Joint Chiefs Chair Milley Remembers Father’s Service at Iwo Jima
By: John Grady
February 19, 2020 6:20 PM • Updated: February 20, 2020 6:15 AM
Iwo Jima was “what hell on earth was like,†the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, describing what his father, Alexander Milley, experienced when he landed on the eight-square-mile island 75 years ago.
The fight was “an inch by inch, yard by yard†struggle that claimed 7,000 American lives, primarily Marines, and left 34,000 wounded, Army Gen. Mark Milley, said Wednesday at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. About 20,000 Japanese died in the 36-day fight that allowed the Americans to take “a major stepping stone to get to Okinawa.â€
Iwo Jima’s value lay in its location. The craggy island, dominated by Mount Suribachi, is about halfway between Saipan and Tokyo and would be extremely valuable for B-29 bombing operations on the Japanese home islands. Taking the island would also remove a major land base where Japanese fighter planes could be staged to hold off air attacks.
https://news.usni.org/2020/02/19/joint-chiefs-chair-milley-remembers-fathers-navy-service-at-iwo-jima
