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VIDEO TRIBUTE: Return to Makin Island

By  //  February 23, 2014

ABOVE VIDEO: On this 69th anniversary of perhaps the most famous moment of World War II, the flag raising on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945, this video is about the long forgotten 19 U.S. Marines killed on Makin Island in 1942 defending against the Japanese.

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a United States Navy corpsman raising an American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is a historic photograph taken on February 23, 1945, by Joe Rosenthal. It depicts five United States Marines and a United States Navy corpsman raising an American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.

MAKIN-ISLAN-180-1The retreating Marines asked the local islanders to bury the 19 dead Marines, and they were forgotten for 57 years until a Makin Islander who had been a teenager in 1942 remembered where they were buried.

The Marines sent a C-130 and an honor guard to Makin island and recovered all 19, who had been buried with their helmets and dog tags on, their rifles in their hands, and in perfect condition.

As the Marine honor guards were loading the remains, a voice from out of nowhere started singing “The Marine Hymn” – the voice was from a man who spoke no English, but remembered a song the Marines taught him when they landed 57 years before.