Danger Dave
New member
Well, he was army, not Marines, but my grandmother's brother (James Knight) was killed on Iwo Jima - on Mother's Day, 1944. Well after the fighting was over, he was shot by a sniper. From the picture I've got, he wore HBT's and carried a Garand. And an M3 fighting knife - I've got it (they sent it home with his personal effects after the war - I'm not sure, neither is my grandmother, but I think it was buried with him while he was on Iwo).
On a lighter note, I met an interesting fellow once. This huge (must have been 6'4" & about 275#) man in his 60's came in the Army/Navy store I was working in and started chatting (happened all the time - most of it was BS, but I believe this guy). It seems he had lied about his age to get in the army (he was 15 when he went in) and decided to get out (didn't like it too much). The day before he was supposed to be getting out (they were going to release him because he was underage) the sargent came in the mess hall and announced "all of you that are expecting to get leave, you can forget it. The Japs just bombed Pearl Harbor." Soooo...Off he went with the 2nd Armored division - N Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Germany...The whole Western theatre before he turned 19.
On a lighter note, I met an interesting fellow once. This huge (must have been 6'4" & about 275#) man in his 60's came in the Army/Navy store I was working in and started chatting (happened all the time - most of it was BS, but I believe this guy). It seems he had lied about his age to get in the army (he was 15 when he went in) and decided to get out (didn't like it too much). The day before he was supposed to be getting out (they were going to release him because he was underage) the sargent came in the mess hall and announced "all of you that are expecting to get leave, you can forget it. The Japs just bombed Pearl Harbor." Soooo...Off he went with the 2nd Armored division - N Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Germany...The whole Western theatre before he turned 19.