Cpl. Don Graves, USMC, WWII, Iwo Jima, Part 1
Listen now
Description
Don Graves was born in Michigan in 1925 and his family struggled mightily during the Great Depression. He was 16 years old when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He immediately ran down to the U.S. Marine Corps recruiter's office to sign up. He was too young, but on his seventeenth birthday, Graves officially became a Marine. Nearly three years later, Graves was among the Marines invading the critically important island of Iwo Jima. In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Graves shares his vivid memories of learning about the attacks at Pearl Harbor, his intense training in San Diego, and his sudden new assignment as a flamethrower operator. He also shares, in great detail, what it was like to make the amphibious landing on Iwo Jima under heavy Japanese fire. Graves then describes the difficulty getting off the beach and what it took to fight to the top of Mt. Suribachi. Finally, Graves tells us about the historic flag raising atop Mt. Suribachi that was immortalized in the Joseph Rosenthal photo and again in the sculpture ot the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. In our next edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Graves will detail the fighting in the weeks of fighting that followed the flag raising - from the brutal effectiveness of Japanese mortars to the power of his flamethrower and from enduring the loss of so many friends to the death of just one in his own foxhole. He will also reflect on the legacy of the Greatest Generation nearky 80 years later. 
More Episodes
Frank Wright joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1942, when he was just 16 years old. Before long, he became one of the famed Marine Raiders. After deploying first to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, Wright contracted malaria and had to spend time recovering. After that, he was part of Marine...
Published 11/20/24
Published 11/20/24
Lee Brousard enlisted in the Navy with the intention of joining the Naval Air Corps. But as he was traveling to Florida for flight training, the Navy changed those plans and sent him to San Diego for naval training. After completing basic training, Broussard then finished at the top of his class...
Published 11/13/24