Five Miles of Ash and Valor: Eighty Years of Remembering Iwo Jima

Quick answer: Why is the Battle of Iwo Jima remembered?

Beginning February 19, 1945, Marines fought for five weeks to take a small volcanic island from about 21,000 dug-in Japanese defenders. Americans suffered more than 26,000 casualties, including nearly 7,000 killed, and nearly the entire garrison died. The flag-raising on Mount Suribachi became one of the war's defining images.

On Iwo Jima your foot sinks into black volcanic ash that holds it like quicksand. John imagines the Marines who came ashore under Mount Suribachi on February 19, 1945, into a defense General Tadamichi Kuribayashi had carved into the rock and ordered held to the end. Some names still echo there. Gunnery Sergeant John Basilone already wore the Medal of Honor from Guadalcanal and could have stayed home selling war bonds. He went back and was killed on the first day. Corporal Hershel "Woody" Williams, a farm boy from Quiet Dell, West Virginia, earned the Medal of Honor clearing bunkers with a flamethrower and later said there was no glory in it. Ira Hayes, a Pima from Arizona, is one of the Marines in the flag-raising photograph, and he came home to a fame he never wanted. The battle cost more than 26,000 American casualties, nearly 7,000 of them killed, and almost the entire Japanese garrison of about 21,000. Today the island is a quiet Japanese military installation with limited access. John asks us to remember the men who felt the sand try to hold them and moved forward anyway.

Why it matters for leaders: Ordinary people from very different places pushed forward together under extraordinary pressure, and that standard is still worth measuring ourselves against.

Q: Which Marines in the article received the Medal of Honor?

A: John Basilone, for Guadalcanal in 1942, and Hershel "Woody" Williams, for Iwo Jima in 1945.

Q: Can you visit Iwo Jima today?

A: Access is tightly restricted. The island is a Japanese military installation, and visits generally come through organized commemorative trips.

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By John Fenzel, founder and CEO of Heroes' Path Foundation