 Marine John E. Fondahl, left, meets son John W. Fondahl in the Pacific prior to the invasion of Iwo Jima. Although in different military units, they did meet once briefly during the battle. |
Longtime Los Altos Hills residents Doris and John Fondahl have just returned from an emotional trip to Iwo Jima, where they attended a national ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the epic World War II battle. They also toured and took part in ceremonies on Saipan, Tinian, Guam and Oahu.
A couple of years ago the couple had lunch with Joe Rosenthal, the photographer of the famous flag-raising shot. At 93, he is in retirement in Novato. It turned out that he also graduated from their high school, 12 years before they did. When they heard of the proposed 60th-anniversary trip leaving March 5, they decided to go.
High school sweethearts
John remained in college until he reached 18 and then decided to enlist in the Marines. He found himself in the Pacific with the 5th Amphibious Corps Signal BN. His father, John E. Fondahl, a Mustang Marine officer, was already there with the 4th Marine Division. Both father and son took part in the Iwo Jima campaign. John witnessed the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi from the base of the mountain. That was on D-day-plus-4 and the battle continued to rage for 36 days.
On about the 10th day, John saw his father coming towards him. His father said, “Do you know a Sgt. Fondahl?” Upon replying “Sure do,” his father said, “Can you take me to him?” It was only then that he realized his father didn’t recognize him. They had a nice two-hour visit. Both came through unharmed.
This eight square-mile island became the bloodiest battle in World War II. The death toll for Marines and Navy personnel was 6,821 and total casualties were more than 24,000, or one in three of those who landed. On the Japanese side, 22,000 were killed and more than 200 prisoners were taken, 80 percent of whom were wounded. There were no civilians on the island.
In July 1945, John was reunited with Doris, engaged, and off to Dartmouth College. In March 1946, the young couple spent their honeymoon at the Portsmouth, NH, Navy Base with John getting a discharge from the Marines.
Back to the present
In a ceremony, the 14 Iwo Jima veterans present were honored. John was also allowed to represent his deceased father and received a second award for him. Teddy Draper, the only representative of the Navajo codetalkers who played such an important role on both Saipan and Iwo Jima, was among those honored, and then he delivered the benediction in the Navajo language.
After a ferry trip to nearby Tinian, the Fondahls visited Runway Able where the B-29 carrying “Little Boy” took off for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. They also viewed the bomb pit, which is now a memorial, where both “Little Boy” and “Fat Man,” the second bomb, were loaded into the B-29s.
Tinian was considered by the Marine Corps as the most perfect amphibious operation of the war. The Japanese expected a landing on the south end of the island near Tinian Town, and they concentrated their troops there. There were two small beaches on the northwest coast of the island, but the Japanese assumed that a major landing could not occur there.
The 4th Marine Division pulled a surprise. John’s father, as division quartermaster, played a major part in the landing logistics and later received the Bronze Star Medal for his role. It went smoothly, about 17,000 troops were landed, a beachhead battle was avoided and the amphibious landing craft was able to cross the beachhead and continue inland with troops and supplies.
Guam next
The climax of the trip occurred on March 12. After a 3 a.m. wake-up call, the Fondahls boarded the first of three Continental Air flights to Iwo Jima. The U.S. returned the island to the Japanese in 1968. They maintain it as a permanent memorial. It is green and peaceful.
The Fondahl’s first and most emotional destination was the landing beach where John had gone ashore near the base of Mount Suribachi. It was a far cry from the stark, debris covered and body-strewn scene some 60 years earlier. We gathered a couple of bottles of the black sand to bring home. A man approached and asked if he could take our picture. It was the governor of Guam who had joined the tour,” John said.
After Iwo Jima, the Fondahls’ final stop was back in Honolulu. The Fondahls visited the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor and then had lunch on the USS Missouri, the battleship that was the scene of the surrender signing that ended the war.
“On another day, we had a ceremony at the National Cemetery in Punchbowl Crater. It brought back old times,” John said.
After the war, John took Doris back to Hawaii to live from 1948 to 1951. He taught at the University of Hawaii and Doris taught at Punahou School, and they lived on the side of Punchbowl Crater.
The Fondahls took part in a final ceremony commemorating the third anniversary of an Iwo Jima monument at Kaneohe Bay. The youngest member of the group of veterans at age 77 was Jack Lucas, one of the 27 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients on Iwo Jima.
Only 80 Medals of Honor were awarded in the Marine Corps in all of World War II. Jack was only 17 when he landed. He fell on a Japanese grenade to protect his buddies, and when a second one landed, he reached out and pulled it also beneath his body. The first failed to explode, and he survived the second one. After 21 operations over the years since, he says he still can’t make it through the airport metal detector.
Doris and John came to California in 1952 when John was the project engineer for a contractor on a concrete dam and powerhouse near Sacramento. At the conclusion of the project, Fred Terman, then dean of engineering at Stanford, offered John a faculty position to help start a new graduate program in construction engineering and management.
The couple chose to build their first home in Los Altos on arrival in 1955. John retired in 1990 as the Charles H. Leavell Professor of Civil Engineering, Emeritus.
In 1997, he retired from the Caterpillar Inc. Board of Directors after 21 years of service. John’s father, promoted to brigadier general on retirement, died here in 1989 at age 90.
The recent trip to Iwo Jima once more confirmed to the couple that each of the past 60 years has been a gift to be grateful for and to live to the fullest.
