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Ordinary Marines, extraordinary valor THE 'FIGHTING FOURTH' IWO JIMA FIGHTING EXACTED DEADLY TOLL

September 6, 2008 12:20 am

By RUSTY DENNEN

They're old men now, in their early 80s. But in those fateful months of 1945, they were young Americans fighting for their lives on a barren Pacific atoll called Iwo Jima.

Photographer Joe Rosenthal immortalized the battle in his iconic image of Marines raising the American flag on the island's Mount Suribachi.

Members of the 4th Marine Division--the "Fighting Fourth"--remember the campaign as ordinary soldiers doing an extraordinary job.

About 125 of them gathered this week in Fredericksburg for their annual reunion--a time to reminisce, to remember moments frozen in time and, above all, honor the ones who never made it home.

Vern Brintzenhofe had just turned 17 when the war broke out, and he joined up.

Within three years, the county boy born in Massillon, Ohio, and his buddies would witness some of the most horrific fighting of the war.

He still vividly remembers sights and sounds after he went ashore at Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945, with I Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Division, one of three waves of Marines.

"Our ships were shelling above our heads and the Japanese were throwing shells at us," he said. "We were trying to make a hole in the sand."

Loose volcanic soil, he said, made it hard to walk, much less bring equipment and vehicles ashore.

"It was very hard. The Japanese had tunnels underground."

On his third day ashore, a mortar round landed in the foxhole he was sharing with other Marines. He was wounded; three others next to him were killed.

"I never remember leaving" he said. The next thing he knew, he was recuperating in a hospital at Pearl Harbor.

When he got well, it was back to the 4th Marines to train for an invasion of Japan, but the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki made that invasion unnecessary. It was his ticket home.

This week, Brintzenhofe, who now lives in Hagerstown, Md., saw Edgar Cyr for the first time since the war.

Brintzenhofe smiled, "We were bunk partners on Maui" where they trained prior to shipping out to Iwo Jima.

'BOYS OF IWO'

Norman Baker, 82, of Delaplane in northern Fauquier County was one of the "Boys of Iwo" with the 4th Marines.

Baker, a retired historian, is gathering information about the survivors because fewer return to the gatherings each year. And he and the others know that someday soon, the reunion itself will be a memory.

A few years ago, "My wife suggested doing something for the guys--making sure it's recorded" and that their sacrifices are remembered, he said.

Baker is putting together "The Boys of Iwo" booklets at each reunion, and handing out forms for the survivors to pass along information about themselves and their experiences in the Pacific.

For many of them, Iwo Jima was just one stop on a hellish odyssey in 1944 and 1945 that also included battles at Roi-Namur, Saipan and Tinian.

Born in Arkansas, Baker joined the Marines in 1943 at age 17. He still had a year to go in high school and needed his parents' permission.

He wound up in security patrol with the Seabees, 4th Marines.

Baker has his own indelible memory of Iwo Jima. Part of his entry in "Boys of Iwo":

"A skilled Japanese infiltrator in the middle of the night came close to besting me. He crawled to within 15 feet of my foxhole with a grenade in each hand before I spotted him. [He was] so close that I can still remember his eyes shining through the darkness."

After returning home, Baker earned a degree in aerospace engineering at the Indiana Institute of Technology. He worked as an engineer, publisher, correspondent, in public works and as a historian.

"I'm proud of these guys," he said of the white-haired men drifting in and out of the meeting room at the Hospitality House at Central Park. "When we landed and fought we never had any pressure because we did it together."

REMEMBERING DAD

Doug Rumburg, 55, looked out of place at the reunion, except for the suitcase of military memorabilia he had with him.

Rumburg, of Richmond, came to the reunion to honor his father, Ralph, who served with the unit and who died in 1998.

A few years ago, Rumburg found some of his dad's military papers that his mother had saved. Ralph Rumburg talked little with family and friends about his time in the Marines, or his service in the Pacific.

"I wanted to find out more about what he did at Iwo Jima," Rumburg said. His father survived a foxhole shelling that killed two of his buddies.

Searching for information about his father, Rumburg came across the plans for the reunion here. He had a khaki shirt printed up with his father's picture.

"I wish I had learned more about him before he passed away to have more respect for what he'd been through."

Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com