{"id":32190,"date":"2020-03-03T04:26:41","date_gmt":"2020-03-03T04:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/03\/03\/two-iwo-jima-marine-veterans-99-and-97-meet-on-75th-anniversary-of-the-battle\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:55:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:55:20","slug":"two-iwo-jima-marine-veterans-99-and-97-meet-on-75th-anniversary-of-the-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/news\/your-marine-corps\/2020\/03\/03\/two-iwo-jima-marine-veterans-99-and-97-meet-on-75th-anniversary-of-the-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Iwo Jima Marine veterans, 99 and 97, meet on 75th anniversary of the battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two nearly 100-year-old veterans of the Battle of of Iwo Jima in Japan<\/a> met for the first time on its 75th anniversary at a ceremony aboard another of the battle\u2019s veterans \u2014 the Battleship New Jersey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two Camden County, New Jersey, veterans tossed a remembrance wreath into the Delaware River late-February from the port side of the floating Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial on the Camden waterfront across from Philadelphia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 99-year-old John Welsh of Gloucester Township and 97-year-old Francis \u201cFrank\u201d or \u201cElmer\u201d Beach of Oaklyn also shook hands and personally exchanged a few World War II memories of the U.S. Marine Corps assault on Iwo Jima, a Japanese island in the Pacific that was part of the enemy\u2019s early warning system during the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both remembered seeing the initial U.S. flag raising by the Fifth Marine Division atop 546-foot high Mount Suribachi in the winter of 1945 after the Marines captured it Feb. 23, a few days into the five-week battle that began Feb. 19. The battle ended March 26, a costly U.S. victory and one of the bloodiest battles in Marine history with 6,800 killed and nearly 20,000 wounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\t