Iwo Jima Veteran Remembers Enlisting At Age of 15

Iwo Jima veteran to share his story on 70th anniversary 
Bloody conflict proved turning point for U.S. forces, Houston Marine
Houston Chronicle
By St. John Barned-Smith
February 18, 2015

Just weeks after the Hawaiian attack, Sherrill, then 15, wandered into a Marine recruiting office in Houston and enlisted.

Bill Sherrill watched from the deck of an attack transport off the coast of Iwo Jima as artillery shells thudded into the small, porkchop-shaped island.

For hours, explosions tore across the landscape as salvo after salvo smashed into its beaches and forests in an initial effort to clear out 20,000 Japanese defenders. The island, with its beaches of gritty volcanic ash, a few sulfur pits, and three airfields, lay 600 miles south of the Japanese mainland and was close enough to put American forces at Japan's doorstep.

Seventy years after the ferocious battle, the impressions of the conflict remain with Sherrill - from the Purple Heart and photos he keeps at his house to the gold USMC pin he wears in his lapel.

It was hard to believe anything was still alive after the bombardment, he remembers thinking. But when thousands of Marines waded ashore, Japanese forces hidden in bunkers counterattacked. "Very quickly it became obvious that it was going to be a tough campaign," said Sherrill, now 88.

He will be sharing some of those memories at a commemoration of the battle's 70th anniversary Thursday evening in the East End, one of dozens of ceremonies around the country honoring the veterans who served in that battle. read more here