WEBVTT

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Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg
Corumbas. Our guest in this edition once

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again is Don Graves, a US
Marine Corps veteran of World War II and

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the pivotal Battle of iwo Jima.
Starting in February nineteen forty five, In

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the first episode featuring Don Graves's story, we learned how basic training quickly turned

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boys into men ready to kill.
A short time after that, Graves was

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blindsided by orders to serve as a
flamethrower operator, a job he says he

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got because he was short. It
was not a job that many sought after,

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probably because the average length of service
for a flamethrower operator was four minutes.

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The job was extremely dangerous. After
a depl eployment to the South Pacific

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was cut short so that Graves and
other Marines could be folded into the new

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fifth Infantry Division, the men eventually
sailed for Ewojima, a small, rocky

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island featuring volcanic ash instead of beach
sand. Although small Ewojima was strategically significant,

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Japanese air defenses were wreaking havoc on
American planes and personnel and controlling the

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airstrip on Ewojima. Would be essential
for an eventual invasion of mainland Japan.

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Graves also told us about his harrowing, amphibious landing under heavy Japanese fire and

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making a vow to God if he
could just survive the invasion. After finally

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getting off the beach, Graves and
other elements of the Fifth Division started fighting

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their way up the mountains and over
to their initial target, Mount Suribachi.

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That's where Don Graves was witnessed to
the Ikon flag raising captured in the famous

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Joseph Rosenthal photo. That's where we
paused in Don's story in the previous episode.

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But there was still more than five
weeks of fighting remaining before the Allies

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could claim control of Ewojima, and
Don Graves was right in the middle of

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it all. As we will discuss
in much more detail later on, America

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paid a heavy price in precious lives
to secure Ewojima. Graves had seen the

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carnage on the ashy beaches and it
fought hard to get up the mountains,

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but the casualties were not just mounting
on land. It was also happening on

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the water. Just before the famous
flag raising, Graves witnessed the Japanese attacking

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and sinking the USS Bismarck C,
a Casablanca class carrier escort. Yes,

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I did. I saw it get
hit on the fantail. Now this is

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when we secured the next one.
We stayed there of one whole day because

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we had to get the other two
division moving ahead of us for us to

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get on there. I could see, well, these kamikazes were flying over

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there and dropping them, and I
looked. I didn't know that was the

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Bismarck. I found out later,
but I saw it, and he took

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a dive and hit him right on
the fantail and blew that ship up.

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Three hundred some men would round three
hundred Eighteen Americans aboard the USS Bismarck C

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were killed that day. Soon graves
attention was back on the ground combat as

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orders arrived to take a nearby hill. Much like the full Battle of Iwo

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Jima, The Marines accomplished their objective, but at an immense cost in lives

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and leadership. Finally we got word
that we're going to head on down the

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hill and head for three sixty two
number three sixty two way mountain on the

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left side of the island. Now
too far away and so that day we

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moved over there fight. But during
the night it got a little dark.

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The Japanese came out banzai charges.
They threw everything at us. I was

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to the left. You see,
I can't be actually on that front line

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without help because if they grabbed me, I'm done and they can use it

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on us. So I stayed right
to the left by a cliff like and

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I heard I heard on the walkie
talkers. Lieutenant Johnson just got it.

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So so just got Our officers were
all killed on Hill three sixty two way

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and a lot of our sergeants we
were shot to pieces. We lost our

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battalion there, but we fought all
the way for six weeks. The ferocity

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of the Japanese knocked the Marines back
on their heels, but as Fleet Admiral

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Chester Nimitz remarked later about the men
on Ewo Jima, uncommon valor was a

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common virtue, and that was true. The next day at Hill three sixty

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two, as Great Waves and his
flamethrower were called upon to decimate a Japanese

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position, a mission they could only
complete after surviving friendly fire. The next

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morning, a fellow he was our
music, played taps in them. He

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said, Grace, we got a
job, and I says, good,

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what is it. We're going to
go up there again and we're going to

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shut that thing in. We're going
to blow it in from the top.

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I said, let's do it.
So we took a can of five gallon

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can of gasoline, Prime record everything
we needed. And I was a demolition

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expert. Marines have to know about
demolition. So we crawled up and as

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we got half way up on our
bellies everything we had a tank. Our

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tank moved up to our left and
opened up on us with a fifty caliber

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and right over my body. Right
here traces were embedded in the ground burning.

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They thought we were Japanese, and
then all of a sudden they stopped.

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Someone must have told them they're friendly. We finally got to the top

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and there we got bodies all over
the top. I think the air force

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got them, but I counted twenty
five dead Japanese. We had to crawl

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over them to get to the mouth
of the cave. When we got over

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the top, we lowered a rope
around prim We set it all up for

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explosion. We dropped it over and
we swing it like that and when it

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came in. We set it off
and Kaboui fire blew in that hole and

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blew out. All they did was
go to the north. They just went

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to the north. But we closed
it in Hill three sixty two eight.

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That is sacred. Don't you can't
go there. The Marines now controlled Hill

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three sixty two A. But the
battle was far from over, and as

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Graves just said, his officers and
many of his sergeants were killed there,

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but the mission continued despite the loss
of leadership, and Graves says marines were

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trained for this possibility and knew exactly
how to carry on. We lost our

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offices, of course, as Hill
three and sixty two. Way from there

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on, I would say about to
four weeks more. We fought all through

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there, just each one of us
helping one another. We know what to

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do, we were trained to do
it. We just didn't have any officers

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commanding, but we had guys who
were platoon sergeant. Once in a while

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we'd have one here, one there, and they were experienced guys. So

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we made it. We got through, We did the job, and I'm

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assuming that it was that way when
all three divisions. Graves has many vivid

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memories from the weeks of combat that
followed, including the terrifying belief that the

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Japanese were using poison gas against them, much to their relief, that was

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simply confusion manufactured in the fog of
war. You know, we heard our

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dads that fought in the First World
War who were attacked by gas. That's

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a horrible thing. And they disbanded
that and we had a couple of kids,

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new recruits, and right up at
the top. He was up at

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the top and motars were coming.
Now, when these mortars hit, they

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explode and it's like a yellow pickwick
acid. Oh, it's a horrible smell.

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It's terrible, and it's yellowish and
it went off and this kid's gas.

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Well, the sad thing is we
took our gas mass off because we

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couldn't move on the beach with it. With my flames, tore I had

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to get rid of it. It's
on your leg here and when you drop

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on the ground, your back quarters
is hanging up in the air. So

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we got rid of it. And
if that was gas, there would be

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a scramble, it would have been
a catastrophe. But it was only a

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mortar, a yellowish pickwic acid.
The Marines had their hands plenty full with

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what the Japanese were really doing,
putting constant pressure on the Marines by mercilessly

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bombarding their positions with mortar rounds.
But as Graves points out, after studying

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the patterns of mortar fire, he
knew what to expect when the shells came

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in. Knee motors from the Japanese
were lobbed. They bunced them. They

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didn't go like that, they just
lobbed. They'd come out tumbling, and

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they could they could throw five or
six at a time at you. You

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can outrun them. I had.
We had a few paratrooper fellas in my

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company, and I used to watch
him. We were buddies, and I

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said, I noticed that you would
keep looking up on the air. He

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keep looking for the mortars. You
can see him, you can count them.

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And then all of a sudden he
looks up his era. You see

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what I'm talking about, And he
jumped way over the lift and I followed

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him and being bing, bang,
banged. That's what it was. So

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you have to really look in the
air to watch them coming. You can

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hear them come. That's Don Graves, US Marine Corps veteran of World War

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II and the Battle of Ewojima,
where he served as a flame thrower.

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In a moment, Graves will explain
how he used the tendencies of the Japanese

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mortar strikes to orchestrate an effective counter
attack. We'll also hear about the power

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of the flamethrower against the Japanese and
a very rare, lighthearted moment with the

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enemy. Graves will also reflect on
the magnitude of the American losses at Ewojima

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and the pain of losing one man
in particular. Plus he'll offer his thoughts

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on the legacy of the Greatest Generation. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans

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Chronicles sixty Seconds of Service. This
sixty Seconds of Service is presented by T

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After one hundred years, the BAMIDGI
Chapter of Disabled American Veterans is still

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serving the community, going out on
cold mornings and collecting donations that help veterans

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in need. And their families found
that in nineteen twenty fours, the seventh

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chapter in the state. The organization's
presence is most visible through its drop off

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boxes, bright green metal containers that
can be found outside of grocery stores and

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on street corners that collect donations of
clothes, shoes, and household items.

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Twice a week in the early hours
of the morning. Members of the DAV

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often veterans themselves, collect the items
and bring them back to the chapter's headquarters

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on the edge of town, where
they are met by another team of volunteers.

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For more Great Veterans stories, just
go to National Defense Network dot com.

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This has Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg
Corumbus. Our guest in this edition

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is Don Graves. He is a
US Marine Corps veteran of World War Two

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and the Battle of Iwo Jima.
In the second half of his story,

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we've touched upon Graves witnessing the Japanese
sinking of the USS Bismarck C and he

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told us about the brutal fighting at
Hill three sixty two a a moment ago.

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We also heard Graves mention that the
Japanese made life very difficult for the

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Americans with their incessant mortar barrages.
But like he said, there was a

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pattern that he and the other marines
could eventually figure out. And between those

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observations and some other calculations and ingenuity, Graves was able to determine where a

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critical Japanese mortar launch site was located. And after a few coordinates were given

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out over the radio, that mortar
battery was soon gone. We figured it

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was a five hundred a five hundred
millimeter. It was a big projectile,

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and they launched it from the center
of the aland over towards the left on

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where we were. Nobody knew where
that was, and the word was out

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beyond the loocal where there were fireing
that thing from. Well, when I

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went up on top of Hill three
sixty two eight, I forgot this buddy

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of mine we had, I had
my carbine, no friends were, and

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I looked way over and I saw
two or three Japanese jump down in an

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opening and they fired a rocket out
and that was it. I said,

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I said, Beavers, I just
found out where that big rocket. It

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says, where where? And I
told him. We both got on the

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horn and called for aircraft, and
both the aircraft came right in and blew

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the head out of that place that
we had that rocket at the opening of

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Camp penduland for a while it's not
there now, As the Marines learned that

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Hill three sixty two A, the
Japanese were fierce, relentless fighters. In

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addition to the mortars, the Japanese
frequently employed bonzai attacks, where large numbers

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of fighters came rushing at the American
positions, often under the cover of darkness.

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The number of men and their screaming
advance was unnerving, but it was

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also not very effective because it made
them sitting ducks for US guns. Banzai

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attacks you wait for them. You
can hear them come. They'll blow horns,

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they'll whistles, whistles, everything.
About three hundred would come at you,

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and we'd just open up our machines, can beget them. We'd just

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fire. I didn't. I had
a forty five, so the other guys

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kept firing their weapons. I just
sat back and waited, you know.

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And the only thing I could do
if they got up to my hose,

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I could use my cabar, Yeah, my cay bar knife. That was

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it. I did have a forty
five. I couldn't hit the broad side

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of a barn with that pistol.
I tried it. I could never use

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that forty five. It was an
awkward gun. That's what happened when a

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man's eye charged had come. It
scares the daylights out of you. As

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we also saw a hill three point
sixty two a. The flamethrower was a

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very effective tool against the Japanese.
That's because the Japanese were content to hide

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in their caves and dare the Marines
to follow them in or hunker down.

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While the mortars took their toll on
the Americans, but the flame throwers turn

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the tables. The bursts of fire
provided immediate and urgent incentives for the Japanese

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to exit the caves and then face
the choice of surrender or death. The

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purpose of a flame tour is fire
moves people. And when they got in

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the caves there, we couldn't get
them out. We'd fire in there,

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we'd throw hand grays, but they
just moved back. They could go eight

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miles back, they could go just
as short ways across. It was eight

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square miles. I Regima all undergrown. We couldn't understand where they were during

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the day, around supper time.
Anytime after that till two or three in

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the morning, they would come at
you with banzai charges. That's when they

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did the damage. During the day
they fired rockets and now I say rockets,

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mortars. Morars would come sailing through
the sky at us. The Battle

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of Ewojima raged on for six weeks. Marines like Don Graves did not bathe

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the entire time, and many nights
they went without any sleep at all.

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But in the midst of all that
killing, one lighthearted moment involving the enemy

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did emerge, all thanks to the
delicious smell of chocolate. We're sitting in

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a hole there towards the north end. We've only got about a week left

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ago, we figured, and we're
sitting there and I said, dang it,

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I'd like some hot chocolate. What
do you think. Yeah, we

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didn't drink coffee. We're a bunch
of cat teenagers. And so I said,

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let's come on, give me your
chocolate bar. We had ration bars,

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you know about that big night.
I said, all up, put

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it in a canteen cup. We
had canteen, we had water. Blood

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would get on the horn. They
throw a gas can full of water and

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I put fire unreath with demolition.
It was set good and were setting back

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shooting the breeze. Then all of
a sudden I could smell it. Oh

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my goshmell that. Yeah. Is
it ready us? Not yet? Wait

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00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:03.440
a minute. Then all of a
sudden I was going to pour it out

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in canteen cups. Hey, Marie, very good, chocoleto You'll bring chocoleto

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here, I said, if you
want chocolatetter, you come and Getty's.

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Oh no, you'll bring here.
Everybody on the line laughed, he said,

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Graves, knock it off. That's
Don Graves, a US Marine Corps

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veteran of World War Two and the
Battle of Ewojima, where he served as

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a flamethrower operator. In a moment, Graves discusses the end of the battle,

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the toll in American lives and blood, and the impact that had on

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the Americans who made it off Ewojima
Alive. You'll also hear his thoughts on

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the end of the war, the
legacy of the Greatest Generation, and much

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more. I'm Greg Corumbus and this
is Veterans Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles.

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I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Don Graves. He

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is a US Marine Corps veteran of
World War Two and the Battle of Ewojima,

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just a moment ago, Graves shared
a very rare, lighthearted moment with

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the enemy. It was the exception
to the rule. Virtually every other moment

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was spent trying to defeat the Japanese, and given the Japanese soldiers almost universal

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refusal to surrender, the fight kept
going. Many thousands of Americans would die

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on Ewojima, but there's one death
that still haunts Don Graves the most.

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This was the saddest thing that happened
to me. And I'll never forget it.

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I tell everybody I talk to,
I'll never forget it. I think

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about it, I dream about it
once in a while. What happened was

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that three of us were in a
cave run the North Inn, and it's

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getting close to the end, and
was sitting there just talking, and I

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said, I got to get up
there and take a look, see what's

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going on. So I got up
there and put my elbow on the ground

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my glasses looking for snippers. I
couldn't find a thing. It was a

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very calm day, nothing was moving. I was there about fifteen minutes.

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I dropped back down I got on
the horn my radio, and I said

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Grave to CP Hey, go ahead, Graves, I said, And I

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told him. I said, I've
been looking. I can't see a thing.

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Well, you'd better keep looking because
our proof sergeant took around his leg

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from out there. I said,
okay, I'll keep looking. By the

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way. You got a kid coming
for a replacement. I said, good,

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we need him, so I hung
the phone up. Ten minutes later,

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but he stood at the hole.
He said, Graves, I said,

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yeah, come on down. He
jumped in the hole. He said,

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what do you want me to do? I said, sit over there.

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It would be a lot to do
tonight when they come. I got

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up and I'm looking. I was
going to go look. He said,

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hey, Graves, let me have
the glasses. I'll look. And I

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said, no, he gets yourself
shot. My one buddy says, give

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him the glasses. That's what he's
here for. I threw the glasses.

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He got up right where I had
been. I know that that Japanese snapper

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was waiting for me again. About
ten minutes after we was sitting there shooting

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the breeze, just talking. Whew. He fell back. He got shot

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in the forehead and went through his
helmet. His helmet flew up and landed

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down by my feet. We were
stunned, not that he got there,

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but I was just up there.
He knew I was going to go back

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up there. He knew that.
And I looked at that, and I

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looked down in that helmet, and
there was a beautiful girl sitting in a

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chair, and on her lap was
a beautiful baby. When I saw that,

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I lost it, sad, I
just lost it. I got up

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and threw everything off, and I
cursed Evejima. I cursed the Marine Corps.

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And the worst thing I did is
I cursed God because he let that

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kid take my place. I didn't
understand. The Marines had come ashore on

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Iwo Jima on February nineteenth, nineteen
forty five. They were told it would

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be quick. It wasn't. The
pre invasion bombing was far less effective than

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expected, and the vast majority of
Japanese soldiers refused to surrender. It was

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00:21:17.799 --> 00:21:22.160
several weeks later when the US forces
finally got to leave, and it wasn't

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because the Japanese had lost the will
to fight. Don Graves says it was

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a matter of simple math. They
ran out of Japanese. Do you know

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that we killed twenty two thousand Japanese
soldiers. Twenty two thousand we killed,

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so there were only a handful of
them left. They were down by the

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00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:45.000
water. We had them right to
the beach. You could see it down

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00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:48.160
there. They were all down hit
in the edge. Now they could go

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out in the water and swim and
our boats had pick them up, or

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they come at us and we'll kill
them. They surrendered, not massive,

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but every now two or three would
come up with hands up. You know.

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They didn't know what we would do. They figured we kill him.

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The Japanese didn't understand it because they
thought they were on a holy war.

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They were not. They found out
it was a political war. Now they're

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going to surrender because he seated surrender
in Japan as a soldier. It was

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a disgrace. And it was there
on the walk down the mountains and to

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the beach where Graves and the other
survivors were overwhelmed at the losses suffered by

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the US forces over the past several
weeks. And I'll tell you on the

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00:22:36.880 --> 00:22:42.200
sixth week we got we're going to
be released, it was sad, you

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00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:48.119
know, the three hundred people I
hit the beach within my company. Six

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00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:53.039
weeks later we were lined up.
The Japanese are by the water. They

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00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:56.359
can go swimming and get shot by
our boats, or they can come at

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00:22:56.440 --> 00:23:03.599
us and we'll kill them. Rendered. Well, we got we're going to

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be released by the third division.
They were in reserve for about three four

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days. The third division came in
and let us off the off, the

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off the line. Out of the
three hundred and eighteen of us walked down

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to the beach by the by our
cemetery when also were we'd board ship and

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we lined up and lieutenant, our
lieutenant Colonel Liversage said, men, I

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00:23:36.359 --> 00:23:40.400
want you to line up. I
want you to go through that cemetery and

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say goodbye to your buddies and your
officers. Come out. We'll board the

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Higgins, go out to our transport, head back to Heilo, Hawaii.

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We'll train for Japan. They hadn't
surrendered yet. And that was the story

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00:23:53.839 --> 00:23:57.519
on that. But I want to
tell you something, and this is sad.

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And everyone there looks at this video, everyone that can hear my voice,

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00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:04.880
it means them. It was given
to them, It was given to

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00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:11.359
you. There was a letter tacked
on the left arch of the pole eight

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00:24:11.400 --> 00:24:15.079
and a half by eleven. I
saw it was there, but when I

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00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:18.039
got there, I read it like
the other fellows, and this is what

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00:24:18.119 --> 00:24:25.160
it said. Fellas, when you
go home, tell the folks we did

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00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:30.359
our best that they may have many
more tomorrows. Every tier walked through that

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00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:33.920
gate and came out. We saw
our buddies. I had saw three buddies.

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I went to school, but we
quit school and joined the Marine Corps.

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They were in there, My officers
were in there. We came out,

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got aboard ship and as we crawled
up the net. That's how marines

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let. They crawled down, and
they crawled up. We got up and

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00:24:49.480 --> 00:24:52.920
then they'dy'd be up there, help
us climb over the side. And this

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one kids's graves. I said yeah. He said you made it. Then

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I realized who it was. We've
spent time together. Co Golan there.

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00:25:03.240 --> 00:25:07.960
Well, he said, what's wrong
with your eyes? I said why?

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He said they're on fire. Well, I said, I don't know.

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We haven't had any sleep. We
have no sleep. You wouldn't dare sleep.

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It'd have a bayonet or something,
you know, we couldn't. You'd

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00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:22.720
be putting your other two buddies in
a hole with the two arms way.

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I said, we didn't have any
sleep. Well, he said, man,

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00:25:27.079 --> 00:25:30.200
you look terrible. I soa,
we haven't had any We have a

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00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:33.240
washed our teeth. We haven't had
any water. And boy, we took

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a shower. Oh that was so
wonderful. In the end, the Marines

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00:25:40.359 --> 00:25:45.680
and the Navy suffered more than twenty
four thousand casualties on Iwo Jima, including

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00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:51.440
more than six thousand, one hundred
killed. And these weren't just numbers.

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These were friends that Graves and others
had trained with for years, and once

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00:25:56.880 --> 00:26:02.319
they were back in Hawaii, the
survivors paid tribute properly to their fallen brothers.

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It was sad. It was sad
when when we got back to Pearl

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00:26:07.319 --> 00:26:11.319
Harbor. I'm not Pearl Harbor,
Halo Hawaii. The big item we had.

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00:26:12.039 --> 00:26:18.720
We had a division program and medals
were handed out, you know,

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00:26:19.400 --> 00:26:23.160
and ribbons and everything, and then
their names were called out, and it

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00:26:23.279 --> 00:26:27.519
was sad. I all of us
had tears coming down our cheeks. Our

335
00:26:27.559 --> 00:26:33.680
buddies were gone, you know.
It was just a sad situation. And

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00:26:33.039 --> 00:26:37.599
I can't forget them. I could
still name a lot of them. I

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00:26:37.599 --> 00:26:41.599
could I think everything I'm telling you
I talk. I think about it all

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00:26:41.640 --> 00:26:47.119
the time, all the time.
But the personnel loss at Ewojima wasn't the

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00:26:47.160 --> 00:26:51.920
only devastating loss for Graves and his
fellow service members. As soon as they

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00:26:51.960 --> 00:26:56.000
left Ewojima, they found out about
another death of their commander in chief.

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The day we left iwo Jima secured
the bad we got aboard our transport and

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00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:07.920
then the announcement. The announcement came
over all hands. Now hear this.

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The President of the United States has
died with the cerebral hemorrhage. Harry Truman

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00:27:15.359 --> 00:27:19.359
will be the president. We didn't
know who Harry Truman was, but there

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00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:22.400
he was, and he became the
president. And he died a very good

346
00:27:22.519 --> 00:27:26.759
job. As those Marines were covered
from several weeks of grueling battle, the

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00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:32.640
war in the Pacific raged on.
Plans were already underway in Washington and in

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00:27:32.680 --> 00:27:37.599
the Pacific Theater for a full scale
invasion of Japan that would have devastated American

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00:27:37.640 --> 00:27:44.680
forces and Japan itself. That's when
President Truman decided to use his incomparable new

350
00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:51.519
weapon, the atomic bomb. In
August, the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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The Japanese then issued an unconditional surrender
just days later, and the formal

352
00:27:56.680 --> 00:28:03.279
surrender took place on September tewod.
President Truman's decision to use the bombs remains

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00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:07.880
controversial today, but Don Graves has
no doubt it was the right decision.

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00:28:08.279 --> 00:28:15.319
Harry Truman was Presidents had passed away
while we were on the own, and

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00:28:15.599 --> 00:28:22.119
Harry Truman sent a note to the
Pentagon. He wanted to know the immortality

356
00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:29.960
rate would be if we invaded Japan. He got it back seven million.

357
00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:34.799
He said, we'll drop the bomb. He did the right thing, he

358
00:28:34.839 --> 00:28:38.839
stopped the war. Once the war
was over, it was a waiting game.

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Over one hour, service members could
go home. Graves told us all

360
00:28:44.359 --> 00:28:48.319
about the points system that was used
and the men who rightfully got priority in

361
00:28:48.440 --> 00:28:53.240
going home first after the war,
and when the war ended and they began

362
00:28:53.319 --> 00:28:59.440
to process this, Oh, we
had to wait for points because the prisoners

363
00:28:59.640 --> 00:29:04.079
are in Japan and all over there
were all released and they had the transports

364
00:29:04.119 --> 00:29:07.880
all clogged up, So we gladly
waited for them to get home first.

365
00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:14.039
Then we which had enough points by
the points system, we were discharged and

366
00:29:14.119 --> 00:29:18.119
we went back to the States.
Now, almost eight decades later, Graves

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00:29:18.160 --> 00:29:22.680
reflects on the legacy that he and
the other World War Two veterans have given

368
00:29:22.720 --> 00:29:27.519
our nation. For nearly fifty years, many veterans had no desire to share

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00:29:27.559 --> 00:29:33.079
their stories of service, and some
abjectly refused, but the nineteen nineties saw

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00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:37.519
a surge and interest thanks to the
push for a national World War II memorial

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00:29:38.400 --> 00:29:45.240
films like Saving Private Ryan and Tom
Brokaw's book The Greatest Generation. Graves explains

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00:29:45.480 --> 00:29:49.799
what made them great. I see
something there and I don't know something there.

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00:29:49.880 --> 00:29:53.920
I said, it's Saturday at sixty
five young minute of breakfast. They

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00:29:55.240 --> 00:30:00.480
asked me to speak now to minium
veterans somewhere. They're young, and I

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00:30:00.599 --> 00:30:07.160
told them, I said, you
have to understand about the Greatest Generation.

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00:30:08.799 --> 00:30:15.000
It's we're losing it. There's not
too many of us left, not too

377
00:30:15.079 --> 00:30:21.839
many at all. We loved our
country, we loved our flag, we

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00:30:21.920 --> 00:30:26.920
loved our national anthem, we loved
everything that was patriotic in America. And

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00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:32.599
we feel very bad today because we've
lost most of that. We lost it

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00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:37.559
and the American people have let it
go, and we need to get together

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00:30:37.119 --> 00:30:41.039
and get back to being an American
country again, and we need to have

382
00:30:41.200 --> 00:30:45.480
good people leading it. That's the
only hope of America. And when I

383
00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:49.720
stopped to think of what our boys
did during the Second War Europe and Pacific,

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00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:56.960
it's the same. Because there's so
many today that weren't there. They

385
00:30:56.039 --> 00:31:02.319
forget, and yet there are still
some who love their country. And I

386
00:31:02.440 --> 00:31:07.680
go to a breakfast at a restaurant
every morning, and I know everybody.

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00:31:07.119 --> 00:31:11.640
They've got pictures of me up on
the wall. They'll come and see mister

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00:31:11.680 --> 00:31:14.480
Graves, thank you for your service, and I'll thank you so much.

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00:31:14.839 --> 00:31:17.680
I did it for you, and
I did it for everybody in here who

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00:31:17.799 --> 00:31:21.759
wasn't there. I did it for
them. They said thank you so much.

391
00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:26.559
There are people who care. But
it's the younger generation that I'm concerned

392
00:31:26.599 --> 00:31:33.599
about. They're the future of America. I tell high schools that some of

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00:31:33.640 --> 00:31:37.960
you young men here, you might
be a president of the United States.

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00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:41.400
We don't know. You've got to
take an interest in your country, I

395
00:31:41.599 --> 00:31:45.960
tell them at the high school.
The bottom line, says Graves, is

396
00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:52.039
that his generation paid a terrible price
to preserve our liberties and read the world

397
00:31:52.279 --> 00:31:59.880
of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and
Imperial Japan, but he says the alternatives

398
00:32:00.200 --> 00:32:07.559
were unthinkable and obviously unacceptable. There's
nothing I like better than right here in

399
00:32:07.559 --> 00:32:13.559
this building, the VFW. We
gather around the bar, around the tables,

400
00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:16.640
and we talk about the experiences we
shared during the war, and this

401
00:32:16.759 --> 00:32:22.160
is what we did. And whether
it's it doesn't matter of Vietnam or any

402
00:32:22.200 --> 00:32:29.319
of the modern day fightings included for
the Second World War, we all agree

403
00:32:29.440 --> 00:32:35.039
we did it to protect our country, and we lost a lot of buddies

404
00:32:35.039 --> 00:32:39.720
in doing it. Was it worth
it? Yes, yes, that's a

405
00:32:39.759 --> 00:32:45.759
strong answer. But that's what America
is all about, because that's how it

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started. Revolutions. Men took old
muskets and fought the British and drove them

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out of our country and were killed, many of them. And it's that

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thinking that led Graves to share what
he was most proud of from his service

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in World War Two. I think
the most proudest thing I feel about is

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when these when President Roosevelt introduced us
into the war, I thought, our

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dads did this the First World War. Now we've got to do it.

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If we don't do it, they'll
come here and take over. We've got

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00:33:27.720 --> 00:33:30.160
to fight them. That's what we
all thought, because see, we were

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taught that in school. You know, we saw First World War movies.

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We could only go by what we
saw there. Those were kids just like

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us, all seventeen eighteen years old, and now at age ninety nine,

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Don Graves is still speaking out to
as many young people as possible to explain

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why he served, what was at
stake, and what today's kids need to

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know about service and sacrifice. The
one thing I think is very important that

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the younger generation hear my story and
I want to make it accurate, and

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I want to make to where they
understand it. And that's what I do.

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That's Don Graves. He's a US
Marine Corps veteran of World War Two.

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He's also a veteran of the critical
Battle of Iwo Jima, where he

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served as a flamethrower operator. I'm
Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.

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00:34:43.519 --> 00:34:46.280
Hi, this is Greg Corumbus,
and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,

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00:34:46.480 --> 00:34:52.000
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information, please visit American

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00:34:52.239 --> 00:34:58.880
Veteranscenter dot org. You can also
follow the American Veterans Center on Facebook and

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00:34:58.960 --> 00:35:04.760
on Twitter, we're at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube

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00:35:04.840 --> 00:35:09.280
channel for full oral histories and special
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00:35:09.320 --> 00:35:15.599
the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you get
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00:35:15.840 --> 00:35:17.760
and please join us next time for
Veterans Chronicles