all afternoon how envious I was of this guy.
 
Keith Lane said:
Today, I was working at the Savannah River Site (the Atomic Weapons facility in Barnwelll, SC) and had an escort to keep an eye on us in a couple of contaminates areas. This guy's ID badge lanyard had the USMC logo all around it, an our conversation turned to the Marine Corps Museum near Quantico. This guy served in S.E. Asia, and I'd have put his age 60-ish. Next week he is escorting a fellow marine, a Navy Corpsman actually, back to Iwo Jima for the 65th anniversary of the battle. His friend, in his 80's landed on Saipan, Iwo Jima and Tinian. Heaven surely has a special place for the Corpsman and medics of any war.
There will be almost 80 survivors on the trip and 100 others accompanying them. Also there will be about a dozen Japanese survivors. Of 21,000 Japanese troops on the island, only about 300 were known to survive. Many of those were comatose, and thought dead until burial teams found out they were alive, and took them prisoner (if they were lucky).
What an awesome, and awe inspiring trip this would be. I kept thinking all afternoon how envious I was of this guy.
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Man, tell me Discovery or History Channel is going along to document this...
 
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