February is a Month of Famous Dates

February has more that its share of dates of historical remembrance. I do not refer to Groundhogs Day or St. Valentines Days of even the anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts. The days of historical importance for Americans are the 12th, the 22nd, and the 19th. Although the birthdays of our two greatest presidents are celebrated on the 15th, George Washington's is on the 22nd and Abraham Lincoln's is on the 12th. (The birthday of the third greatest president is on the sixth.) The 19th is a day that will live in United States history because of what happened on that day in 1945. That was D-Day for the Iwo Jima landings of the United States Marines.

My father landed that day with the 27th Marines. The 26th and 28th Marine Regimental Combat Teams also landed. Together they comprised the primary maneuver elements of the Fifth Division. The Third and Forth divisions landed also. According to my father, of the approximately 60,000 marines, 5,000 died and 20,000 were wounded. The navy had at least hundreds of casualties also. About 20,000 Japanese defenders died and only a few hundred were captured, mostly too badly wounded to resist. The only way the nationality of many of the burned bodies could be determined was by the leggings. The Japaneses' were leather while the marine's were canvas. My father was on the island for the entire month long battle. He told me that once the marines returned to their ships, the island was turned over to the army. There was a flare-up of resistance from some Japanese who had eluded discovery. My dad's unit was sent back ashore to deal with the problem. He often told us this story to explain why he had so few souvenirs of the battle. When the marines on his troop ship were sent back to the island, the sailors took their few mementos. At least that was his story. He did have a few small items, including few spent bullets and a hand grenade pin. He also had the two blankets he used on Iwo Jima. He said that the sand was so hot, due to volcanic activity, that he had to roll over several times during the night. Those blankets he had slept on covered the seats of our 1950 Chevy. When we sold that car in the '60's, my dad was at work and my mom forgot to take off the blankets. She got in trouble for that.

One other day in February this year is Chinese New Year. It will be celebrated in our Chinese district (which is mostly composed of Vietnamese Chinese) on February 14th. I hope to take some pictures.