I distinctly remember one 40-mile hike where the officers got lost.

We used to like the beer they had there. It was 8 percent and was in big quart bottles. One day Nic Goss and I had purchased about 20 bottles. We were carting them down Queen Street (a main street in Auckland) when the shelter half we had them in split and we lost them all right there and then! We took off in a hurry!

All soft drinks were purchased off the shelf. There were no cold drinks to be had. Ice cream bars were numerous.

We used to go to a theatre called the Metropol and they would have an intermission and announce on the screen that it was time for a CAPSTAN or a CRAVEN A cigarette, so everybody in the theatre would get up and go outside or to the lobby and smoke a cancer stick....Never liked those cigarettes. We used to carry our own American ones.

On one of the nightly Japanese bombings of Bouganville, a 500 pound bomb landed in our bivuac area creating much havoc. One of the linemen who was hit lost half of his leg. Johnny Adamietz, during the pitch blackness, made his way to the injured Marine. He could only find him by his cries of "Corpsman! Corpsman!" Johnny held his leg, the remaining half, with his hands, all night long, saving the lineman's life. He received the Silver Star, and deservedly so.

This poem was written by Dale Fritz in response to an invitation from a lady editor of Stars and Stripes magazine to tell why Dale thought he was in the war. Dale was incensed because a stateside dogface had written patriotic gobbledegoop as to why he was in the service, so he wrote a complaint to the editor.

WHEN I VOLUNTEERED TO FIGHT
I FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM AND THE RIGHT
TO SPEAK MY THOUGHTS WHATE'ER THEY BE,
TO WORSHIP AS IT SUITED ME.
I FOUGHT THAT WE MIGHT LIVE AGAIN
IN WHAT MY LIFE HAD ALWAYS BEEN
IT TAKES BUT LITTLE THOUGHT TO SAY
BACK THERE I FOUGHT TO KEEP MEN FREE,
BUT WHEN OUT HERE I FIGHT FOR ME.
FOR WHEN THE BULLETS START TO FLY,
AND MEN AROUND YOU START TO DIE
"OUR PATIOTIC DUTY " THEN
IS FARTHEST FROM THE MINDS OF MEN.
FOR WITH EACH BURST OF SHOT AND SHELL
THE WORLD BECOMES A LIVING HELL.
EACH THING THAT YOU HAVE EVER DONE
COMES TO YOUR MIND, AND ONE BY ONE
YOU COUNT THEM OFF, EACH LIE AND SIN
AS SOMEDAY GOD WILL DO AGAIN.
WE AREN'T AFRAID TO DIE, AND YET
AT TIMES LIKE THESE WE WILL FORGET
THAT GOD HAS GIVEN LIFE TO MEN
AND GOD MAY TAKE IT BACK AGAIN.
THERE COMES WITHIN THE HEART A FEAR,
THAT'S FELT WHEN LIFE AND DEATH ARE NEAR.
WE CAN BUT TURN TO GOD AND PRAY
AND WHILE THOSE BULLETS FIND THEIR WAY
THRU FLESH AND BLOOD, THRU WOOD AND STONE,
THE LIFE YOU PRAY FOR IS YOUR OWN.
"HE GAVE HIS LIFE SO THAT ALL MEN
MIGHT LIVE IN FREEDOM ONCE AGAIN"
IT SEEMS SO LITTLE FOR THEM TO SAY
WHO CANNOT KNOW IN ANY WAY
THE THOUSAND DEATHS A MAN MUST DIE
BEFORE THE BLOOD OF LIFE IS DRY.
THE HELL HE LIVES WITHIN HIS MIND
BEFORE THE PEACE IN DEATH HE'LL FIND
HE GAVE HIS LIFE SO MEN MIGHT BE
ANOTHER TWENTY YEARS CALLED FREE.
BUT SUCH IS LIFE, SO IT HAS BEEN
THRU ALL THE YEARS, AND WILL AGAIN
THAT MEN MUST LIVE AND FIGHT AND DIE,
AND SO IT IS, SO HERE AM I.
THE HOME FRONT WITH THEIR FLAGS TO WAVE
CAN SAVE THE FREEDOM FOR THE BRAVE;
AND WHEN I RETURN, I'LL FIGHT
FOR FREEDOM, LIBERTY, AND RIGHT.
BUT WHEN I HEAR THE BATTLES' ROAR,
THEN IT'S ME I'M FIGHTING FOR.

BY SGT.DALE FRITZ
THIRD SIGNAL CO.
USMC

NAVAJO CODE TALKERS

While I was on Iwo Jima I had charge of a group of Navajo Indians. I didn't know at the time that their title was CODE TALKER and that they had to go through tremendous training in order to become a CODE TALKER . The Japanese were very confused as they heard these sounds coming into their receivers.The language was never in a writtten form and thus they had no basis for being able to decipher what they heard. Differences in tone were used,LOW, HIGH,RISING AND FALLING. In 1940 there were fewer than 40 people who knew the language of the Navajos. First the Indians had to learn 211 military terms and had to create the equivilent for each term. Nothing was written down. They had an alphabet which I saw once, and there were I think 3 words for each letter of the alphabet.Many of their words were taken from Nature. For Example: an observation plane was an owl and a chicken hawk was a dive bomber. I remember one sound from those days on Iwo Jima, WULECHEE. I saw the alphabet some time ago and saw that that word was one of three words meaning the letter A. The Navajos took an 8 week training course and the last two weeks were spent in field exercises. They took part in simulated battles. Officers could not believe the speed and accuracy of this new code system. The chief of intelligence for Japan said they could break the code of the U.S AIR FORCE, but just could not decode the Navajos. It is said that they had a large hand in winning the war. They were the best secret weapon of the Pacific War. I am proud that I was associated with these worthy men who spent hours and hours and hours in training and who did such a tremendous job during the Pacific War. I will always remember my Navajo sound.......WULECHEE......

ALBY ALBERTSON
3RD SIG.CO.
3RD MAR DIV
WW 2

For more information about the code talkers click here.
(Note: This link is outdated, however it leads to a very interesting site.)

To see an autographed picture of the first flag raising on Iwo, CLICK HERE

For those interested in preserving the Iwo Monument

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SILENT KEYS

(Click the bugle to hear Taps)

Here is a list of known Silent Keys.

EARL ALBERTSON

ROY ALLEN

JOHNNY ADAMIETZ

W.F.ANDERSON

SALTY DAHLMAN

MARSHAL DECLUTE

SGT. BILL ELLIS

BRUCE FRAZIER

AL GALLAGER

VIRGIL GOSS

BOB GREEN

VON HARTMAN

DUANE HYLAND

KALCICH-(first sgt)

LLOYD KINGSBURY

JAKE KLUNK

WALT KOLBUS

JOHN KOVACS

EMIL LATIA

GENE LICON

NOEL LOFTIN

DON LYONS

MORGAN

EARL OLDHAM

VAN PATTEN-war

BILL PERRY

FRANK ROGERS

JAMES SMALL-war

JACK SMITH

HANS SYLLING

PETER C. SIGUENZA Sr.

WILLIAM TASSIE

RAY WAKEFIELD

JIM WASHBURN-war

RAY WEGMAN

ALL BUT FOUR OF THESE WERE IN THE RADIO PLATOON

<---GO BACK

TRIBUTE TO VETS--->

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