Semper Fi

Hi, Jeff: I suppose our company was considered the battalion reserve unit but we landed about one hour after the first wave and things suddenly became very, very hot. We never really were able to operate as a reserve unit. We were in the thick of things from the very start. Our combat area was so small that we were all mixed together as soon as we landed.
Dick Wheeler

 

No. I wasn't one with previous combat experience. Although I enlisted in the Marines as soon as the war broke out, after boot camp they put me in a guard company, which I hated. Luckily, I was able to get into a combat unit in time to make Iwo Jima, or else I'd have been ashamed to come home. After two years of guard duty on the west coast, including Alaska, I went to California and got into the combat unit with the newly forming 5th Division.

 

Marine Corps duty aboard ship was considered good, clean billet but those guys were no safer than the rest of us. I joined the Marines to see action so although I also respect all who served, I personally was looking for front-line duty.

 

Hi, Jeff: In answer to your questions:
Clifford Langley was a Navy corpsman and after the War he transfered to the Army. He was in Korea and Vietnam. He was a wonderful, really good guy that you just had to like. He died about five years ago.
Sure, I knew the guy who died beside me, we were in the same squad. We were buddies and good friends.
From the shell hole, I was taken to an aid station that was under fire, then transfered to another aid station that was under fire. The last one was on the beach. It took several hours to get to the beach. From there it took about one-half hour to get to the ship. I got there just in time for an air raid.
I met Lou Lowery at an early reunion soon after the War.
I was on the hospital ship when the flag went up. I heard all the commotion.

 

Dear Jeff: I appreciate your interest; you needn't apologize for asking questions. You ask alot about my platoon story which can be found in my first book. The book IWO was written to detail the whole battle, whereas my other book discussed my platoon in some detail.
In answer to your questions: I was on the hospital ship Missoula in the area of Iwo Jima about a couple of weeks before moving towards California. I learned of the flag-raising on the ship as there was a big uproar, shouting on the ship, guns firing, a corpsman running in yelling that the flag just went up, alot of cheering, etc.
I did not learn that the guys in my platoon had put up the first flag until I was in a hospital in California when a guy gave me some photos to look at and I recognized right away that they were my guys depicted in the stack of photos.
With regard to your comments about the casualties, I can only say that they were almost uniform throughout. We almost had nobody of the original men left unhurt. But, as Marines, we knew we were going to get slaughtered, we went in to win and the casualties were generally considered by all as incidental.
Dick

 

Welcome, Mr. Wheeler. It's an honour to have you join us. I feel fortunate that we are having the opportunity to learn from several of you who are willing to share your memories. As I've mentioned in other threads, my father was quite reticent to share his memories unless they were brought forth by exceptional circumstances. I hope you enjoy the forum and as you've already seen you will certainly be asked many questions!

 

Mr. Wheeler,
The community and I are glad to see another Veteran join the site. As most of us have already told you, there is a lot to discuss here. There are many things you may discuss yourself. You, actually, added a little inspiration to me. By the way, my name is Kevin. I'm 14 years old. And I'm writing a book just like you have wrote many. Yours are based on your experience in the war, I believe? Well, if your interested, mine is based on real historical events. It's just about a Soldier starting in Boot Camp, and moving onward in his life in the war. But i'm kind of stumped on how everything ran in World War II. Because obviously I wasn't in it. So I was wondering if maybe I could interview and ask some questions about how things were ran? And some real life experiences you might like to share. And once I get my book published, you will have credits in the back of the book. Unless you wouldn't want your name there. Please respond.
Thanks,
-Kevin.

 

Cpl Wheeler hasn't been back since Aug of last year. Hopefully he will come back sometime and see you message.

 

Oh my goodness..I hope..I wish the best. I really hope he comes back. I was looking forward to meeting with him.
Thanks,
-Kevin.

 

No prob. I think we all feel the same. Usually when I respond to a thread or post I will look at the poster's profile and check the last time that poster visited.

 

Richard ‘Dick’ Wheeler October 21, 2008


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Published: Sunday, October 26, 2008 4:16 AM EDT
Richard “Dick” Wheeler, 86, of Pine Grove, a nationally acclaimed author, passed away Tuesday morning at the VA Hospital, Lebanon.

He had resided with his sister, Margery Wheeler Mattox, since 1997 at her National Register Property “Nutting Hall,” 205 S. Tulpehocken St., Pine Grove.

Born in Reading, Jan. 8, 1922, he was a son of the late Margaret Wenrich Wheeler, Pine Grove, and Clarence E. Wheeler, Reading. When he was 4 years old, his family moved to Laureldale.

He graduated from Muhlenberg Township High School, where he was the editor of the school paper in his senior year. Having a passion for writing at a very young age, he wrote for the Reading Shopping Bulletin after graduation until he enlisted in the Marine Corps immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor.


Little did he dream he would be engaged in one of the worst battles of World War II — Iwo Jima — and live to write a firsthand account of the battle. He was wounded severely as the battle raged. Lying in a hospital ship offshore, he heard a roar go up when the first small flag was raised over Mount Suribachi. A few hours later, the small flag was replaced by a much larger flag that could be seen all over the island, boosting morale for the Americans, although the battle raged on for weeks. It wasn’t until hours after the flag-raising that he learned it was his buddies and his platoon who raised the flag that day, creating a place in history that will remain forever.

Cpl. Wheeler returned home after a long recuperation and started the first day at his old job writing for the Shopping Bulletin. He went on to write humorous verse for national magazines, among them the Saturday Evening Post.

Moving to Pine Grove in 1950, he built his own little cabin in Swopes Valley along the creek, where he divided his time between Pennsylvania and Florida to be near his first love, the seashore. He eventually bought a second home in West Palm Beach, which he owned more than 30 years.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Conrad Richter, a friend and naturalist like Dick, liked to walk along the creek with Dick, discussing literature or wild life, enjoying the freedom of the wide-open spaces. Conrad compared Dick to Henry David Thoreau, the American writer from Concord, Mass., who lived a similar lifestyle in a cabin he built by himself at Waldon Pond in the 1800s.

In 1965, Dick’s first book, “The Bloody Battle for Suribachi”” was published from his personal memories. That started him on his life-long career as an expert in military history from the Revolution to the Civil War to World War II and the publication of 17 books. In 2004, a booklet called “Chuckles in Rhyme”” was published, exhibiting his humorous side, which was always part of his character since he was a child. His dry humor was a gift.

In 2006, a revised edition of “The Bloody Battle for Suribachi” was published using the same text, but all new photographs, letters, some verse about the battle and a post card from Gen. Kuribayashi’s widow from Japan, who had provided material and pictures for his Iwo” book — one of his best sellers yet today — published in 1980. The Americans considered him a great general, even though he was their foe.

Iwo Jima was returned to Japan in 1968. One ex-Marine said, “By Hell, I’ll run off to Canada before I’ll help take it again.” In all, 1,083 of the defenders were captured. About 20,000 of the Japanese died violently or perished in the caves where they “hunkered” down until the nighttime. It was then that the Japanese came out and took the Americans by surprise.

One Japanese wrote later, “I was particularly sad, watching the moon, I counted the age of my son or thought of my wife’s face.” Casualties for America in this battle alone were 6,821 dead, 19,217 wounded and 2,646 cases of battle fatigue, for a total of 28,686.

The revised book was used extensively for the movie “Flags of Our Fathers,”” written by James Bradly. Dick was a consultant and allowed the use of his own book to help Bradly with many of the passages. Clint Eastwood had his entire cast read “Bloody Battle”” before starting the movie, but since Hollywood strives for entertainment and vulgarity today instead of telling the true story, the movie was a great disappointment to Dick and the Marines in general.

Dick was also contacted by the writers for Tom Hanks’ new mini-series, “The Pacific,”” produced by Steven Spielberg, which will be out probably next year.

Dick was invited to the White House on Veterans Day 2006 to have breakfast with the president. This aging Marine traveled to meet with the seven remaining comrades of his famous platoon. It was a highlight in his career. Individual photographs were taken with President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush, and seeing his buddies one more time was a memorable, if sad, experience. Lindberg, the last surviving flag-raiser, died in June 2007.

No services are planned at this time. The family would prefer anyone wishing to make a memorial contribution to send it to the Pinegrove Historical Society, 205 N. Tulpehocken St., P.O. Box 65, Pine Grove, PA 17963 or to the VA Hospital, 1700 Lincoln Ave., Lebanon, PA 17042.

H.L. Snyder Funeral Home Inc., Pine Grove, was in charge of arrangements