The Man We Left Behind-Iwo Jima!
GunnyG
Gaines,
From: Vos...@aol.com Save Address Block Sender
To: Gun...@hotmail.com Save Addresses
Subject: The man we left behind.
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 19:14:56 EDT
The Man We Left Behind.
Dear Sir,
I would like to seek your support in having the Navy Cross
awarded
posthumously to Marine Corps Sergeant Bill Genaust. He was
recommended for
this medal by Lt. Colonel Donald Dickson USMC some fifty-four
years ago, but
it somehow slipped through the cracks of history. The
recommendation was for
action
during the battle of Saipan. His heroic courage was detailed in
a hand
written letter from Colonel Dickson to Bill Genaust's widow,
which explained
in detail why he recommended Bill for the second highest award
in the Marine
Corps.
Bill Genaust's story did not end on Saipan. His name and deeds
are well
known to students of American history. He is the same Bill
Genaust who later
climbed Mt. Suribachi and captured on motion picture film, the
famous Flag
Raising on Iwo Jima.
The newsreels of the day brought this historic flag raising to
millions of
Americans in movie theaters all across the country, but Bill
never lived to
see his own pictures. He was killed in action just nine days
after the flag
was raised. His amazing story was told in the book "Immortal
Images" by Tedd
Thomey.
"Who will stand at either hand and guard the bridge with me?"
From the time
of Horatius even unto the present, men of outstanding courage
and character
have always been there, to defend freedom against the forces of
tyranny -
often with little recognition or reward. Bill Genaust was such
a man.
The Marines pride themselves in never leaving anyone behind, but
Genaust is
still there... on Iwo Jima. When the USMC removed the bodies of
those
honored dead from the island for burial in national cemeteries,
his was not
among them. He and a comrade had entered a cave to flush out
the enemy and
were killed by a squad of Japanese hidden inside. The Marines
hit the cave
with a flame thrower and then blew up the entrance. He still
lies there
today, in an unmarked grave.
Combat photographers go into battle to capture on film the
heroism of others,
only to die and lie forgotten in their own. Tedd Thomey did not
forget him,
nor should we. Today, in the age of "what's in it for me",
America
desperately needs to pause and to remember -- that once there
were giants...
Go tell Bill Genaust that we're coming back for him.
"And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day
when I make up
my jewels." ----- Malachi 3:17
ps: If you can help me find Lt. Col. Donald L. Dickson USMC,
that would be
very helpful. The USMC has informed me they will follow through
with the
posthumous Navy Cross award if Lt. Dickson would resubmit his
recommendation.
Frank Clynes
65 Pine Street
Swanse
Dick:
I want to thank you for your efforts on behalf of Sgt. Bill
Genaust. If this
Navy Cross can be posthumously awarded, it will be to the credit
and honor of
every Marine who ever served this country.
But I have no intention of stopping there. Fortified with the
national
publicity this long overdue presentation would generate, I
intend to go to
the Japanese Embassy in Washington, DC and request that their
government
direct the Japanese Army, still garrisoned on Iwo Jima, to
search for and
locate the mortal remains of Sgt. Genaust and as many of his
comrades as they
can find, and send them home to a heroes welcome, to be buried
with honor in
Arlington National Cemetery.
Those Iwo Jima caves were interconnected by a vast complex of
tunnels that
honeycombed through out the volcanic hills. In all likelihood,
the Japanese
squad that killed Genaust in that cave, escaped out the back
door to fight
another day. I'm betting that back door is still open, and the
Japanese have
preserved the WWII maps of those tunnels. It's time for the
lost battalion
to return. Sgt. Bill Genaust can bring them all home. It can
be done. ...
Let's do it.
Whose heart within him never burned,
As home, his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on some foreign strand.
Breathes there a man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said;
"This is my own, my native land."
--Frank Clynes
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Dick Gaines<Gun...@HotMail.Com>
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