100 Marines showed up for an Iwo Jima veteran’s 100th Birthday
Cpl. Eddie Vincek came ashore on Iwo Jima in the battle's first hours. In September, 100 Marines helped him celebrate his 100th birthday.
Matt White
Posted on Oct 4, 2024 7:00 PM EDT
U.S. Marine Corps veteran, Cpl. Eddie Vincek, a WWII veteran and Battle of Iwo Jima survivor, poses for a group photo with Marines from Training Company , Marine Corps Security Forces Regiment during his 100th birthday celebration at the Ruritan Club, Chesapeake, Va., Sept. 29, 2024. Vincek served with ‘A’ Company, 1st Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division in the Battle of Iwo Jima which was one of the last and most violent struggles of the WWII campaign in the Pacific. During the celebration, Vincek was joined by close family and friends and honored with a challenge coin and plaque. (U.S. Marine Corps photo taken by Lance Cpl. Catherine S. Verenzuela Mariano)
Cpl. Eddie Vincek, a Marine veteran of Iwo Jima, during his 100th birthday celebration. Lance Cpl. Catherine Verenzuela Mariano
Eddie Vincek landed on Iwo Jima about an hour after the first wave of Marines hit the beach. A member of 1st Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, it was his first taste of combat, he told an interviewer with his Veterans of Foreign Wars post.
“Working on a dairy farm,” he told the VFW, “I was used to seeing animal blood, but not human blood covering over the ground.”
On Sept. 29, Vincek celebrated his 100th birthday at a Ruritan Club in Chesapeake, Virginia, where he was a farmer for most of his life after leaving the Marine Corps in 1946.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/100-marines-showed-up-for-an-iwo-jima-veterans-100th-birthday/
