

Fritz Truan
Written for American Cowboy Magazine It was February 19th, 1945. In the distance a non-descript mountain stuck out above one end of an unappealing land mass - Sulfur Island, or as the Japanese called it, Iwo Jima. In the hundreds of landing craft making their way to the beaches of this spit of land 600 miles from Tokyo, Marines were readying for the fight as their ungainly assault boats heaved and rocked, clumsy in the tossing waves. Resolute under camouflage-covered helm