[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 34 (Thursday, February 23, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2152]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     NEVER FORGET THE SACRIFICES OF THE MEN WHO FOUGHT ON IWO JIMA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Stump] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STUMP. Mr. Speaker, I first would like to pay honor to the 
gentleman, my colleague, Sonny Montgomery. Probably no one in recent 
history has done more for the veterans of this country than Sonny and I 
want to commend him for bringing about this special order tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, 50 years ago I had the honor of being a young sailor and 
participating in the battle of Iwo Jima. Our role was from a small 
escort air carrier delivering napalm bombs and rockets to the island 
and supporting our troops. Fifty years ago today plus four was the day 
we raised the flag on Mount Suribachi. One of the men that participated 
in that was an Indian from my state of Arizona by the name of Ira 
Hayes, a Marine.
  Mr. Speaker, I think that too often we take these things too lightly, 
and I just hope that we do not forget this. May we never forget the 
sacrifices of all those people that participated, that paid with their 
lives. May that flag always wave over this country. Mr. Speaker, we 
pray this will never happen again.
  I would like top read a quote by a captain, a Marine, on the island 
at that time, to his parents. He said, ``Only those who fought on Iwo 
will ever know how tremendous a job was done. It is now sacred ground 
to us because certainly many of us came so close to eternity that we 
will never be worldly again.'' Capt. William Ryan wrote this to his 
parents in March 1945 from Iwo Jima.
  Mr. Speaker, at this time I would be happy to yield to the gentleman 
from Kansas [Mr. Roberts].
  Mr. ROBERTS. I rise to associate myself with the remarks of my 
colleagues and fellow Marines as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of 
Iwo Jima. I want to associate myself with the remarks of the gentleman 
from Arizona and give special thanks to Gen. Sonny Montgomery. A finer 
friend of the military and our veterans our Nation has never seen.
  My father, Wes Roberts, who was a Marine Corps major, who lied about 
his age at 42 to join the Corps and at age 43 was on Iwo Jima, took 
part in the 36-day assault on this very key island. Fifteen years 
later, Lieutenant Pat Roberts, yours truly, went back to Iwo Jima with 
Lieutenant General Worsham and a contingent of survivors and veterans, 
and we toured the island. We not only toured Mount Suribachi and the 
caves and the end of the island, but also the Japanese cemetery to pay 
homage to those brave veterans as well.
                              {time}  2040

  And we were standing on top of Mount Suribachi. I will never forget 
this. All of the veterans of the people who were there at that 
particular time during the assault looked down at where we had cliffs 
and then Mount Suribachi and then knee-deep ashes on the beach. And the 
gentleman turned to me, tears streaming down his face and he said, it 
is a wonder that anybody ever really made it. It is a wonder anybody 
was really alive.
  We toured the island, and we toured those caves where still the dead 
Japanese are there. And it was an amazing feat in terms of a military 
victory. Somehow, by persevering, somehow, by uncommon valor and at 
great cost both to Americans and Japanese, we saved lives and the end 
result by bringing this war to its proper conclusion.
  I would like to say, as a former Marine, Semper fi, Dad. Semper fi, 
Marine Corps. Semper fi, America. God bless the United States Marine 
Corps.
  Mr. STUMP. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. 
Jacobs].
  Mr. JACOBS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  There is an old saying, abandon all hope, ye who enter here. And Bill 
Mauldin, in World War II, had a cartoon where one GI said to the other, 
in combat, I feel like a fugitive from the law of averages. And such an 
attitude is necessary when you face enemy fire. You must forget about 
the good life. You must forget about everything. You must consider 
yourself already dead.
  The philosopher tells us, civilization progresses because young men 
die for their country and old men plant trees under which they will 
never sit. And Henry V, he exhorts his troops at St. Crispin's battle, 
in peace nothing so becomes a man as stillness and humility. But in 
war, imitate the action of a tiger. Stiffen the sinews, summon up the 
blood, exchange for fair nature hard-favored rage.
  To die for one's country is love than which there can be no greater.
  Mr. Speaker, on February 16, 1945, the Americans initiated a pre-
invasion naval bombardment lasting three days. Task Force 58, the most 
powerful carrier force ever assembled, struck the Japanese mainland to 
prevent enemy support. The Iwo Jima operation, codenamed Detachment, 
included 1,800 carrier-based and 7th Air Force planes; a quarter-
million seamen on nearly 800 ships; and 75,000 GI's of the ``V 
Amphibious Corps.'' The main assault units included the 3rd, 4th and 
5th Marine Divisions, and various other forces of army and navy 
construction battalions.
  On Monday, February 19, 1945 at 9:00 a.m., the 4th and 5th Marine 
Divisions landed on the southeastern shore of Iwo Jima. Within 20 
minutes, the marines were 250 yards inland. At that point, the Japanese 
opened up with all they had.
  Three days later, on February 23, (50 years ago today) a 40 man 
patrol of the 5th Division's 2nd battalion, 28 Marines, cleared the 550 
foot summit, of Mt. Suribachi. That morning, photographer Joe Rosenthal 
took the famous photograph of the raising of the American Flag 
overlooking the island. Secretary of the Navy, James V. Forrestal, a 
witness to the flag raising, commented that: ``the raising of that flag 
means a Marine Corps for another 500 years.''
  By the time it was over in mid-summer, 22 Marines and five Navy men 
earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. This was the greatest number 
of Medal of Honor recipients for any single engagement of World War II. 
Half of the awards issued were posthumous, and Iwo Jima represented 
more than one-fourth of all Medals of Honor awarded Marines during the 
entire war.
  Total American casualties were 28,686. The Japanese sacrificed 23,300 
lives and 1,083 of them ultimately surrendered.
  By the end of the war, 2,251 B-29's landed at Iwo Jima. Of that 
number, more than 800 made emergency landings. Without Iwo Jima, many 
of the 9,000 American crew men would most likely have been lost.


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