No Stopping

The Navy did not say who she was, whether aging mother or young wife. But it thought her letter typical of several received recently, and therefore made it public. Somewhere in the U.S. an American woman had written:

"Please, for God's sake, stop sending our finest youth to be murdered on places like Two Jima. It is too much for boys to stand, too much for mothers and homes to take. It is driving some mothers crazy. Why can't objectives be accomplished some other way? It is most inhuman and awful--stop, stop!"

Gravely and seriously, Navy Secretary James Vincent Forrestal, who had seen the first awful days of Iwo himself, sat down ta reply:

"On Dec. 7, 1941, the Axis confronted us with a simple choice: fight or be overrun. There was then, and is now, no other possibility.

"Having chosen to fight, we had then, and have now, no final means of winning battles except through the valor of the Marine or Army soldier who, with rifle and grenades, storms enemy positions, takes them and holds them. There is no short cut or easy way. I wish there were."

Last week the nation learned just how many Marine soldiers, carrying rifles and grenades, had paid the price to take Iwo Jima: 4,189 dead, 441 missing, 15,308 wounded--total casualties of 19,938. This was as high as Tarawa and Saipan combined, higher than the number of Union casualties in any of the bloody battles of the Civil War except Gettysburg.

But Iwo was now secure, except for the last straggling Japs, hiding like animals in caves, waiting for the end. No longer did Jap fighters rise from Iwo's ashy black airdromes to hack at U.S. bombers on the Tokyo run. The Iwo airfield had already been a welcome haven for 30 crippled or fuel-shy 6-293 winging their way home to the Marianas from the fire-bombing of Japanese cities. The price the U.S. had paid for the desolate pinprick of land on the road to Japan had been bitterly high. But while they winced at the cost, military men and most U.S. citizens knew that it was part, and only part, of the stern bargain that had to be made.

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