Iwo Jima invasion survivors heading back to battle sites

Twelve war heroes were greeted at the Honolulu Airport gate Saturday morning with salutes, applause and camera flashes.

Only these 10 Marines and two sailors were not coming home from war. They are returning to the sites of their biggest battles.

They are survivors of the invasion of Iwo Jima, the seminal World War II battle between U.S. troops and Japanese soldiers that took place from February to March 1945.

All lost friends in those weeks and many were themselves injured. Most have never been back to Iwo Jima.

Their trip is being made possible by the Greatest Generations Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to promoting recognition and respect for veterans of wars of decades past.

Among those chatting with active Marines from Marine Corps Base Hawaii during a brief stopover on the way to Guam Saturday was former Sgt. Jack Thurman, 86, of Longmont, Colo., just outside Boulder.

During the first day of the invasion, on Feb. 19, 1945, Thurman injured his hip — the bullet hit his canteen and canteen cup first. The shot knocked him off his feet, but he kept fighting.

Others were not so lucky, Thurman said.

Artillery rounds hit the Amtrac amphibious transports on each side of Thurman’s, killing the 15 to 20 men in them before they even got out of the water, he said.

Thurman said his main objective when the group reaches Iwo Jima Wednesday is to find the spot where they died.

"I know roughly where they’re at," Thurman said, his eyes somber as he reflected on the fighting. "I want to visit their graves."

Thurman said he intends to bow his head and say the Lord’s Prayer in their honor.

Marine Sgt. Al Eutsey, then 20, was part of the first assault wave that made its way to the summit of Mount Suribachi, the highest point on the island. Just over a week later, Eutsey’s regiment was tasked with storming Hill 362A, the second highest point on Iwo Jima.

"I didn’t get hit until the 11th day," Eutsey said, pointing to the left side of his chest where he took two bullets. "I thought (the Navy corpsman) was going to use all his gauze up plugging all of my holes," he said.

Eutsey said he didn’t think he was going to make it off the island alive.

"The way I described it to my mother when I went home … it was like walking through a football stadium and trying to make a touchdown from one end of the field to the other with all the fans in the stands shooting at you without getting hit."

Of 250 people in his company, 67 were killed, he said. Only seven made it through Iwo Jima without any wounds.

"This killing people is not the way to settle things," Eutsey said.

Steffan Tubbs, chairman of the Greatest Generations Foundation, said his organization wants to send as many World War II veterans back to where they fought as possible.

"Time is of the essence," he said. "We’re losing 40,000 World War II veterans a month."

A group that tried to get to Iwo Jima last year went as far as Guam but got turned away after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan.

The foundation, which also brings veterans of the Pearl Harbor attack to Hawaii, hopes to continue its work to veterans of the Korean War, Vietnam War and beyond, Tubbs said.