‘Thank God you're not on Iwo Jima’

Battle that just 'went on and on'
For Josephy, the battle for Iwo Jima “went on and on, and was just horrible.”

He survived the attack with little more than a few bruises from being tossed in the air by a Japanese mortar, but many of his friends and fellow Marines were injured or killed.

One close friend in particular, Reid Chamberlain, his foxhole buddy on Iwo Jima, had eluded death once before on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines by escaping to a nearby island and leading a Filipino guerrilla band behind Japanese lines. The Marines notified his mother that he had died, though she refused to believe them, Josephy said.

Chamberlain eventually returned to the United States, but finding that he couldn’t fit into civilian life while the war was still on, he re-enlisted in the Marines and found himself on Iwo Jima. He was walking across what he thought was a secure part of the island when he was shot and killed by an enemy sniper hidden among the rocks.

Despite the tragedy unfolding all around, Josephy was able to enjoy at least one moment of levity.

Petra Cahill / MSNBC.com One of Josephy's stories about the Iwo Jima invasion was paired with photographer Joe Rosenthal's iconic image of the Marines raising the U.S. flag on the island.

Weeks into the battle, when the first mail drop arrived, Josephy received a letter from his mother, who had no idea where he was.

The letter enclosed a copy of the New York Sun with Joe Rosenthal’s famous photo of the U.S. flag raising on Mt. Suribachi splashed across the front page and a note from his mother saying, “Thank God you’re not on Iwo Jima.”

As Josephy recalls it, he was in a captured Japanese pillbox with Rosenthal when he received the letter from his mother.

He showed it to the photographer and gave him his first look at the attention it was getting back home.

Everyday ‘a bonus’
Once the battle of Iwo Jima was finally winding down, Josephy and four other combat correspondents were ordered back to the United States for special duty. They were sent home to go on speaking and bond-selling tours to explain to the American people the importance of capturing Iwo Jima and that the tremendous cost in casualties was in fact to save lives and finish the war sooner.

In addition, he wrote his own book, “The Long and the Short and the Tall," about the Marines in combat on Guam and Iwo Jima and the many stories of sacrifice by the men he knew who were wounded or died in the Pacific.

Petra Cahill / MSNBC.com Josephy, fourth from left, and other  U.S. Marine combat correspondents being greeted by Brig. Gen. Robert L. Denig, head of the Marine Corps' Public Affairs Division during WWII, in Washington.

After the war, Josephy became a successful editor at Time Magazine and American Heritage. He also became one of the pre-eminent historians on the American West and American Indians as the author of numerous books including “The Civil War in the American West,” and “500 Nations: A History of North American Indians,” among many others.

But, his time on Iwo Jima has always remained the most important experience of his life.

In his autobiography, “A Walk towards Oregon,” he summed up his feelings about the battle of Iwo Jima: “I was filled with guilt over those I was leaving behind and felt that from now on, no matter how long I still lived, it would all be bonus.”

MORE FROM U.S. NEWS

U.S. news Section Front

Aspiring reality TV stars crash Obama party   Macy’s parade to skip Broadway for 1st time Day of the super-turkey could be nigh Man dies after day stuck upside-down in cave Arsenal found at ex-doctor's Ohio apartment Military families united by tragedies Nurse anesthetist accused of abuse 4 bodies found in suburban Chicago home Salvation Army kettles now take plastic U.S. sets climate target ahead of summit   U.S. news Section Front   Add U.S. news headlines to your news reader: