Remembering Iwo Jima -- 70th anniversary

Yes, I remember Iwo Jima. Around 5 a.m the USS Pickens, APA 190, reached the tiny island of Iwo Jima. I was on deck at a debarkation station from where we launched our boats. I remember the Marines scrambling down cargo nets to enter the boats, and I remember boats returning with wounded Marines. The Pickens was an auxiliary hospital ship.

I was a radarman but my assgnment when we were in baottle was communications. The phones did not work so the first thing I had to do was find someone with more authority than me to get phones that worked.

I was on deck day and night so I had a view of much of the action but I could not see the Marines climbing volcanic ash hills to face Japs who were in concrete bunkers.

Some events in my life I will not forget.