March 26 Marks the 70th Anniversary of the End of the Battle at Iwo Jima

There is one thing that no one can overcome, and that is the time clock ticking on the expiration of our delicate lives on this Earth.

That statement has never been truer than today when it comes to our World War II veterans. Seventy years ago on March 26 marks a historic event in our recent past, the ending of the battle at Iwo Jima. It was the place that saw that memorable photograph taken of United States Marines hoisting the American Flag on top of Mount Suribachi, some 528 feet above sea level..

Where is Iwo Jima? Iwo To, known in English as Iwo Jima, is an island in the Japanese Volcano Island chain south of the Ogasawara Islands, and together with them form the Ogasawara Archipelago, known today as the Bonin Islands.

It became famous from Feb.-March 1945 as the landmark of the Battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Japan during World War II. The United States continued to occupy the island until 1968 until it was returned to Japan.

This post is not meant to be a history lesson, but more so to bring awareness to the veterans who fought, and who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be free some 70 years later.

Do you have a WWII veteran in your family? If you do, sit down and talk to them about their experiences. After all, the war ended over 70 years ago, and if they enlisted young, at best they would be around 87 years of age. They are a generation of history that is almost gone, and an invaluable resource to learn about one of the world’s darkest times.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs says:

As the years pass, the list of surviving veterans of world war II inevitably becomes shorter. There were 16,112,566 members of the United States Armed Forces during World War II. There were 291,557 battle deaths, 113,842 other deaths in service (non-theater), and 670,846 non-mortal wounding’s. In the Veteran Population Projection Model (VetPop2014) the Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that 1,017,208 American veterans from the war were still alive as of September 9, 2014.

So, if you are lucky enough to have a family member alive, honor their service, thank them for all they did, and if they are willing, take the time to sit down and talk to them about all they experienced. It was a different time and those men truly were cut from a different cloth!

I was lucky enough to once talk to my grandfather, Harold D. Sawyers of the United States Army Air Corps, about his experiences, and they were enlightening to say the least. Thanks Pops for all you did for our country!

God Bless all of our veterans! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!