It is almost 73 years since the beginning of WWII. Over 16,354,000 men & women served in the U.S. Armed Forces during WWII with 400,000 giving the ultimate sacrifice. To show how deadly WWII really was, the 82-day Battle for Okinawa from early April until mid-June 1945, U.S. casualties were over 62,000 of who 12,000 were killed or missing. The Battle of the Bulge lasted 40 days (16 December 44 – 25 January 45) with 90,000 U.S. casualties; 19,000 killed, 47,500 wounded, and 23,000 captured or missing.
Today, the number of WWII veterans remaining stands at just over a million. By 2036, it is estimated there will be no living veterans that war left to recount their experiences. Approximately every three minutes a memory of World War II – its sights and sounds, its terrors and triumphs – disappears. Yielding to the inalterable process of aging, the men and women who fought and won the great conflict are now mostly in their 90s. They are dying quickly – at the rate of approximately 555 a day, according to US Veterans Administration figures.
History of Veterans Day
World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” – officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”
In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day. The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m.
With Public Law 380 on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars. President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first “Veterans Day Proclamation.” The observance of Veterans Day not only preserves the historical significance of the date, but helps focus attention on the important purpose of a celebration to honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.
Capitola resident Arvy Geurin was one veteran who has told the story of his experiences and how it really was for them. When Arvy wrote, “Walking Through Fire; An Iwo Jima Survivors Remembrance” it was his intention to tell the reader what it was like to live through that time and to understand what it was like when patriotism and personal sacrifice were the rule, not the exception.
Arvy passed away in 2012 and his family encourages individuals, businesses and communities fly the U.S. Flag on November 11, Veterans Day, to honor all generations of those who have served our country in uniform.
“Walking Through Fire: An Iwo Jima Survivor’s Remembrance”
by Arvy Geurin, as told to Gale Geurin
What was it like to walk through a hailstorm of deadly enemy fire in the bloodiest battle of World War II? On 19 February 1945, Arvy Geurin, RM/3C, US Navy, was about the find out.
“We weren’t action heroes or extraordinary men. We were farm boys and city jocks: scholars and drop-outs; rich and poor; we were just young men brought together by a common goal, moving toward the hungry jaws of war.”
The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the entire island, including its three airfields. This month-long battle included some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II. Twenty-seven U.S. military personnel were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions 13 of them posthumously. Twenty-two were presented to Marines and five to United States Navy sailors. Eighty-two Medals of Honor were awarded to Marines in World War II.
Of the 22,060 Japanese soldiers on the island, only 216 were captured during the battle. According to the official Navy Department Library website, “The 36-day (Iwo Jima) assault resulted in more than 26,000 American casualties, including 6,800 dead.”
The author of “Walking Through Fire”
Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas In 1925, Arvy Guerin was two years old when his older brother Elton and he moved with their parents to Lost Hills, California. He was there during the stock market crash and the following economic depression, but his parents never let their sons feel they were disadvantaged. During that time, they moved to Bakersfield, California a, where Army’s uncle owned a bakery. Arvy went from mowing lawns and selling vegetables to working in his uncle’s bakery when he was a teenager. He was there on December 7, 1941 when his life changed forever.
In 1943, Arvy Joined the US Navy. He was sent to San Diego, California, for Boot Camp and then Radio School and trained with the Marines as part of the amphibious forces. His training completed, he went by troop train from California to Oregon to be assigned as a Radioman aboard the newly commissioned USS NAPA/APA 157. Named for Napa County, California, the ship would take him into the midst of the war in the Pacific and on to the battle of Iwo Jima.
It became painfully obvious, when talking with his high school aged grandchildren, that the history of World War II was being taught as only statistics and little about how it really was. That spurred Arvy to tell his story. In November 2008, with his wife Gale, Arvy wrote, “Walking Through Fire; An Iwo Jima Survivors Remembrance.” Here is an excerpt:
Landing on Iwo Jima
We were close enough now to see the carnage in the water. Bodies of marines floated face down, their full packs weighing down their bodies. The water was a mixture of frothy red and brown. There wasn’t anything clean about the sea off Iwo Jima. It was another jolt toward the reality of what we were heading toward. How had I gotten here so fast? Had it been only ten years since I had been the youngest entrepreneur (selling culled vegetables) in McFarland California?
The amtrack slowed several yards from the shore of Iwo Jima. The marines rushed over the sides and we navy radiomen scrambled with them. We waded up to our waists in the churning water. Shell rained down from Mt. Surabachi and as bad as it was, we didn’t know then that it would get much, much worse.
The Japanese were holding back, waiting for the Fourth Wave. For us, the muddy and bloody water, the zing of bullets passing close to us were enough to know we were sloshing into hell.
Now my central focus was getting on that beach, putting my part of the three-sectioned radio together, and saying alive. It was beginning to dawn on me that going on that island might be my last act in this life.
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If you are interested in reading Arvy Geurin’s whole story, “Walking Through Fire: An Iwo Jima Survivor’s Remembrance” you can find it at, www.amazon.com/Walking-Through-Fire-Survivors-Remembrance/dp/1932172319
And remember to fly the U.S. flag every November 11 on Veterans Day
