The wounded man nearby.

[**The following is in regards to the Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific Theatre of World War II.**] >Clusters of men were raked, and raked again. In Corporal Richard Wheeler’s area, a mortar shell killed Corporal Edward J. Romero, an ex-paratrooper from Chicago. Wheeler dove into a crater and had scarcely recovered his wits when another shell exploded, ripping the future writer’s left jawline apart. As the blood spurted, Corpsman Clifford Langley – who had treated a jaw wound on D-Day – hurried to Wheeler’s side and applied compresses. Then Langley gave aid to a wounded man nearby. As he was closing his pouch and preparing to leave the crater, Wheeler’s rifle in his hand, yet another mortar shell burst upon them. This one ripped Wheeler’s left calf apart and drove shrapnel into Langley. The young corpsman ignored his own wounds and once again dressed Wheeler’s laceration. Then they both realized that the shell had done its worst work on the wounded man nearby; both his legs had been ripped open, and he lay on his stomach, conscious but slowly dying. _______________________ **Source:** Bradley, James, and Ron Powers. “D-Day Plus Two.” *Flags of Our Fathers*. Bantam Dell, a Division of Random House, Inc., 2006. 183. Print. _______________________ **Further Reading:** [Battle of Iwo Jima / Operation Detachment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Iwo_Jima)