Veterans remember Battle of Iwo Jima

Photo By Spc. Leigh Campbell | Bill Griggs, who served as a rifleman with the 3rd Marine Division during the Battle of Iwo Jima, was one of more than 200 U.S. and Japanese veterans, family members, and dignitaries who attended a ceremony March 14 of the 62nd anniversary of the battle.  

CAMP KINSER, OKINAWA, JAPAN

03.23.2007

Story by Lance Cpl. Zach Griffith 

III Marine Expeditionary Force   

By Lance Cpl. Zach Griffith
III Marine Expeditionary Force PAO

CAMP KINSER, OKINAWA, Japan, -- In the spirit of forgiveness and the celebration of an alliance between once bitter enemies, U.S. and Japanese veterans, their families, and political figures gathered on Iwo Jima for a commemoration of the 62nd anniversary of the battle for the island.

More than 200 service members from III Marine Expeditionary Force supported the commemoration March 12-15. A formal ceremony took place March 14.

Every year, Iwo Jima hosts a ceremony to honor those who fought and gave their lives in a battle that raged for 36 days on an island smaller than Manhattan.

Bill Griggs, who landed on the beaches as a rifleman with the 3rd Marine Division, made his second trip to the island since the battle in 1945. In the 62 years since he first trudged the beaches, the war-torn landscape had transformed, and so had the relationship between the U.S. and Japan.

• Date Taken: 03.23.2007
• Date Posted: 03.23.2007 11:48
• Story ID: 9593
• Location: CAMP KINSER, OKINAWA, JP