The Battle Of Iwo Jima

The battle of Iwo Jima aka “Operation Detachment” was a hard fought battle that took place from February 19th to March 26th 1945. It was an extremely major battle in which the U.S. Armed Forces fought and eventually captured the Island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. The main goal of the assault was to capture 3 strategic airfields including South Field and Central Field to provide an area for the attacks on the Japanese main islands to be prepared and launched from. This grueling five week long struggle comprised some of the most intense, fiercest, and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II. After such heavy losses were produced in the battle, the value and importance of the island became very controversial. It was useless to the Army as a staging base and useless to the Navy as a base for the fleet. The Imperial Japanese Army positions were locked down and heavily fortified, with an insane network of bunkers, hidden artillery positions and 18 kilometers (11 miles) of underground tunnels. The Americans on the ground were supported by an impressive force of naval artillery and dominated the air space of Iwo Jima from the start of the battle by U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aviators. Iwo Jima was the only battle by the U.S Marine Corps in which the total American casualties (killed and wounded) topped those of Japanese Forces, even though Japanese combat deaths were thrice those of the Americans during and after the battle. Of all the 22,000 Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima at the start of the battle, only a mere 216 were taken prisoner, some of were only captured because they had been knocked unconscious or disabled in some other way. The majority of who were left were killed in action, although it has been e...

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...sly since its creation during the American Civil War it has been presented only 3,464 times. During this one month long battle, 27 U.S. military personnel were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions, 14 of them posthumously. Of the 27 medals awarded for the actions at Iwo Jima, 22 were presented to Marines and five were presented to United States Navy sailors, four of whom were hospital corpsmen. What we can take away from this today is to hope to be like these men reach deep when we are out of energy or low on ammo never give in. They never did why should we? We can only hope to have a chance to leave a legacy anything like they have. They are true American heroes and deserve our respect to the fullest, Many are buried here in Arlington National Cemetery and it is our honor as soldiers today to be able to show respect for them in what we do and how we do it.