Blood of Iwo Jima

The Southern Caves

February 29th

There had been a change of plans. Dog Company and the rest of the damn 4th Marines were to attack the cave system on the southern end of the island, near Suribachi. The volcano had been declared secured three days ago, but sporadic artillery had been fired and even scored hits on Marines. We assumed the fire was coming from the caves near the south beaches. That was our task. Take out that cave system.

         We moved out at 0630 and began to advance towards the caves. Mortars came down upon us in inconsistent patterns, disrupting our advance and keeping us under cover. It took one hour to move one hundred yards. Snipers positioned in little holes poked their rifles out and fired, sending us to the ground to avoid death. They weren’t even accurate; they were just fucking around with our minds.

         We finally moved onto the crest of a ridge overlooking a canyon filled with caves and japs. The hill put us out of range. Rifles and machine guns couldn’t open up because the caves made natural cover. Artillery couldn’t hit it because the rock protruded from the ridge and almost formed a shield above them. We’d have to take them out the old fashioned way: with rifles.

         Dog Company was selected to form the out post on a small little hill right above the japs. We moved out and immediately were stopped by a nip sniping out of a spider hole. The kid in front of me took a shot to the neck and toppled down onto me, sticky with blood and gore. He was are observer and the valuable binoculars that he carried smashed into the rock and cracked the lens. The kid’s eyes were wide open and I almost yelled for a medic until I realized the young marine had already died. Shaking the dead boy off me, Dale raised his rifle and began to fire at random in the japs general direction. Enemy mortars dropped in and blew or right flank apart. First platoon was running back as a machine gun killed the survivors. Dale leveled his M1 and began to shoot at the tracers. The white glow soared overhead and sent me burrowing into the ground. I saw a private start to run for home. I knew what was going to happen even before the sniper shot him. He went down as a puff of sand came of his jacket. Blood spilled from his back and chest. A medic was called over, but the medic had to run across the opening. The look on the medic’s face registered as afraid, yet ready. He charged across the opening and ran for the man. The japs concentrated their fire on him and bullets sprang up around him in the hundreds. Those fucking nips couldn’t give us a go damn break. The medic made it but was still the main target. As he tended to the man a sniper fired at him, hitting his upper arm. Doubled over in pain, the medic continued to treat the private until another shot took off his head. The shot seemed to explode when it hit and the medic’s head was reduced to a cracked blood pool. The other medic was about to run out. Dale started to run.

“I can’t let another medic die!”

Dale sprinted out of our pathetic cover and began to fire at the caves entrance. As he ran, the slight movement near the ridge caught my attention. A sniper was slowly moving his rifle across his body. He was tracking a Marine. His rifle was moving pretty fast, which meant he was tracking a man running. In an instant I realized that this shit face was tracking Dale.

         In an instant I had my carbine up, but I hesitated. The sniper was a man and killing was wrong. Yes, you may ask what the fuck made me sign up for the Marines if I wasn’t gonna kill anyone? Truthfully, I really just wanted to do anything to bring down the empire of Japan. I had a brother named Alex who was on the U.S.S Arizona the morning of December 7th, 1941. I heard that the ship sank with over two thirds of its men. I knew Alex was one of hem when the bodies floating in the harbor appeared in the newspaper. From then on at Alex’s funeral, I was a Jap hater.

         Coming back to the present saw the sniper moving his rifle closer to Dale. I knew I had seconds to decide what to do. I thought about it and realized that even though Alex was dead, I had brothers, my fellow Marines. Like hell I was gonna let Dale die. Swinging my Carbine around, I put the Jap in my sights and pulled the trigger.

         It seemed we had fired at the exact same time and the recoil of his shot had just hit his shoulder when my shot pierced his head. Slumping over, he slowly slid down the incline and fell ten feet, hitting the ground with a sickening thud. His body laid in a crumpled in a heap of limbs in front of a cave. Two nips rushed out of the cave and gripped their dead comrade in their hands and tried to move his body out of the fire zone. I fired a few quick shots off and hit the carrier Jap in the upper chest. He just kept running towards the cave. These son of a bitches needed one more shot if they were gonna get the job done. A medic was running back towards the line with a man draped over his soldier. We were pulling out of this death trap and back to the CP.

         We rose up as one unit and sprinted for the hill. Machine guns pounded the company and created a hail of bullets that stopped us dead in our tracks. We had to get down and wait until the machine gun reloaded. We ran for the CP and finally crossed the crest of the hill and tumble over the hillside a rolled down onto the sand.

         The medic fell down the hill with the bleeding marine on his back. I felt sorry for the poor guy until I got a closer look at him. It was Dale. Dale had a bullet wound in his neck and was bleeding out fast. His eyes showed panic and fear. He looked at me for one second that seemed to last an eternity as stretcher-bearers lifted him up and hauled him away.

         My only friend in the world was leaving me behind on this hellhole. There was nothing Dale could do about it and I guessed if he had his way he would be sitting next to me.

         Mortars began falling around the CP and a shell ripped the command tent in half. Fire raged through the papers and canvas and I’m guessing the used an incendiary round. More shells zoomed overhead and almost followed the stretcher-bearers, stalking them like they had a mission to stop Dale’s survival. I could see the team almost clear the zone when five rounds just leveled the ground around them. A bracket by a lucky fucking jap. The flash of light forced me to look away as the geysers of sand erupted in the air on account of the explosions.

         When the light in died away, nothing in the area looked the same. The ground was littered with craters and smoking pits. I scanned the ground and my eyes came to rest on top of the carnage of a stretcher team.

         The bearers were mauled beyond belief. One had only his left arm still attached to his body. The other limbs were strewn across a ten-foot radius. The other man was still alive, but he wasn’t going to make it. Shrapnel was riddled throughout his body and slits scarred his skin. Blood was draining from his body and he was already turning pale and cold. I felt his skin and his eyes pleaded for help. I could tell that he was giving up as his eyes drifted off, looking into oblivion. I looked over the once living body and ripped his dog tags from his neck. Jared Ramsey, dead on Iwo Jima.

         I almost walked away from the mess until I realized the person most important to me was still lying on the stretcher. I rushed over to the side of the stretcher and shook a destroyed body. Dale wasn’t Dale anymore. He was a shredded corpse with no sign of every being a friend of Marine. I couldn’t bear to look at him when everything about him was gone because some go damn nip had gotten a fucking jack pot shot.. The shell had torn him apart and he had probably died in pure agony. I stood up. Looking at him just made me realize how much it hurt to lose a friend. Shit, this war was a war of brutality and no mercy. Just as the Japs had shown no mercy for Dale, I will show no mercy for those Japs.