Pullin' stuff out of cabinets to move into the new gunroom, I ran across something that means a lot to me. I thought "I need to share this story with the guys."
My mother has a sister that's affectionately known in the family as 'Aunt Betty'. Aunt Betty's husband, Uncle Bob, died many years ago from failing health. A few years later, Aunt Betty started seeing a fine gentleman that became known as 'Uncle Roy'.
Uncle Roy was a vet and served in the Marines in the Pacific theatre during WWII. When I found out about that, I started asking him about his experiences. I would sit for hours on the patio with him and listen to his war stories.
He called me one day. "I want you to come over to Betty's house this afternoon. I want to talk with you." "Yes Sir."
I met him and as usual, we retired to the patio. He began telling me a story I had not heard before. I don't know that I can quote him verbatim as it's been a long time, but in light of that, I'll reconstruct it the best I can.
"I was with the first wave that landed on Iwo Jima. Me and my sqaud were at one end of the assault wave. Just a few minutes after we made the beach, a Japanese machine gun opened up on us. I lost two men before we could hit the sand. They had us pinned behind a dune and if we had tried to charge the beach, it would have been suicide for all of us.
The dune ran down the beach to the right a good ways. I figured I could get down the beach using the dune for cover and I might could work my way up behind them. I took a man with me and told the rest of the men to keep the machine gun nest occupied.
When we got to the end of the dune, we saw that there was enough cover to get up behind a dune behind the machine gun nest. We worked our way up and then back to the left and finally got real close behind the Japs. I signalled to the other guy to shoot the gunner and belt man when I gave him the signal. I pulled out my knife and crawled up real easy. I jumped up, grabbed the officer by the front of his helmet, snatched his head back and cut his throat. My buddy shot the gunner and belt man in the back with his 45."
Uncle Roy stopped talking. He reached around behind him and pulled out something. "Here, I want you to have this. You're the only sonofabitch in the family that will appreciate it."
This is what he handed me.
It's outright overpowering to hold this knife in my hands. Uncle Roy is no longer with us in body. But, as long as I'm alive, he will be.
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Originally Posted by Ramar
