Welcome to issue 328 of your Military. The latest to join the ranks of our lifetime subscribers are:
• GARY WEBSTER, CARSON CITY, NV
• STEFAN JOVANOVICH, ORINDA, CA
• LT. CMDR. J.A. DERIE, PORTLAND, OR
• STEPHEN E. ERICKSON, BELMONT, CA
• ERNEST GALLEGOS, TRACY, CA
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Lawrence J. Garfalo of Pisgah Forest, NC, sent us a book titled “Naval Customs, Traditions and Usage” written by Lt. Cmdr. Leland P. Lovette and published by the United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland in 1939.
SGM Glen Reid, USA (Ret) of Arlington, WA, sent in a 1918 edition of the U.S. Navy Blue Jackets Manual and a copy of the War Department, Basic Field Manual, from July 1941, and Soldier’s Handbook that had belonged to Pvt. Irving Samuel Florman. Mr. Reid tells us that he picked up the field manual at a swap meet a few years ago and found two official War Department postcards enclosed within its pages, authorizing Pvt. Florman’s monthly family allowance per the Servicemen’s Dependents Allowance Act of 1942. Glen stated that he was curious as to what happened to this soldier. He also sent three pamphlets, “Historic Forts of the Old West” published in 1976 by the U.S. Army.
MSgt. Richard C. Hone, USAF (Ret) of Keno, OR, sent in a couple of books that he purchased at an estate sale. Mr. Hone said, “The previous owner was a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer who evidently spent most of his active duty time serving on Tin Cans. I didn’t learn his name but I did see some of his ribbons and decora-tions so I know he served in WWII and Korea.” The first book is a paperback published in 1941 titled, “Delilah,” a novel by Marcus Goodrich, Armed Services Edition; the second is a hardcover titled “Shore Leave” written by Fredric Wakeman in 1944. MSgt. Hone is presently the coordinator for the Retired Activities Office at Kingsley Field, Oregon Air National Guard Base in Klamath Falls.
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I just finished reading a book titled “Fighting Spirit — The Memoirs of Major Yoshitaka Horie and the Battle of Iwo Jima,” edited and annotated by Robert D. Eldridge and Charles W. Tatum. Major Horie was the lo-gistics officer on the Japanese home island of Chichi Jima, which isn’t that far from Iwo Jima. Originally, the major was supposed to be on Iwo Jima but was ordered by Lt. Gen. Kuribayashi to the detachment headquar-ters on Chichi Jima in October 1944.
The reason I mention this book, and for reading it, was to see how our enemy operated at the time. I found it quite fascinating that many of the Japanese field grade officers, including Lt. Gen. Kuribayashi, knew the war against the United States had been lost by July 1944 because of the losses of Saipan, Tinian and Guam. How-ever, none of the military leaders on the home island of Japan would listen to any of the field grade officers, and insisted on sending more men and materiel, even though much of their naval force lay at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
In June 1944, Gen. Kuribayashi told Major Horie, “I was in the United States for about five years. If war comes, the great peacetime industries of America can be converted into wartime industry at a moment’s no-tice, with just one command. Japan’s war planners did not realize this. They did not understand this no matter how many times I tried to explain it to them. There is absolutely no chance for Japan to win this war. But we must continue to fight until the end.”
Thankfully, because of our industrial might and the tenacity of our fighting men, we won the war.
— John D. Shank, Editor