70th Anniversary Of Battle Of Iwo Jima Remembered In Tulsa

The 70th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima was recognized at a remembrance ceremony Saturday in Tulsa.

Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 577 honored veterans of the World War II conflict, immortalized by the classic photo of the raising of the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi.

"Uncommon valor was a common virtue," Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz said of the men who fought to capture the island from the Japanese.

The 70th commemorative ceremony was held by the Tulsa-area Marine Corps League Albert E. Schwab Detachment at 1109 East 6th Street.

Marine Corps League Commandant John Henry Mashunkashey, a Vietnam veteran, said it's important for Americans to recognize that we owe our lives and our freedom to the Greatest Generation. 

Though Marines got the credit for Iwo Jima thanks to the famous photograph, many branches of the Armed Forces participated in the conflict, he said.

"It cost a lot of lives," he said.

He said it is important to him that the history lessons of World War II are not forgotten.

"These men here know that, understand it, lived it, survived it - for freedom," he said.