Iwo Jima Flag raising anniversary tomorrow

How to Join	Member's Area	Private Library	Search	Sanctuary		Login
Main Forums	Discussion	Tech Talk	Mature Content	Archives	A home without a wall, Our haven without ends, A circle we all call Our Family of Friends!

Open Poetry #46

Iwo Jima Flag raising anniversary tomorrow

Abe
Senior Member

since 2003-05-28

Posts 694
Looks like Vero Beach, FL until the end!

0 posted 2010-02-22 12:49 PM

The Marine Corps War Memorial
(Iwo Jima)

Said a Vet from Nineteen forty-five,
"Men were dying by the score."
An eyewitness to a famous Battle
Immortalized forever more.
Quartermaster on a LST
"Eyewitness to a sad, horrible day."
"A slaughter right there on the Beach"
Is what, this Veteran had to say.
Coast Guardsman Robert Resnick
Was more than just a witness there
He furnished the Stars and Stripes
In that picture all generations share.
A symbol for the Marine Corps
Cast in bronze for all to see
The Flag raised on that mountain top
Is part of our Nation's History.
One of the bloodiest Battles of the War
Fought for thirty-six days and nights
More than twenty two thousand Japanese
In one of the Marines fiercest fights.
The first part of Japan we invaded
And as Resnick's ship sat on the beach
Marine Gagnon asked him for a Flag
And a long pipe to raise it's reach.
They lost their sight of the Marine
As he headed to that Mountain top
Amidst the gun's bullets flying
That never, ever seemed to stop.
As they began to leave the Beach
A tremendous cheer went all around
And, "Every ship tooted it's horn."
As they raised the Flag that he had found.
For years another was credited
Until the year, Two thousand-one
When at a Fifth Marine Convention
The Marines learned he really was the one.
A big, old Marine bellowed out,
"Do you really mean to tell me,
That you never realized that you
Won that Battle, single-handedly?"
The President of the Fifth Marines
Made him an honorary member
And as they did some tears were shed
As they all began to remember
About that day sixty-five years ago
Up there on Mount Surabachi
When the Stars and Stripes were raised high
Was still a vivid, cherished, memory.

Del "Abe" Jones
Mankind's greatest accomplishment is not the revolution of technology, it is the evolution of creativity. copyright 1984

Zeigeist
Member

since 2009-12-09

Posts 311
Michigan

1 posted 2010-02-22 02:57 PM

A wonderful tribute and poem. Very Nice Abe.

Zeitgeist

	⇧ top of page ⇧
All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format.