I was born in May during World War II, a month before the allied invasion at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. When I was nine months old, the Marines hit the beach on the small island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific on February 19, 1945. Some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the war in the Pacific occurred on Iwo Jima. One of the men who went ashore with the Marines was 25-year old Navy Corpsman, Paul Dunn.
He’s a retired physician, who now lives in Maplewood Terrace Assisted Living Apartments in Viroqua, Wisconsin, with Katheryn, his wife of 61 years. I had the honor of sitting down with Dr. Dunn two days before his 93rd birthday and interviewing him about his World War II experiences. As a fellow medic, I was interested in learning what he went through as a medic. Navy medics are called corpsmen.
He was working as an office boy at the Federal Reserve Bank in Cincinnati and taking evening courses three nights a week at Xavier University when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He knew that sooner or later he would be going into the service. He wanted to be with the Army Medical Corps or Navy Hospital Corps, so he began taking first aid courses and became an instructor giving classes in first aid. As draft times got closer he decided to join the Navy, where he’d either be on a ship or a shore station. He didn’t want any of that foxhole infantry life.
On September 23, 1942, he became a member of the U.S. Navy as a Pharmacist Mate 3rd class. After four months he became the first Navy Corpsman in his training group to be assigned to the 5th Medical Battalion of the 5th Marine Division (Fleet Marine Force). Among Navy Corpsmen, the FMF was the worst thing that could happen to them. Life was short for corpsmen in the South Pacific. So much for spending his time on a ship, he knew he’d be living in a foxhole with the Marines. As long as that was to be his destiny he decided to make the best of the short time that could be left of his life.
After field training with the Marines, he and three Marines were chosen to attend commando training school for six weeks. He was the only Navy Corpsman in the school. He said after completing the training he had never felt so good in his life–before or since.
After more training at Camp Tarawa in the Hawaiian Islands they boarded ships and headed for combat at an undisclosed location somewhere in the Pacific islands. They were finally told that the target was the small island of Iwo Jima, 700 miles from the Japanese homeland. There were 20-25 thousand Japanese troops on the island who were expected to fight to the last man. They were told that they should have the island secured in three days because they had been bombing the hell of it.
On February 19, 1945, the first waves of Marines hit the beach. At first they encountered little opposition. The Japanese intentionally let more Marines get on the exposed beaches before letting loose with intense artillery, machine gun, and rifle fire. Paul said that when all hell broke loose from Mount Suribachi, they were pinned down on the open ground with no cover whatsoever. It was like shooting fish in a barrel with a shotgun. Their regiment was finally able to cross the narrow part of the island and establish a beachhead with great loss of life and horrible casualties.
His regiment finally took Mount Suribachi after five days of heavy fighting and they raised the flag that was immortalized in a photo by Joe Rosenthal that became a symbol of the fighting in the Pacific. One of those men was a fellow Navy Corpsman, John Bradley. Paul said that three of the men who raised the flag were later killed in the fighting on Iwo Jima. During the 35 days of fighting he slept in a foxhole at night. Not exactly the life he had planned and expected when he joined the Navy.
The amount of human destruction he witnessed on Iwo Jima was horrific. There were more than 26,000 American casualties, including 6,800 dead. Over 20,000 Japanese soldiers were killed. There’s no way to measure the psychological damage that took place among the survivors. Some aspects of war never change.
After leaving Iwo Jima, Paul’s unit returned to Camp Tarawa to prepare for the invasion of Japan. He feels the dropping of the atomic bombs, as terrible as they were, saved the lives of millions of Americans and Japanese that would have been killed during an invasion.
After the war he went to Medical school and was a physician in the Chicago area for 50 years. I’m sure the training and experience he gained as a Navy Corpsman made him a better doctor. Thank you Dr. Paul Dunn for being there to treat and comfort the wounded and dying during World War II. I salute you and all the remaining veterans of that war for your service and sacrifice.
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