Feb 19, 1945 the Marines stormed the beaches of Iwo Jima.

Its hard to believe that 73 years ago, the US was at war in the Pacific and its even harder to believe that my Grandpa Thomas Starnes was there. Being able to be one of the FEW PEOPLE IN THE WORLD to walk where these men fought its a total privilege.

My day started at 5am, catching a flight with my squadron over to the Islands.

Once we landed we got straight to walking. the 13 MILE round trip would take most of the day so we had to get a hurry on!

It was about 100 degrease all day during the walk with absolutely no cloud coverage so bringing enough water was a MUST. Right off the bat, looking at how dense the foiladge is how were the men able to fight through it all! Now, also before the men stormed the beaches of Iwo To the island was bombarded by Naval war ships so i can imagine most of them were burnt to a crisp.

About 1 MILE down the trail we started to see small Japanese monuments, and around them the TUNNELS that the Japanese would be hiding in.

It was said that there were over 11 miles of tunnels built before the bombardment of the island. What an amazing sight to see this for my own eyes. We were not able to go into the tunnels of course.

Farther down towards the mountain, i wandered off the path into a cleared area, where i found this monument.

A entire Division Cemetery. WOW. This is when it all came crushing down on me. How many people really died on this island. A monument for an entire division, it blew my mind. Men younger than me. A very surreal feeling.

Farther down i found another beautiful monument. Unfortunately i cant read Japanese, i would absolutely love to know what it said, if you happen to know please leave it in the comments for me.

i was back on the path for probably another mile and i look to my left, A BUNKER!

Inside the bunker there was still a Machine gun (completely rusted away). I kept on hiking, because it was SO hot but also because we were on a time crunch! When you walked up to the bunker you could clearly see the rhubarb enforced concrete.

Down from the bunker to the beach!

One of my favorite part of the hike was going down to the beach. to the BLACK sands of Iwo Jima. The HUGE crashing waves on the beach, the huge upslope. The constant fight that would be fought, a constant uphill battle every inch of the way.

At the base of Mt. Suribachi.

Look at this bad boy! Im not quite sure what it is or how big it is, but it could possibly be like a 10cm anti ship cannon or something! It was at the base of Mt. Suribachi, at the end of the island about 6 miles from the landing strip.

Finally, at the top of the infamous volcano, Mt. Suribachi.

Wow. You can see the beautiful beach, the intense crashing waves and the path i walked up to the volcano from the airstrip!

The Monument.

There really isn't much to say about this. I think its one of the most well known photos i think of any war and maybe of all time.

Over 60 MILLION people died during WW2. Men, women and children.

26,000 people died on the island of Iwo Jima alone. This tiny island.

What an honor and a privilage it was to be able to see it with my own eyes.

Thanks for reading, and please if you have any more amazing facts, please feel free to leave it in the comments!