Of the 75th anniversary of the start of the battle of iwo jima, we will head to the National Museum of the marine corps. First, a 2006 interview with woody williams, honored for actions on iwo jima. In this clip, he talks about the moment the American Flag was raised during the battle. Up, we had flag went no idea what was going on. We had no idea what was going on. To pay too busy attention to what anybody else was doing. I didnt know what was going on. I guess i had my back to mount sarah bocce. Raised up, around me jumped up, and started firing their weapons into the air, screaming and yelling and that kind of stuff. And i really thought everybody had lost their minds for a second. I could not figure out what was going on. And then i caught on what was going on because they were on the mountain and i looked, and there is old glory on top. I jumped up and started doing the same dumb thing they were doing, firing my weapon in the air and jumpingnd screaming. A weapon. Ying i jumped up and started firing in the air and yelling and screaming like everybody else. How many marinesthe we lost at that particular moment. But it changed the whole attitude about the whole thing. From the exhibit space inside the National Museum of the marine corps in quantico, virginia, we are joined by marine corps history chief edward nevgloski, and owen connor. On this eve of the 75th anniversary of the battle of iwo jima, explain why there are two historic flags in that hallway that you are sitting in right now. We wanted to take the opportunity to make sure that coul the mountain. Since it is the anniversary, and we wanted to make the effort to give people this opportunity to see them, as we talk at the museum, both flags are important to the marine corps. Talk about the first flag being the most important flag. That is the veterans that were at the battle that so it lifted. The second that the second flag is the First American major media event. It is iconic. The flags wentow up, when the change happened, and how far into the battle of iwo jima this to face. It was shortly after the , aines had landed threepronged attack. They wanted to isolate the mountain. When it was isolated, they sent a control a patrol to the top , not knowing what they would find, but when they reach the summit, they wanted to let everyone know they cleared the peak and they planted the first flag on the island. This flag was a smaller flag. It was not large enough to be seen, so it was immediately decided to put a larger flag on Mount Suribachi. We have heard numerous veterans telling us the moment they saw theflag go up, you heard ships surrounding the island honking their horns, you saw marines cheering. Humorously, a lot of veterans we have spoken to pointed out that they were busy trying not to be killed during the battle and kept their heads down, so you hear a lot of Great Stories from when the flag first went up. Host we heard one of those first stories from woody williams. You are sitting next to edward nevgloski, the marine corps history chief. How much longer did the battle go on after the flag was raised over Mount Suribachi, and why did this moment become the moment that symbolizes the marine corps so much so that the moment that is represented in the marine corps statue in arlington, virginia . The battle will go on, would rage on for another month. The battle entailed hundreds of thousands of casualties. Raisingknow, the flag at the outset of the battle, it was at a time when the marine corps is taking a significant number of casualties. Whatattle on par with estimates had dictated. But there was also a sense of press,and continuing to and the flag raising represents that. For the marines that did see the flag raised, the sailors that were out at sea, it was symbolic in that the fight has just begun, it is going to continue together as a team come as a nation. This island can be seized. Iteremoniously in some became a calling charge, if you will. It was something that motivated the marines and continued to resignation to resonate in their minds as they pushed on for another month. Host tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of the start of the battle of iwo jima, the landings beginning february 19 of 1945, 26,000 american casualties, including nearly 7000 dead. Of the 20,000 japanese defenders, only 1100 survived the battle. Medals of honor awarded during for actions during the battle. The topic as we focus on the National Museum of the marine corps this money. As we focus on the battle of iwo jima, asking viewers to call in as well come on special phone lines split up regionally. If you are in the eastern or 748,al time zones, 202, 8000. A special line marines and marine family members, 202748 8002. Go ahead and start calling and now as we show you some of the scenery of the museum. Owen connor is one of the gallery curators at that museum. Can you explain how the raising of the flag over Mount Suribachi is incorporated into the dna of the museum that you are sitting in . Second flag when rosenthal snapped the image, i often emphasize it is really this iconic media moment. Early in the war we would send correspondence to the pacific and it could take weeks, months for things to get back. But when it comes to the flag being taken, it is literally from the battlefield, the front pages of america. Within about two days, International Dateline times. It is almost a viral moment. It is ingrained in the museum, from the architecture that you see and from the way it has traveled through time. I always say it takes on bigger meaning within the marine corps. It symbolizes victory in world war ii, it came at the right time. Patents tanks were rolling across germany, the allies were winning in europe, and then s tanks this patton were rolling across germany, the allies were winning in europe. It is really ingrained in everything the marine corps does, because that moment captures the spirit of our country, captures the marine corps mentality. It is such a beautiful artistic image that rises above the moment. Nevgloski, there were 700,000 that participated in the war of the battle of iwo jima. How much were marines . 70,000, 80,000 that is the initial landing, and then post landings and later. Marines74,000 to 75,000 will touch the ground, and that includes the navy core men are with them. In addition, the u. S. Army soldiers that were supporting. Host what was the strategic importance of the battle . Considering the losses we talked about already, could the island have been bypassed in the larger war effort . Guest it is a good question. Is,importance of iwo jima you have to understand the larger picture. When you think of the campaign of the pacific with the marines and the navy, and of course the United States, the allies, it is all about logistics. It is about getting enough combat power and what i mean about combat power is your forces, your equipment, your firepower, your bullets and bandaids, if you will. The pacific is a very large theater. You have to build up enough power, combat power, for the ultimate objective, which is mainly japan, the complete capitulation of the Japanese Forces. In order to do that, the allies are going to have to make a slow, methodical approach, seizing key strategic islands along the way. And of course as that is occurring, we have to pick and choose these islands based on what those islands present to us. Shipsy have ports where can anchor and offload . Preconstructed that the marines can move in and take over . Airfields, for example. As we get closer to mainland japan, iwo jima is that fortress in the middle of the pacific that is going to stop our tocraft from delivering mainly japan. If we can cz iwo jima, we if we can cz iwo jima, we can save hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of aircraft. Itthe key is to think of logistically, and then what iwo jima resents for our ability to seize the mainland. Host the force brought by americans when they landed there, what was the japanese goal . Did they think they could win the fight . The Japanese Forces believed early on when they started to develop defenses on iwo jima that there was a chance that they could delay us and potentially defeat us. As the war lingers on, the belief is that the japanese probably will not have the industrial power, the industrial might to hold us off. So it goes from a defense and delay to an attrition style defense. , the defenses there are built 28 years earlier, and they continue to be improved with each passing year. By the time the leader of the jima,se force gets to iwo he essentially knows that this is the last stand. Japan is not going to be able to hold out, so the idea is to kill as Many Americans as you can with the potential to delay, but knowing that in the end, that is going to be his final resting place. Host live from the National Museum of the marine corps, we are joined by edward nevgloski, marine corps history chief, owen connor, world war gallery world war ii gallery curator. We have the special lines for marines and family members 2027488002. Jessica, good morning. Caller thanks for taking my call. I wanted to say i so much appreciate the work of the marine corps in trying to educate the public about the war in the pacific. I dont think the public is aware of the war in the pacific thatch as the other areas saw battle throughout the world. So i am very appreciative of that. Thei will be thinking about people who sacrificed their while the week nowledgment of image ima of iwo jima is being recognized. I debt was in the civic as a marine scout. He survived, but all that said, thank you so much and good luck. Host we noted the 75th anniversary of the beginnings of the landings at iwo jima begin tomorrow. Mr. Connor, what is going to be happening at the museum there throughout these days, the 75th anniversary . Guest we are really excited. The 22nd, 23rd, we will be showing large numbers of artifacts from the battle, highlighting what we really have collected since we opened in 2006 it from my own personal collection, the collection i curate here, we are highlighting particularly the Valley Metals and the sacrifice, the personal stories of the marines involved. One of the things i noticed since we have collected here, we tried to document the stories of each individual as much as the battle itself. There is a trend that involves in world war ii with the marine corps, particularly by wars and end, realizing that we are running out of men to fight these battles, and the number of metals that you have, to see trends where they are 17yearold enlistees, or they are later marines who are drafted, who are family men in their 30s. So by far the number of casualties you see reflected in these metals that will be displaying is reflected in the human toll. That the generation of world war ii, we are so focused on American Pride and what we accomplished, but we also have to understand that these are real people and they are marines that all gave up something that really there is a human toll to it, and we had our limits as a country, and this is something that we want to highlight those individual stories and faces this weekend. Individuals are viewers just saw from the cases in your exhibit space was the navy cross of john as alone silone. Basilone, any gunner knows about john. He will receive the medal of honor as a machine gun squad leader during the battle for guadalcanal. Andill depart the theater go back as part of the bond drive, and then later on while he is an instructor at Camp Pendleton teaching future marine machine gunners, he will return to the site, return to the pacific theater, and he will land on iwo jima, and he will be killed in the war, and get the navy cross. Wereter the marines that trained in Camp Pendleton, california, becoming back to the pacific and landed on iwo jima, where the marines he was killed with months later. Host we mentioned before, some 27 medals of honor were given out for actions on iwo jima at how many of the individuals who received those 27 medals made it off the island the life . Doing the math, the 27ans math of deaths, 13 or 14 were posthumous awards to marines. 27 for one battle alone sort of speaks to the volume. Just the savagery of the conflict of 24 battalion commanders, 14 were wounded or killed in a. The uncommon valor, the common virtue, it is certainly not hollow words. It is absolutely true. Those and one of battalion commanders, Lieutenant Colonel chambers received to the medal of honor, one of the more popular stories. The medal of honor at iwo jima consumes 80 of the medals of honor that will be received by the marine corps during the war. So when you consider those staggering numbers, aside from the casualties, it is amazing the ferocity of the fight, and just the absolute heroism. These are the stories that we know about. The stories that we dont know, the things that happened that remain between those marines, the eyewitnesses, there are probably 27 more medals of honor that we just dont know about. Marines the line for and family members, this is john out of kitty hawk, north carolina. Good morning, john. Caller would morning. Thank you for having them on today. This is very special for my family. We were a fivestar family in world war ii. Marines at iwo jima. My grandfather, thomas hines, was wounded by a sniper, and luckily survived. Youst want to say thank from multiple generation marines, we really appreciate it. Host john, thank you for the call. Mr. Nevglosk, what does a fivestar family mean . Guest you have five family members there. The goldstar is if one of those family members is killed. To see a flag in the window, which is what most americans did at the time, a small flag that would be displayed in the window of their house, and for each service member, deployed in theater for being in the war, there was a star. So that is the significant contribution from that family. Host john is on the line for marines and family members from illinois. Good morning. Hi, this is john. My dad was on iwo jima, i was a marine in vietnam. Going through Old Newspaper articles that my mom saved, my dad has been dead for 40 years. I am going through newspaper articles, and here is an article that my mom saved from 1944, 45. I guess it is 1945. It is an article that says my dad got the purple heart on iwo jima. Within that article, it also mentions another neighborhood of chicago, the neighborhood, a fellow named maccarthy. Im almost certain it is mccarthy. He got the medal of honor. An old yellow piece of newspaper article. Giving aecall a fellow metal to a medal to a marine . It is such a gorgeous place. All of you jar heads have got to go see it. God bless america. Who ha for jar heads. Edward nevgloski, for you, sir. I do not know if it is this particular one, but i will certainly look into it. I really appreciate the fact that the gentleman calls me steeper that is such a marine corps thing. Calls me me ski ski. If you are a marine and your last name ends with s k. I. A. , you will certainly be known as ski. Host owen connor is the world war ii gallery coordinator at the National Museum of the marine corps, joining us this morning into special edition of the washington journal, brought to you by the washington journal American History tv. As we explored d. C. Area museums and the american story. Esther connor, coming back to the mr. Connor, my back to the exhibit, related to iwo jima, i want to talk about a picture of some glasses, pens and a brush that are in a case there. Can you tell the story specifically of those glasses . As a curator, we are always collecting personal stories, and their option their object that meant something to marines in the battle. It also gives them an opportunity to talk about the marines themselves and the characters. Williamhe characters, odom he was better known to his friends as wild bill from bougainville, and he was a young marine who enlisted in 19. He had been previously wounded in the battle of saipan. When he fought in iwo jima, he had gathered artifacts that meant something to him, and some of these were captured japanese personal effects. He wanted to tell the story about how even at the worst and darkest of times, marines could find dark humor in the events. He would tell me the story about , they labeled them tojos glasses, and when the marines were pinned down in the action that day, he and his friends entertained themselves, waving the glasses over the berm at the japanese snipers that were taking fire at them. As they related the story, humorously, by the end of the day, they had spent most of the day pinned down, and a young southern had crawled up to their position and was looking for some heroism, and he decided he could take out the japanese sniper. Bill and his friends pummeled the young marine quickly and told him not to fire, which caused the marines confusion. He said that if they shut the replacethey would just him with somebody who might be able to hit something. They were happy that they had tojos glasses that we keep them alive a little bit longer. I thought it was a wonderful story. Host how much of your collection comes from donated items, and is it something that continues to grow, especially now, as we are getting to a time where we are losing so many world war ii veterans . Absolutely, and that is what means so much to me. People see this Wonderful Museum and they expect that the marine corps has always been collecting these things. It really we opened in 2006, and this has made such a wonderful it has given us such a wonderful opportunity to add to our collection. These stories that individuals can relate, just bring in naturally through our doors, the vast majority of our donations come directly from the families. Sadly, until recently the veterans themselves would bring the object in. That is the thing that is so powerful, to be able to speak to that marine and their families, for them to share the photos of him, his accomplishments in the war, the war stories, i talk to people when they donate and it is an opportunity to build a time capsule to their loved ones, there marines. So that the marine history is not lost. Our museum sort of serves that purpose in allowing that to be documented and saved for future generations. The flags behind you . Were they in a private collection or private hands . The mostankfully, important artifacts are the iwo jima flex. The are flags. Despite intels claiming that their relative may have obtained the real one or something humorous along those lines, we know for a fact that the marine corps has possession of these on some of the earliest correspondence from headquarters from the marine corps showed these marine flags were sent to quantico at an early marine corps museum, as early as april of 1945, so it was quickly recognized that these flags were of vital importance. In fact, they sent three flags back to headquarters at marine corps, Quantico Marine corps base, and basically the first flag, the second fly, and the third flag were over a Division Cemetery at the time. Very important artifacts to us. Taking your phone calls as we come up on 9 30 on the east coast with special phone lines. Marines and family members, 2027488002. Otherwise, split up by time zone. Dakota,rdeen, south this is jim. Caller how you doing, guys . Host doing well, jim. Good morning. Caller i just want to say you guys are studs. I really love you. Have had a number of uncles who fought in a number of wars the korean war, what were two. A number of things. I dont have a whole lot to say because i am kind of emotional. I just respect this country so i think it is just the best country in the world, in history. God, i love you guys. The thing is that i wanted to say was, host do you remember any of r wife wrote . r caller she started off saying as a young guy and he served his country and never asked why. My god we were sitting there and he had the congressional medal of honor with him. He shared it with us. He was the guest of honor and we did not even know that. When they called him over, he said i am not leaving this table yet. Im not ready. By the way, i served in iwo jima and i have the right to do what i want to do. He has a crusty guy but a wonderful man. God bless him. Thank you. Host thank you for your phone call. Mr. Nevgloski, we showed a at the start of the segment a video clip of willie williams. Can you tell the rest of the story . Guest as far as the citation, his medal of honor . Host please. Guest he is in a position as an nco, a corporal at iwo jima, where the last thing you want to do is get held up in a position under enemy fire. Once the enemy pins you down, you have to be able to break the enemys momentum there and sometimes it takes the actions of one individual marine. The ae individual marine. Being his position and stature as a small unit leader, he knows that that pressure is on him. He has got to pick up and move forward, getting his marines out from underneath the enemy fire. What he will do is make several very daring decisions and charges at enemy positions. Machine gun positions. Positionsn that are encased in concrete and he will do that with small arms, flora rifle, with a flame with a flamethrower. At one point he is able to reach a pull box and stick his weapon inside the pillbox while the machine gun is still firing at him. He also has machine guns at different angles, different positions that can support the one pillbox he is trying to destroy. His marines see that, and they immediately think, we cannot allow woody to go out there by himself, and on top of that, he is our leader and he is setting the example. The follow me kind of idea that marine corps ncos represent. His charge is there, across fire also targeted by artillery and mortar fire. And of course, he doesnt have the ability to see 360 he cannot see everything that is going on to his left and right, but he certainly can feel the enemy fire targeted on him. Amazing, daring act, that if there was anything greater than the medal of honor, he certainly should be considered for it. Host back to phone calls per this is dan out of falling waters, west virginia. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would just like to also say that it is a Wonderful Museum. It is close to Quantico Marine base, and i have been to quantico. Hall, therelejeune is a plaque dedicated to general lejeune, and in the writings of it, congress wanted to disband the marine corps after world war isand general lejeune credited with saving the marine corps so they could fight greater fights later. Thank you. That is just a comment. Nevgloski, seems like a perfect time to jump in here. Guest there are probably at least a dozen times where the marine corps as a Services Organization is looked at as redundant on the american taxpayer. For example, the marines are a small force. We are restricted primarily to ships and naval stations throughout the 1700s and 1800s. We will assist the army in expanded land campaigns, we will seize islands, we will do very. Mall armylike tasks as we enter world war i, the marine corps is in the process of transitioning from being more or less an augment to the army and the navy to be incompletely maritime and conducting advanced operations that we will conduct in world war ii. Then what where one happens, and the marine corps finds itself a short thousands of marines fighting almost as if it was a second land army. That will happen throughout our history. From the result is that politicians will question do we need a second lane army . Is there another mission . Even before the marines landed at okinawa, there is a determination on monday army and the navy that the marine corps will go away. It will be absorbed by the other branches. And we will have a collection of very senior decorated marines that will go before the halls of congress, known as the chowder society, that basically put the marine corps story out there for the sake of our survival. We will survive, public law will be written and the marine corps will stay a separate branch and have its own mission. That is what we execute to this day. But the caller is correct, there are a number of times where the marine corps is almost absorbed by the other branches. Host this morning on the washington journal, focusing on the mission of iwo jima come on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the landing. Mr. Connor, we have been highlighting some of the exhibits you have on display down there at the National Marine corps museum. One of them is a helmet with a pretty incredible amount of damage to it. Can you tell us about that helmet . Sorter ae helmets stark testimony the helmet is the of a stark testimony of savagery of the battle. A marine, 30 years old, a member of the battalion, struck by enemy fire on the first day of the battle thankfully, if you look at it, you would have concerns, but he survived. Severe lacerations to his head, but he was evacuated from the island shortly after his injuries, and he donated the helmet to us here and his family donated the helmet to us, and thankfully he lived to the ripe old age until 1969 when he passed away of natural causes. But within our collection, there are numerous helmets and artifacts like that. That are sort of a testimony to just how awful the invasion was those are those kinds of things, the mementos that you have. Fairly recently we took in a collection from a young marine, who was wounded in the battle, and still had his pocket contents in the uniform, the dungarees. You could still find his cigarettes and chocolate wrappers and things from the day he was wounded that were there. These other kinds of artifacts that we have here that sort of just capture those moments in time. Hopefully they will affect our viewers the way they affect us. Host back to our lines for family members of marines. Good morning. Yes, good morning. I am a descendent of navajo. My father was with the fifth marine division, third battalion, 27 rings at iwo jima. Their role was to secure the airfields and send out the code when the flag went up on mount ,uribachi with the 28 marines and the code went like this. [speaking native american language] that means Mount Suribachi. When they say over and out, it says the rabbit went home. So they came in on red beach, the second wave with radios. So i wanted to tell you that. You might have some information there at your museum, your anniversary. Thank you. Host stay on the line for a second pair it i will let edward lasky jump on nevgloski jump on. Guest they were our native american brothers that were able to come through their dialect, through their language, provide the ability for us to pass information that could not be deciphered by the japanese intelligence, and what an asset it proved to be. In addition to that, the native americans were some of the most fierce fighters. Whole in many ways, that native american philosophy of protecting your ground, standing your ground, fighting for the person to your left and right, meshed so well with being a u. S. Marine. Hats off to the code talkers and everything they brought to the fight. Host go ahead, mr. Connor. Debuting anuseum is enhancement in the next few months, focused on navajo code talkers. I think it is one of those under told stories. It has become a cliche to talk about their contributions in the sense that they did this word substitution. But what the exhibit is going to concentrate on is the code aspect of it, that it is not just something that was sort of a simple rudimentary thing, but it is a cryptologic story. I think that has been under told in the world war ii code talker narrative, and it is so wonderful to hear the caller actually speaking in navajo. And they are not literal translations of things, they are actually quite fascinating what they were doing from a cryptologic standpoint. We really owe them a lot. It is an amazing story. Ask before going to you go, do you remember what the codeword was for iwo jima, and could you speak it . I dont have the code right now, but i do have semper fi. Host how do you say that . Caller semper fi goes like this [speaking navajo language] suribachi semper fi. Host thank you so much for calling in this morning. We appreciate that. Kevin out of clearwater, florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. My father was with the navy underwater demolition, fraud men. He was in on the invasion of iwo jima. He said they were clearing away for the marines they were clearing a way for the marines. The marines were right on the spot. He said that after we did our job, we had to go in with them. We had to fight, this was an invasion, the mission, and he beginning, hehe said to the left and the right we were being slaughtered. He said i did not know if i was going to die, i just wondered when. He said it took so long to get to the top, so many days to the said when it, he was all over, he said for the most part it was such a bunch of young guys laying on the beach , my men many young guys and i walked to the beach. ,ne soldier spoke of heroics you know, and he said when he came back, you know, he said that is the reason why i would never go to the beach with the family, because when i would go to the beach, iwo jima would all come back to me. And i said like it is never really over . And he said sometimes. The battle of iwo jima, he described it as being in other battles, but for me iwo jima was the worst because it was so narrow and the enemy was right there, so close to us. Sheerd it was 46 days of terror for me. And he said at night, the japanese would sneak up, and it was so dark, and try to kill some of our soldiers. It is so interesting listening to your show because you are hearing different perspectives. Sameverybody went to the experience went through the same experience of iwo jima. In some ways it is so much worse. But anyway, thank you. It is very interesting. Host thank you, and thank you for sharing your story. Edward nevgloski, what do you take from that . It is interesting. One of the techniques the marines have as we come ashore at iwo jima is the estimation is that the marine corps is going to take casualties for 33 of the force. And we actually almost reached that the estimates were pretty good. 31 of the force is wounded or killed, destroyed, weekly destroyed. But as the initial waves go ashore and the casualties start to mount, each Landing Craft that comes in, the sailors and the marines would throw crates of ammunition into the sand, just scattered about. They are not putting them in any particular location, they are just throwing them out so the marines can, when they get a chance, come back, break the can open, get a resupply of ammunition, move back, and try to get an inch further, in addition to throwing out cans of ammunition, the marines and sailors start to throw out ponchos. The confusion is, when we need the ash what do we need these ponchos for initially, and it is to recognize that it is to cover the dead littering the beach. That is a somber thought. I can only imagine being a survivor of iwo jima, if i went back to see that beach, remembering what it looked like 75 years earlier, that would be amazing. But the gentleman, the caller talking about his relative doing the underwater demolitions clearing the way, make no bones about it, we have been bombing iwo jima from the air for 77 two february 19 19. Then the naval department, for three days prior to the landing. The element of surprise is gone. The japanese know we are coming, 77 days before it happens. The obstacles they put out under the water, there are very few, but there is enough to get the marines to believe that this is going to be a defendant beach. Really the obstacles are about 100 yards inland. Ash, thehe volcanic large hump that the marines have to go over. When they finally go over, after about an hour of being on the beach, they break a certain defense line in the jet and the japanese start to engage them. So the initial entry onto the beach is not bad at all. It is about an hour later when we hit the high ground of the firm, that is when we triggered the japanese defense. Host about 10 minutes later this morning, from the National Marine corps museum in quantico, virginia. I get in this morning, to washington, d. C. , at least every other year. But no matter how many times i go, one monument gives me the chills and a smile. It is the raising of the flag at iwo jima. It is magnificent, and it is the actions of our finest. Mr. Connor, can you talk about the history of that memorial in arlington, and how many survivors of iwo jima where there, do you know, when it was dedicated . Guest it sort of falls outside my scope of what we do, as we concentrate on the museum itself. The 12t i can say about in sculpture and the iconography of the actual flag raising, the flag has a journey story, whether it is the sculpture that we see in arlington or this displayed at the museum. Media moment, i talk about the journey to us and how it got to the museum. One of the most fascinating stories is it becomes a su symbol of the war bond tour of the war, the main visual image used the war bond tour raises more money for the cause than all the other war bond tours prior to it. I think that is amazing if you think about it, that as americans we are paying for a war as it occurs. Even by 1945, wages were increasing and folks were more worried about improvements after the war, the men are still fighting. But they are still conscious, and the flag image can inspire people to think so much more for their country. The flag continues its journey. After the war there is a freedom train that carries an original version of the constitution, the bill of rights, the iwo jima flag. It travels through the country to inspire americans, this renewed sense of patriotism, 1949, we are bringing back these members these memories, the iconography of the flag. It is an important visual symbol in arlington, one of the tangible forms of the power of the iwo jima flag raising and what it means to us as americans. Host jane is next out of illinois. Caller good morning. I was wondering how long after the invasion of iwo jima did they invade okinawa. My father i have an article from the paper. My father was one of the first and he wasokinawa, 28 years old. I wondered whether there were more casualties on iwo jima or more on okinawa. I know there was a lot of casualties. Backi remember my dad came , we were never told to get out of bed, we were always told to hit the deck. We were never called in for supper. We were always told chow down. There is a lot of different lingo from the marine corps. We got that as kids. And my brother also served, and he was on okinawa. Host thanks so much for the call. Gloski . E guest we have been focusing on okinawa as the next step. The Island Hopping campaign that the marines are executing. Okinawa will be much more complex. Of course, as an island, it is much larger than iwo jima. Iwo jima is only eight square miles. Okinawa is four to five times that. You are also definitely encroaching upon you are no longer in the japanese front yard at okinawa. You are in their living room. You are actually cracking into their living room. And we have to understand, okinawa is also going to be the pinnacle where we establish and bring all of our combat power remember i talked earlier about the logistics mindset of the pacific theater. All of that combat power is going to make its way from the different islands past iwo jima to okinawa. That is the steppingstone for mainland japan. Have 100,000 to plus troops land at okinawa. Youre going to have twice the number of casualties. You will have a lot of civilian casualties as well. All the islands previous to okinawa are going to be uninhabited. Other than japanese, the only people youre going to find our maybe korean laborers that were building the fortresses. You might find the island inhabitants are very small in numbers. Okinawa, you are going to have through japanese citizens there. The complexity of okinawa, once later, is extremely significant to understand what okinawa meant compared to what Iwo Jima Iwo Jima is yet another steppingstone to get to okinawa. Okinawa is the pinnacle to get to mainland japan. Host time for one or two more phone calls this morning. Our live show this morning from National Museum of the marine corps. This is jeff out of merrimack, new hampshire. Jeff, go ahead. Caller thank you for picking up the call today, cspan. I want to thank all present, and future service members. We have so much because of you people. The gentleman in the red tie in the eye but thank you. Second, this would go to the gentleman with the red tie. My mother who passed away a number of years ago she was to remi gagnon. Him coming toers the house when she was a kid. They made no big deal of it. When she was a kid, they made no big deal of it. It was just amazing to me my wifes side of the family may no big deal of the fact they were related to that hero. Thank you to all of the veterans. Steve can you fill us in on who he was . Ed thank you for being an american citizen worth fighting for. Remi gagnon is a marine involved in the iwo jima operations. He is there for the first flag raising and he is identified as the early flag raiser. He will go back to the United States as part of the seventh bond drive. He will be a face and name known for years dealing with the flag raising and he has been highlighted in a couple of movies. Marine and iother think that is what the caller is talking about. There are so many dedicated americans that will fight and survive, fight and die on iwo jima but every one of them are bloodour average, red american boys that went overseas to stop fascism. To stop the people that was occurring evil that was occurring. Many come home and not tell just what they experienced but what they were a part of. They did their job, they came home, and they dedicated the rest of their lives to be the best american they could be. They were living their lives for the guys that did not come home. Rennie is one of them. He served in you which, and he would not iwo jima and would not want to have accolades. That speaks a lot to his character. Steve seems like a good story to end on. Conner,evgloski, owen we do appreciate your time and appreciate the museum inviting us in this morning. You. Hank announcer we will have more Live Programming later today when we discussed Lessons Learned about the war in afghanistan and the developments in the peace process. It starts at 4 p. M. Eastern and we will have it here on cspan. Some news out of escada stan afghanistan the president has won a second term. It comes at a critical time for afghan politics. U. S. And taliban of jo negotiators announced a peace deal that can be signed by the end of the month. It could plunge the country into a political crisis as the government needs to unify ahead of afghan peace talks with the taliban. You can read more at washington post. Com. More from campaign 2020 today when they hosted a debate between ed markey and his challenger in the primary, joe kennedy. You can watch that live at 7 p. M. Eastern also on cspan. Finally, be with us today later for remarks from bernie sanders, the independent senator seeking the democratic nomination. We will speak to supporters at the early vote rally in las vegas. Early voting for the nevada caucus ends today