he said no. his orders were to get us to weo shore without stopping for any occasion. so that s what they did. so we just had to go offggling and leave those men . so you saw men struggling? yes. i don t know how many have made it this year.e how ol but we were sorry we couldn t yu help. how old were you? i wa i wass twenty .der i was one of the older ones. the average age of men was nineteen years of age. so and so they were just kids out s of high school. of more than 6000 marines died on iwo jima before americans were able to raise the flag ove over mount suribachir . iest bas it was one of the bloodiest battles in u.s. marine corps history. how afraid were you?? uh, afraid. we have been so conditioned in allotraining that we we weren t allowed to be afraid. we just did what we re is th supposed to do. is there a day that goes by ? can or you don t think of the men who were left behind as haja?