Iwo Jima veterans recall their experiences
On Feb. 23, 1945, while aboard the USS Cecil attack transport floating near Iwo Jima, Navy corpsman Robert Bergen grabbed a viewfinder and began looking for an American flag that had caused quite a stir a few hours before.
The flag was small and placed atop Mount Suribachi, the Japanese island’s peak. For the Marines and Navy personnel, when they saw it flying high above the black volcanic sands where so many had died after four days of fierce fighting, it symbolized victory.
Bergen wanted to see it too.
But, as the 91-year-old Spring Valley resident recalled Friday during a special dinner for a Newport Beach-based nonprofit’s effort to erect an Iwo Jima memorial at Camp Pendleton, what he actually witnessed was history in the making.
Through the viewfinder, Berger watched the tiny America flag go down and its larger replacement go up simultaneously. It likely would have been an inconsequential moment had it not been documented by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, whose shot of six Marines raising the larger flag became one of the most iconic images of the 20th century.
“I thought at the time, ‘I’m seeing something that’s very significant here. Years from now, I’m going to be talking about this to somebody,’” Bergen recalled. “That’s come to pass.”
Bergen was one of about 12 Iwo Jima veterans and 40 others at Friday’s dinner, held at the Grand Pacific Palisades Resort and Hotel in Carlsbad and organized by Iwo Jima Monument West, a nonprofit founded by Corona del Mar resident Laura Dietz.
For the past few years, Dietz, who’s lived in CdM since 1988 and unsuccessfully ran for City Council in 2002, has been lobbying to put an Iwo Jima memorial at Camp Pendleton. The estimated $10-million project would feature a smaller, glass-enclosed replica of the Marine Corps War Memorial statue depicting Rosenthal’s photo that’s near Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
The privately funded memorial would on a hilltop behind Camp Pendleton’s Pacific Views Event Center, within sight of the 5 Freeway, and considered a gift to the military. It would complement a small, rock-like Iwo Jima memorial that’s also behind the event center.
Late last year, Dietz submitted plans for the memorial to the base. She had hoped to get the green light from Camp Pendleton by this month, on the 72nd anniversary of the start of the Battle of Iwo Jima, but she’s still waiting to hear back.
“It’s making its way through the labyrinth,” Dietz said. “That’s what I call the military bureaucracy.”
She suspects that the base will OK her proposal before forwarding it to Washington, D.C. for final approval. Dietz said she also needs to raise most of the $10 million.
“Because I’m fiscally conservative, I will not authorize breaking ground until I know that all the funds are in hand or pledged,” she said.
“The stock market has gone up,” Dietz added with a laugh. “I see no reason some of our great patriots in Orange County wouldn’t love to be part of this. This is something that’s bigger than any of us. It’s about a critically important time in our history and a critically important place.”
On Thursday, she formally presented her idea to the Iwo Jima Assn. of America for its endorsement, something she didn’t necessarily need but nonetheless wanted.
The group has never given such endorsements, but it is supporting her, said retired Marine Lt. Col. Raul “Art” Sifuentes, the association’s director of business development.
“We think it’s of course a great idea,” he said. “We’re going to support it as much as we can. We can do that with our website, word of mouth and events.”
Sifuentes said the Camp Pendleton memorial would be one of many dedicated to the Marines throughout the country.
“It’s very important that we have places like our memorials so that people can go and remember the sacrifices that all Marines have made, not just those at Iwo Jima,” he said. “But that’s our icon. That’s kind of our mecca that identifies Marines as Marines. It’s part of who we are.”
There’s “not a Marine in the world,” Sifuentes added, who doesn’t know it.
Friday’s event concluded with a panel of Iwo Jima veterans recalling their experiences, during and after the battle. On their name tags were red heart stickers, signifying their status as someone who participated in the pivotal conflict.
As they talked, Dietz stood behind them smiling, occasionally helping them hold up their microphone or show the audience a picture.
After the Iwo vets were done, a group of young Marines, dressed in their brown service uniforms, quickly hopped out of their chairs. The young generation held the hands and canes of the old breed, helping them make the step to exit the stage.
