[The following is in regards to the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific Theatre of World War II.]
One combatant met his fate with supreme elegance. The moment occurred in the air, as the first wave of amtracs headed for shore. The Marine fighter planes were finishing up their low strafing runs, and as the last pilot began to pull his Corsair aloft, Japanese sprang to their guns and riddled the plane with flak. The pilot, Major Ray Dollins, tried to gain altitude as he headed out over the ocean so as to avoid a deadly crash into the Marines headed for the beach, but his plane was too badly damaged. Lieutenant Keith Wells watched it from his amtrac, with Doc Bradley standing by his side. “We could see him in the cockpit,” Wells said, “and he was trying everything. He was heading straight down for a group of approaching ‘tracs filled with Marines. At the last second he flipped the plane over on its back and aimed it into the water between two waves of tanks. We watched the water exploding into the air.”
Military personnel listening to the flight radio network from the ships could not only see Dollins go down; they could hear his last words into his microphone. They were a defiant parody.
Oh, what a beautiful morning,
Oh, what a beautiful day,
I’ve got a terrible feeling
Everything’s comin’ my way.
Eight days earlier, en route to Iwo Jima, Major Dollins had received news of the birth of his first child, a daughter. He was the first 5th Division Marine to die in the battle.
Source:
Bradley, James, and Ron Powers. “D-Day.” Flags of Our Fathers. Bantam Dell, a Division of Random House, Inc., 2006. 161-62. Print.
Further Reading:
Battle of Iwo Jima / Operation Detachment
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