RUSSELL G.
KAMMER, b. abt 1923 Oak, MI; d. Feb 27, 1945 MIA/DOW
Iwo Jima
Pfc. 833283 Expert Rifleman USMC V Amphibious Corps, 28th
Regt, 5th Marine Div.
Burial at Sea - Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing,
Hawaii
Parents: Bernard W & Alice Bernard and Alice were young
when they married: 23 & 17. Bernard was a mail carrier US Post Office since
before 1930.
Siblings: Roger, Marilyn, Beatrice (b. 1936 Redford d.
2011)
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| Brother Roger RHS 1940 |
Russell entered the service April 1943. His enlistment card
describes him as 160 Wt, blue eyes, brown hair 5’10”. Boot camp was in San Diego. Then he served with
the Marine Military Police. Until he was sent overseas where he served spent 17
mos before he was killed.
He took part in The Battle of Iwo Jima, horrendous fighting,
a story sadly he can’t tell. Called
Operation Detachment it lasted 19 February to 26 March 1945; it was a major
battle in which the United States fought for and captured the island of Iwo
Jima from the Japanese. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the
entire island, including its three airfields (including South Field and Central
Field), to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands.
This five-week battle comprised some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of
the War in the Pacific of World War II. After the heavy losses incurred in the
battle, the strategic value of the island became controversial. It was useless
to the U.S. Army as a staging base and useless to the U.S. Navy as a fleet
base. However, Navy SEABEES rebuilt the landing strips, which were used as
emergency landing strips for USAAF B-29s.
From 19 to 23 February, the 28th Marines fought to secure
Mount Suribachi. Progress was initially slow and measured in yards as they had
to fight their way through hundreds of layered and mutually supporting Japanese
pillboxes, blockhouses, spiderholes, and strongpoints. By the morning of 23
February, Suribachi had been encircled. Col. Liversledge called for a
reconnaissance patrol to scale the mountain a find a path to the top if
possible. Chosen for the mission was the 3rd Platoon, Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine. These men
reached the summit at approximately 1020 and proceeded to raise a U.S. flag. It was the raising of
this flag that led the then Sec. of the Navy, James Forrestal, to comment that "...the raising of that flag on
Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years". Fearing
that the flag would be taken by higher-ups, Lt. Col. Chandler Johnson,
commander of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, ordered a second patrol to the
top of the mountain to replace the flag with a larger one that could later be
given to any senior ranking personnel that wanted it as he intended for the
first flag to remain with the battalion. It was the raising of this second flag
that was caught on film by Joe Rosenthal and would become the iconic photo of the battle if not the war in the Pacific.
Iwo Jima was the only battle by the Marine Corps in which
Japanese combat deaths were three times those of the Americans throughout the
battle. Of the 22,000 Japanese soldiers on Iwo Jima at the beginning of the
battle, only 216 were taken prisoner, some of whom were captured because they
had been knocked unconscious or otherwise disabled. The majority of the
remainder were killed in action, although it has been estimated that as many as
3,000 continued to resist within the various cave systems for many days
afterwards, eventually succumbing to their injuries or surrendering weeks
later.The battle tally: 6,131 servicemen killed on Iwo Jima.
Russell was wounded in the battle, transferred to the USS
Lubbock APA-197 for evacuation to Guam. He died of
wounds on the ship Feb. 27, 1945.
A corpsman who attended him participated in his burial at sea; these are pictures of Kammer burial at sea.
A corpsman who attended him participated in his burial at sea; these are pictures of Kammer burial at sea.
He received the Purple Heart and Rifle Expert Medals.
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