Battle of Iwo Jima Remembered

Baker Company, 21st Marines, and 3rd Navy Medical Battalion re-enactors will set up table displays of equipment, weapons, and gear to educate the public on the Battle of Iwo Jima that took place February 19- March 26, 1945.

Iwo Jima was the second to last battle of World War II in the Pacific. It was the first and only island in the Pacific Theater where the number of American casualties outnumbered the Japanese. The fighting was some of the fiercest of the war in the Pacific.

On February 19th, 1945 Fourth and Fifth Marine Divisions landed on Iwo Jima. The fighting was so intense and casualties so high from the outset that February 21st the 9th Marine Regiment, and 1st & 2nd Battalions of the 21st Marine Regiments were taken from the 3rd Marine Division (sitting in floating reserve) and moved onshore to support the advancing Marine Line.

Over the next thirty-four days the Marines ground their way forward. The 21st Marines pushed across the second airfield, and the uncompleted airfield. Fighting using rifles, zippo tanks, bazookas, flamethrowers and hand-to-hand combat was long and arduous before Marines from 1st Battalion, 21st Marines saw the northern shore of the island.

Baker Company, and 3rd Navy Medical Battalion will have uniformed re-enactors on hand to interpret and discuss the experience of the Marines and Navy Corpsmen and surgeons who fought on Iwo Jima in honor of the 80th anniversary of the battle.