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Iwo Jima Marines: is still showing today’s “youth voters” what real patriotism means

By Coach Collins, on February 19th, 2010%

By Kevin “Coach” Collins

In the summer of 1965 Marine Corps Boot camp training included the boast “If it weren’t for the Marine Corps you’d be speaking Japanese.” It was true then and it is still true today.

Sixty five years ago waves and waves of eighteen and nineteen year old Marines, waded ashore Iwo Jima to defeat the Japanese and win the war in the Pacific on American terms. They fought to keep us from being the slaves of the Japanese and being forced to end up “speaking Japanese.”

By mid February 1945 Franklin Roosevelt knew Americans were running out of patience and money for the war against a country thousands of miles away and on its last legs anyway.

Some thought we should make peace with the Japanese and cut our losses. The only resource America had left was a Marine Corps largely filled with tough determined teenagers. They were leaders in their communities. They were from … Continue Reading:Iwo Jima Marines: is still showing today’s “youth voters” what real patriotism means

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Iwo Jima: when the real “youth voters” stepped forward

By Coach Collins, on February 19th, 2009%

By Kevin “Coach” Collins
Sixty four years ago today waves of incredibly brave Marines swept onto the beaches of Iwo Jima to take it from the Japanese and destroy their dreams of ruling the world.
Iwo Jima was the penultimate battle of the war against Japan, but in many ways its importance overshadows the battle for Okinawa a few months later.
By early 1945 both Franklin Roosevelt and the American people were worn out by three years of constant two front war. Many Americans might not realize it, but there was a growing sentiment in our country that since we’d beaten Italy, and were finishing off Germany, we should let the Japanese surrender as well. We didn’t know the Japanese then as we do now.
Roosevelt needed a victory to convince the American people to continue to fund the Pacific War.
The job fell to the Marines who by then had a battle ready … Continue Reading:Iwo Jima: when the real “youth voters” stepped forward

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