Iwo Jima Veteran Shows It Is Never Too Late For Help With PTSD

Iwo Jima Marine vet fights the demons of war
WIVB 4 News
By Rich Newberg, News 4 Senior Correspondent
Published: May 25, 2015

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Ted Drews. a World War II veteran of Iwo Jima, had witnessed five of his fellow Marines and a Navy Corpsman plant the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi, in Japanese territory.

He witnessed it from his strategic position on the water near the mountain.

“They were brave to be doing that out in the open,” he recalls.

While many are drawn to that iconic image that came to represent World War II, Drews continued to fight the demons of war long after the Japanese surrendered.

He was nineteen years old when he was shipped off to Guam, and then Iwo Jima.

His job was to carry supplies, and, if possible, transport the wounded and the dead.

The images he carried home with him in his head after the war, remained hidden from his family for the longest time.

“People aren’t buried with their arms across their chest,” he recalled. “They’re buried the way they’re found. Some are sitting up. Their arms and legs are extended, and it’s just awful to see the way these nice young guys died.”

So awful are some of the memories, that Ted would suffer from terrible depression. He sometimes withdraw from his family, and had fitful dreams. The condition would manifest itself has the month of February approached. That was the month in 1945 that the Battle of Iwo Jima began.
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