This is an email I received from GoDaddy ~ Bob Parsons, the CEO, is a proud Marine and his annual birthday tribute is always worth watching ~ please take a few minutes and watch the tribute [click the "View 2009 Tribute" link, below] ~

With much gratitude and respect in my heart, I wish the United States Marine Corps a very happy 234th birthday!

Sooz

Dear Susan,
Please join me on November 10, 2009, in wishing the United States Marine Corps a Happy 234th Birthday. Click the 'View' button below to see our special birthday tribute honoring my fellow Marines past and present. I'd also like to extend this tribute to all of the men and women serving in all branches of the U.S. Military - Army, Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard. Thank you all for your tireless dedication to keeping our country safe. Sincerely, Bob Parsons CEO and Founder GoDaddy.com

Neither the United States Marine Corps nor any other component of the Department of Defense has approved, endorsed or authorized this activity.

Wow , 234 years ! and then tomorrow is veteran's day.

WW2 ... hat's off to you !!!

and all other vets.

susanne

Many thanks and I went out and played 18 holes of Golf today and celebrate it this way... I got to thinking about the Birthday celebrations of the Marines and intended to go this year but things keeps coming up for me to do... I have attended 3 Marine Corps Celebrations and fortunately I was the guest of Honor at 2 of them... Two of us were the guest of honor at Ft. Sills, Oklahoma one year recently, and that was quite an honor... They fixed us up with 2 rooms on base that they use for guest and it was loaded with beer, Wine and whiskey,and food... I don't drink and neither does Enoch... They always had someone pick us up for all of our Meals along with 2 parties that we attended, which I thought was interesting... They cut the Cake with a Sword and they gave me the first piece since i was the oldest and the youngest marine there got the 2nd piece...
I got to meet all of those Marines and took many pictures... They also acted out the raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima and I have never seen that before, even thou I witnessed the raising f the Flag at the time the picture was taken...
I do plan on going to the Birthday party next year... Lord willing of course...

WW2 , That's terrific. I have no doubt being honored was well deserved. I didn't realise you witnessed the flag raising when the px was taken. I definitely hope you are able to go to the birthday party next year. Now that today is Veteran's Day , a special thanks from me for your service. I wish you could have known my Dad , though not in the marines rather the navy.

susanne

Depending on the ship he was on, and if he was in the Pacific, I would make a bet that our paths has crossed more then once,
especially since I spent a total of 126 days on different Ships in the Pacific area... This was all within 2 years time...
I do wish you and your family the very best...

WWII, are you a reader? ~ have you read the book Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley? ~ if not, I highly recommend it as a truly excellent read ~ the author, James Bradley, was the son of John Bradley, one of the six men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima ~ I'm posting the Amazon review below ~ I'm fairly certain it is available in an audio edition, if reading is difficult for you ~ Sooz

Amazon.com Review

sooz

Yes, I have read the book and was invited to attend a special showing of the Movie with other Iwo Jima veteans... It was very relistic and it was all written about the flag raising that took place of Iwo Jima with a few scenes of teh War there... I had already heard most of those storied about the flag raising, especially the folks involved... At the time, we was on the hill just above Motoyama #1 Air field, and we could see it, but we still had one hell of a battle that lasted for 31 additional days and lost many folks...
The wife of the man that took that picture was still living and was going to try to attend the 60th Reunion that I was the Chairman of for our Divisional, but she could not make it... Her husband had previously passed away...
As said that the book and the Movie did a great job of portraying the men involved in the flag raising... John Bradley the Corpsman to helped to raise the flag and attended the wounded were just like Marines to us at all times and are treated that way even thou they were Navy folks... The Corpsman were also very brave folks in the field of battle...

WW2

As to your comment a couple posts up .... My Dad did spent considerable time in the Pacific theatre on destroyers ; he rarely wanted to talk about his war experiences though. Occasionally , generally while sailing , he would talk about days he and a couple other sailors had some freedom and he would talk of the beauty involved in that. I remember most of all how beautiful he found the Philippines to be when sailing there.

susanne

I have already answered this, but it died before getting posted somehow...

I will try again and then copy it before sending, Since your Dad was on a Destroyer, then I m sure that our paths crossed, somewhere in the Pacific... I have been on many ships, but never a Destroyer, but I visited my friend on a DE (Destroyer Escort) when he was on it at Pearl Harbor... We went on Liberty together and even have pictures made of us...

I would like to help you find out some information about him, since I have ways of getting same... I don't need his name but I do need the name of the Destroyer or number of it and with this, I can put you in touch with the lead folks of any reunion that they will be having along with where and time... I can even put you in touch with a person that served with him...I can even tell you where they have been along with the dates and the Wars that he served in... If you already have all of that information, then I can still give you quite a bit of other things that you may want at no charge...

Thanks WW 2. I have family coming for Thanksgiving , and will try to get the information.

sooz
I do hate to mention this, but a whole lot of folks draws these conclusions... I just need to inform you that some of the things that you mentioned in your article are slightly a little misleading... Iwo Jima is a Sulpher Island and it was very sandy all over, but it was course sand and it was 3 Divisions of US Marines that fought that battle... The 4th and 5th divisions invaded Iwo Jima and we had the 3rd division in reserve and had to use a lot of them...There were no Soldiers, but a lot of folks makes this error... Of course, we had the Navy, Coast Guard, See Bee's, Engineers and a whole bunch of of folks that was included within our support group, including Am tracks... We was there for the whole 36 days, including me and I wished it would have been over in a Month...

suaanne
Do have a great thanksgiving with your family... Will be looking forward to it...