I learned a number of years ago that the raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima was nothing like it is portrayed in Washington D.C. Although capturing Iwo Jima was a great victory for America and planting our flag there on Mount Suribachi was a great sight to behold, there’s more behind it than what we’ve been told.

Thirty some years ago, my wife, Joanne, and I bought our farm here. Since I was new to the area, I got to meet a lot of interesting people I never knew before. One of them was Vern, an old dairy farmer. In time, Vern sold his cows and took up carpentry. He was very good at what he did.

One time years ago, I stopped up to my neighbor’s place to talk to Howie about some farm business. I found him in his large machine shed with Vern. The door on his shed was damaged in a bad storm, so he had Vern in to fix it. Vern was in the process of putting new door latches on it when I arrived. I looked at how he was doing it, and it didn’t look good to me, so I said, “Why don’t you do it this way?” I explained what I meant, which was totally different than the way he was doing it. Howie listened and then said, “Why don’t you do it Tom’s way?” Vern thought on it a few seconds longer and replied, “Haven’t you ever heard of job security?” We all laughed, and then Howie said, “I think you better do it Tom’s way.” To which Vern replied, “I think so.”

One time when Vern and I crossed paths, we got talking, and it came up that my dad was a Korean War veteran. Vern told me he was a World War II vet who was at the battle of Iwo Jima. Since I knew a little bit about American history, I found this very interesting. I knew it occurred in early 1945 in the Pacific War and turned out to be one of the bloodiest battles of the war. American casualties exceeded 26,000 with over 19,000 wounded. Japanese casualties were around 21,000.

Needless to say, the fighting and bloodshed on that island was horrific. My friend Vern was serving on a large Navy medical ship close to shore. He took in all the wounded and dead. From his vantage point, he could see the fierce fighting going on.

Vern was looking directly at the island when he saw the Marines raise the flag on Mount Suribachi. After all the death and bloodshed, what a moment that was. But it wasn’t the way it’s portrayed in Washington D.C. or by Hollywood. The Marines didn’t carry a large flagpole onto the island with a flag as bullets flew all around. No. A marine had the flag tucked away on him, and when they captured Mount Suribachi, he and another marine fastened it to a stick of brush and planted it in the volcanic ash.

Now here’s the sad thing: Vern’s eyewitness account didn’t line up with the glorified American version. For a while he told the true story but then quit because people didn’t like it. He told me that after telling his story years ago, he received a number of death threats. People didn’t want the truth; they wanted the glorified version. With so many dead Americans, they wanted some way to glorify it. So with the raising of the flag the way they portray, it glorifies it. America paid a terrible price in taking that island; it was not pretty, but it needed to be done.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to all the men and women who bled and died over the years so we can enjoy the great liberties and freedoms we have today. We often take them for granted. But the price that was paid in blood to raise our flag on a stick of brush was certainly not cheap.

I have not written on this before because I didn’t want Vern to receive any more death threats. But now I can because Vern is no longer with us. His battles are over; there are no more death threats against him for his eyewitness account of the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima.

Thank you, Vern, and all the men and women who have served our country so faithfully. God bless you all.