Roy Exum: Our Flag At Iwo Jima Wednesday, February 24, 2021 - by Roy Exum
Roy Exum
This morning marks the 76
th anniversary of the sun coming up on Mount Suribachi and, as it lit the dawn, every warrior in one of the most merciless battles in the Pacific theater could see the American flag on the crest of the 554-feet-tall hill. The battle to secure the island was perhaps the most intense fighting in World War II.
Almost 7,000 Marines and Navy Seabees were killed on the heavily fortified 8-square-mile island between February 19 and March 26 in 1945 while the Japanese lost approximately - get this number 28,000. (Remember, in just five weeks!) Only 214 of the enemy were able to surrender after five weeks of horrors, with as many as 3,000 Japanese hiding in the 11 miles of tunnels on the three-by-five-mile island.
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Wayne Terwilliger, the infectious baseball lifer who broke into the big leagues in 1949 and spent the rest of his life around the game, died on Wednesday at age 95.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Terwilliger had dealt with dementia and bladder cancer before a brief stay in hospice care in Weatherford, Texas.
Terwilliger first joined the Twins working for manager Ray Miller in 1986 and stayed on when Tom Kelly took over later that season. He was known through his career in baseball as Twig.
He would work as first base coach from 1986 to 1994, helping the club win two World Series titles. Afterward, St. Paul Saints owner Mike Veeck tabbed him to be the independent minor league team s first base coach. He would stay with the Saints until 2002. He was a minor league coach and manager through 2010.