LORAN SMITH: No one rested easy at Iwo Jima

Seventy years ago this year, the Allies had gained the momentum in World War II. The war was not over, but Hitler was in his bunker refusing to yield while the Japanese were poised to fight to the last man as the United States prepared to invade Japan.

We were squeezing the Nazi’s jugular. We had a death grip. On May 8, 1945, it came to a conclusion, VE Day victory in Europe. In the Pacific, it was different. The Allies had the upper hand, but the Japanese mentality had the U.S war department concerned about the casualties that would result from invading the Japanese homeland.

The battle of Iwo Jima, which began on Feb. 19, 1945, reflected what would likely face the U.S. if it invaded Japan. Admiral Chester Nimitz sent 70,000 Marines, Navy corpsmen and other personnel and U.S. Army airman to Iwo Jima. It was a bloody battle, the U.S. suffering 6,821 killed while the Japanese saw 18,844 of its 22,060 personnel lose their lives. It took almost five weeks to rout the Japanese from the bunkers and caves in which they were entrenched.

One of the 70,000 who joined the invasion party was Winfield “Skeets” Baldwin, native of Wilmington, N.C., and longtime chemistry professor at the University of Georgia. He was only on the beaches for two days and two nights, but never rested easy in his foxhole, knowing that the Japanese were famous for attacking in the middle of night, bent on slitting the throats of their adversaries. Baldwin went ashore on the 20th to relieve those who landed first as the rotation was a Godsend for some, eternity for others.

“I was only 18 years old,” Baldwin says. “Naturally, I was one of the fortunate ones since I wound up on Guam a few days later. It was a miserable experience. We stacked Marines up on the beach five and six deep. Although I was eager to sign up for military duty, I had no idea what I was in for. Still, I am proud to have been a member of the Greatest Generation. My initial objective was to become a pilot, but (I) knew that I likely would not pass the physical.

“You could join the military when you were 17 years old, but to enter officer training, which I had planned to do, you had to be 18. I didn’t want to wait a year, so I took the enlisted man’s route. I am proud to have served my country, but am disappointed that we seem to have lost some of the patriotic emotion in this country. After Pearl Harbor, the tone in this country was to sign up and fight for America. Our country truly was great back then, and I am not sure we will ever regain the attitude which prevailed in the forties.”

After the war, Baldwin enrolled at the University of North Carolina, where he later earned a Ph.D. In 1967, he joined the faculty at Georgia, where he taught for 27 years. When he arrived, his brother-in-law, Ken Rosemond, was the Bulldogs basketball coach.

Entering the war at such a tender age and surviving after brief combat, Baldwin realizes his good fortune but has never wanted to return to Iwo Jima, where many veterans have journeyed for reunions over the years. (There will be one also in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 19.) However, he is moved emotionally when he sees the historic photo of the Marines raising the U.S. flag at Mt. Suribachi. Skeets left a couple of days before Joe Rosenthal took the famous photo on Jan. 23, 1945.

“For the many who return for reunions, I understand their motivation, but it is not something that I have wanted to do, especially now. I simply want to enjoy retirement. But let me say this: I admire those guys who fought at Iwo Jima and survived. We should remember the sacrifice that they made,” Baldwin notes.

“Even though I was anxious to enlist, I still went through a tough emotional experience with only two days on Iwo Jima. I knew what could have been in store for me if I had stayed longer.”

Had President Truman not made the subsequent decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Skeets would have likely stormed the shores of Japan. Fortunately, he lived to tell a different story.