Warbird Information Exchange

... never to be forgotten.

Perhaps there's one or two photos you haven't seen before, nevertheless no commentary really needed.

Slightly O.T. but applicable, my late father who was based at Pearl in the Navy as an intel rating told me several times that everyone knew when troops Army or Marines were heading back from an island campaign-all the VITALIS hair oil disappeared from the PX shelves as the troops would mix it with orange juice for the alcohol in the stuff

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

My last job with the H&S-2-3, 3rd MarDiv in 1959 was gunner on a flame thrower, glad I never had to go into combat.

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awesome images, Thank you..

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Some people are like slinkys, good for nothing but bring a smile to your face when pushed down stairs.

Sorry folks for the last couple of posts, experimenting by using my IPad to post photos for the first time. Scales off on a few photos. I'll fix the scale when I get back to the home office.

M

does this neg. make more sense flipped over? - regardless;
those taken on the beach - i've never seen anything more embedded, yet still exemplary craft
and documentation by a - or a few - suicidal photographer/s ...

suicidal? more like 'duty' I'm sure those guys had very little choice in the matter as it was most likely their assigned orders. As for the photo being flipped? Why do you think that? Everything looks right to me.

My friend’s dad built A-20s at Douglas in Santa Monica until Uncle Sam decided he needed him as an Army infantryman. He fought in the Battle of Okinawa from the first day through mop up and saw heavy combat. He rarely talked about the war until about six months before he passed away two years ago.

He said the one day he was convinced he was going to die was the day they assigned him the flamethrower. For the past six or seven days, every guy who had been assigned the flamethrower had been killed. Somehow he made it through the day unscathed. The next day it was assigned to another unit.

I was honored to be a pallbearer at his funeral. He was a really good man.

Once a Marine, always a Marine
by Ciara Wood

You got up and left home at the age of eighteen,
to earn your title of U.S. Marine.
Never questioning the things you would see,
you wanted your family, your friends, and country to be free.

You fought so hard, and you fought so well,
in the place that you knew as a living H*ll.
You so proudly told your stories,
about all the valor and the glory.

The sparkle in your eye told it all,
as you told your stories you stood so tall.
You heard the calling and answered the call,
never knowing that you would watch your own brothers fall.

I watched as the tears quickly filled your eyes,
when you talked about running up that mountian to see that American flag rise.
There was nothing you loved more than watching an American flag fly,
you even had one flown the day that you died.

They laid your medals upon your chest,
as they laid you down for your final rest.
The shots were fired unto the sky,
as the American flag flew so high.

When you get to the gate, tell St. Peter to let you in,
Because you already went through h*ll, don't make you go again.
So when you look too Heaven, don't be surpised by what you see,
because the gates are guarded by none other than United States Marines.






First to Die
by John F McCullagh

“Doc, over here.” I heard them cry.
I raced on black volcanic sand,
I know snipers target medics with
a corpsman's pouch in hand.

“It’s Mike Strank, they got him bad.”
Mike was down, writhing in pain.
He was losing blood
and awfully pale.

Shielding his body with my own,
in a depression in the ground
I cut away his Khaki shirt.
Until the entry wound was found.

A sucking wound, an evil sign-
red frothing bubbles from his chest.
A styrette of Morphine- all I had
to ease the pain of every breathe.

Suribachi loomed above us.
Barely had a week gone by
since this man had helped to raise
the Forty eight Stars on high.

Now he was dying, fading fast.
A grave awaited, far from home.
There was nothing I could do
except not let him die alone.

My pops was a 16 year old Marine Parajumper over there involved clean up operations at the different islands. He was wounded in the leg by a mortar. He never talked much about his island hopping operations. About a couple of years before he passed in 2012 he did finally say he shot at a Japanese holdout during a firefight but would never say any more than that. I asked him how he knew he hit him and he said he watched him drop. He would just change the subject when asked about what else he did. I'm sure he had some gruesome images in his mind that he just wanted to forget for the rest of his life. Anyway.....

What famous actor does the Marine in the middle look like? I know this person fought at IJ. I'm curious if anyone else sees the same person.