I've mentioned him before somewhere on the site but I think his story bears repeating on Memorial Day.
My grandmother's (dad's mom) three brothers all served in the Pacific. Uncle George was a Sergeant in the Corps and would survive the war, once telling us kids tales of fighting the Japs hand to hand on one island and having a landing craft shot at and sunk from underneath him on an assault on another. He only survived by watching a more senior Marine pull out his K-bar knife and start cutting away his gear and heavy equipment so that it would not drown him (like opening scene SPR) once entering the water. Uncle Guiseppe (Pep) was a SeaBee that built many airfields on different retaken islands, most of the time while under fire. He and Uncle George would often banter at family gatherings after the war about who saw the most combat.
The youngest brother (16 yrs younger than his oldest sister, my grandmother) Jasper ( he went by "Bunch" a nickname given to him by his mom) was a favorite of my dad's and was only 9 yrs older than him. He was 4F due to accidentally shooting himself with his .22 in the foot as a young teenager while hunting frogs. The Army and Navy had both turned him down for service (one of them twice). Undeterred and with US casualties mounting later in the war, he was accepted by the Marine Reserve upon turning 18 and first saw action on Guam. He only weighed around 120 lbs but was made a BAR man for his company. The Browning Automatic Rifle was very effective, having been proven in the trenches of WW1, but the later version weighed 24 lbs., (not loaded with the 20 round magazine). The Japanese also made it a point to single out those carrying the weapon due to it's accuracy and firepower. After Guam, his Regiment, 21st Marines 3rd Marine Division, were supposed to be held in reserve and not used for the invasion of Iwo Jima, but with casualties mounting for the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions and the landings stalled, the 21st was ordered in late on the first day.
On the day following the flag raising, D+5, his Company K along with I, would spearhead the attack to take Motoyama Airfield #2 ( the airfield still used on Iwo Jima today). Jumping off time was set at 0910. The fighting was of course fierce and both Company commanders were killed in the assault along with 35-50% of each Company. The letter written to my great-grandmother has Uncle Bunch being killed while crossing the runway after being hit by a mortar. But during the early 2000's, my dad's cousin, while doing research on the action, found one of the officers that had taken over the assault and said that Bunch had survived the crossing and was part of the bunker clearing on the other side led K Co. XO 1st LT. Raoul Archimbault (awarded the Navy Cross for his actions) and Lt Stanley Tsigounis. Lt Tsigounis wrote that Bunch was killed during the bunker clearing around 1100 with himself also being wounded around 1130. Either way, my great-grandmother was said to have never gotten over her son's death.
Uncle Bunch had just turned 19 yrs old 3 weeks earlier.
K Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Marines, 3rd Marine Division would be awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for it's actions that day, 24 February 1945.
Originally buried on Iwo in the 3rd Marine cemetery, he was reinterred to his home town in South Texas after the war.
In the pics below, one is him with his mom and two of his sisters. My grandmother is on the far right. She lived to be 94 and luckily I asked her some questions about her brother a few years before her passing. Always sharp, she remembered everything about her youngest sibling.