[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 27 (Friday, February 10, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S2455]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE INVASION AT IWO JIMA

  Mr. ROBB. Mr. President, today marks an important anniversary for all 
of us who served in the Marine Corps and for freedom-loving Americans 
everywhere. On this date 50 years ago, the largest force of U.S. 
marines ever assembled prepared to embark on the most savage and most 
costly battle in the history of the Marine Corps. Nearly 100,000 
troops, American and Japanese, were ready to fight to the death on the 
most heavily fortified island in the world, 8 square miles of volcanic 
ash and rock known as Iwo Jima.
  Since the turn of the century, marines had pioneered and developed 
the capability for seizing advanced naval bases. The payoff for those 
many years of planning and training was seen in the successive, hard-
fought victories in the amphibious landings throughout the Pacific in 
places like Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Tarawa, and New Britain, and on 
Saipan, Guam, Tinian, and Peleliu.
  But now in February 1945 marine forces were approaching within 1,000 
miles of the Japanese homeland for the first time and would face a 
determined, fanatically brave enemy who had constructed the most 
elaborate and ingenious system of underground fortifications ever 
devised. Despite thorough allied planning and preparation and all the 
naval and air support available, it was ultimately the marine on the 
beach with the rifle who eventually won this critical battle for 
America.
  Mr. President, one out of every three marines who set foot on Iwo 
Jima was killed or wounded, so great was the price of victory. As Gen. 
Holland M. Smith, Commanding General, Expeditionary Troops, Iwo Jima, 
said later of his marines, ``They took Iwo Jima the hard way, the 
marine way, the way we had trained them to take it when everything else 
failed. They took Iwo Jima with sweat, guts, and determination.''
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair and I yield the floor.

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