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The black volcanic sand of Iwo Jima offered no cover, only shallow shell holes and jagged rock. On the morning of March 9, 1945, Platoon Sergeant Joseph R. Julian lay there with the rest of his company, pressed into the ash while enemy fire tore long furrows across the slope. Ahead of them, a line of Japanese trenches and pillboxes guarded a critical rise. Machine guns hammered from narrow firing slits.
As World War II in the Pacific neared its climax, United States forces launched the amphibious assault on Okinawa, a large island only a few hundred miles from the Japanese home islands. The Tenth Army, composed of United States Army and Marine Corps units, went ashore on beaches that were eerily lightly defended, a stark contrast to the bloody assaults at places like Tarawa and Iwo Jima.
By February 1945, much of Pearl Harbor had returned to the business of war. Battleships and carriers came and went; convoys formed up and headed west toward Iwo Jima and Okinawa. But in a side channel called West Loch, the harbor still hid a graveyard. Months earlier, a chain of explosions had torn through a cluster of tank landing ships loading ammunition for the Pacific campaign.
Charles Joseph Berry — Corporal U.S. Marine Corps World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
Darrell Samuel Cole — Sergeant U.S. Marine Corps Reserve World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
Donald Jack Ruhl — Private First Class U.S. Marine Corps Reserve World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
Douglas Thomas Jacobson — Private First Class U.S. Marine Corps Reserve World War II Hill 382, Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
Francis Junior Pierce — Pharmacist's Mate First Class U.S. Navy World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
Franklin Earl Sigler — Private U.S. Marine Corps Reserve World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
George Edward Wahlen — Pharmacist's Mate Second Class U.S. Navy World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
George Phillips — Private U.S. Marine Corps Reserve World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
Harry Linn Martin — First Lieutenant U.S. Marine Corps Reserve World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
Hershel Woodrow “Woody” Williams — Corporal U.S. Marine Corps Reserve World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
Jack Lummus — First Lieutenant U.S. Marine Corps Reserve World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
Jack Williams — Pharmacist's Mate Third Class U.S. Naval Reserve World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
Jacklyn Harold Lucas — Private First Class U.S. Marine Corps Reserve World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
James Dennis la Belle — Private First Class U.S. Marine Corps Reserve World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands
John Harlan Willis — Pharmacist's Mate First Class U.S. Navy World War II Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands