In late January or early February 1945, we shipped out from the big island of Hawaii to somewhere in the Pacific for battle. We stopped for a short period of time at Pearl Harbor for what reason I am not sure. There were several other ships there and lots of marines and army and navy personnel. Our ship was there for a few hours so I walked a little bit through Honolulu and stopped at a small cathedral. I went in to say a few prayers; there was no one else in the church. Shortly I heard footsteps coming up the center aisle towards the altar and I glanced towards the footsteps and there was my buddy Lieutenant Ted Yund. He and I were the only ones in the church and we felt that was quite unusual to meet there. He was on the way to the Pacific also but his ship stayed in Pearl Harbor for several days. Our ship left almost immediately for the Pacific and was several days at sea and I never noticed another ship. Aboard ship we finally learned that we were headed for Iwo Jima, a volcano island only 750 miles from Japan. This island was fairly small, I believe only about 8 miles long and perhaps 4 miles wide with a large mountain volcano called Mt. Suribachi. Iwo had been bombed for many days so we didn’t know what to expect actually. We had models of Iwo aboard ship that we studied and learned where our units were to attack. On the way, every night, our Catholic chaplin Lieutenant Paul Bradley, a priest from Brooklyn, would say the rosary on the deck with any marines who cared to join him. He said it very quickly probably about 10 to 15 minutes and then we went to bed in the hold of the ship on three decker cots. On February 18th we anchored several miles off Iwo in the pitch dark. The next morning when I woke up and looked out at the ocean there were several hundred U.S. ships. Later I was told there were 800 ships all anchored near us. It was a good feeling to see so many ships. Early in the morning we dressed for combat with our ammunition, our weapons and so on and climbed down rope ladders from along the side of the ship to small landing barges that had assembled and were waiting for us. It was fairly rough water and we were all in a big hurry to get on the barges and, frequently, our hands were stepped on by the marine above as we clambered down onto the barges. There seemed to be hundreds of small landing craft barges each one operated by a sailor. The barges would hold about a platoon and we all stood up in the barge. The sailor was at the stern of the craft and at the bow was a ramp that operated on pulleys that would slam down on the beach when we landed. Prior to landing we constantly circled in the rough water and there was a heavy smell of diesel fuel. I am hazy on this but I believe our regiment, at least our battalion, circled for about three hours in the rough water and diesel laden air. I was feeling nauseous but did not become seasick as I was very excited. None of us seemed to have any fear, however. One or two waves landed before us and seemed to not have much difficulty in landing and going forward on the beaches. When our group landed, I believe it was the third wave, all hell broke loose. Apparently the Japs had allowed the first two waves to get inland a while and then began heavy firing from Mount Sirabachi onto the third wave. When our craft hit the beach, the sailor tried to lower the landing ramp but it stuck so some of us began kicking the landing ramp and some went over the side of the craft and eventually the landing ramp lowered to the beach and those left on the craft scrambled out onto the beach. The sailor brought up the landing ramp back up and backed out into the water to return to the ship. As it left the beach it took a direct hit from Mt. Sirabachi and killed the sailor and blew up the craft. On the beach we tried to scramble forward and into holes made by heavy shells from the Japanese artillery for some protection. As some of us rose to go forward, we noticed four or five marines who were ahead of us get killed immediately. It was then that I realized this was for real. It was a very confused situation with many deaths of marines and not a Japanese to be seen anywhere. There was a lot of disorder and confusion for many hours, possibly a couple of days before we were able to get together as a unit, Third Battalion, 28th Marines. We heard that our battalion commander had broken down mentally and had to be relieved of duty. The executive officer, Major Tolson Smoak, took over the battalion. Our mission at that time was that we, the First, Second, and Third Battalion, 28th Regiment, was to march across this narrow end of Iwo to cut off Mt. Sirabachi.