How I got to Iwo Jima

The other day, a friend and I were discussing interesting places we have been.  It reminded me of my adventure to Iwo Jima.

I was stationed in Okinawa, Japan for 3 years.  One of my colleagues was married to a C-12 pilot.  One day he gives me a call and asks if I would like to fly to Iwo Jima.  A small group from his squadron was going to fly out there for the day to re-enlist one of their sailors.  Now there are very few opportunities to ever get to Iwo Jima.  One way would be to have actually fought at Iwo Jima during WWII and survived.  They have annual reunion flights that go out there.  Another way to see the island is through the single Marine program which would have trips out to Iwo Jima.  Since I was did not fight in the war, was not single and not a Marine I had to rely on the third way to get out there, know someone!

So I barter with my colleagues to change my duty day and cover my call so I can go to Iwo Jima.  I show up to Kadena air base and meet up with my pilot friend, two other pilots, a flight surgeon, and a few enlisted.  We take off only for alarms to go off within 10 minutes of flying.  Next thing I know we are landing back at the air base.  It is unknown why the alarms went off, but since no obvious solution the only option is to change planes.  This should have been a warning for me, but I went along with the others, debarked the plane and loaded up into another C-12.  30 minutes later we are back in the air.

As I recall the flight to Iwo Jima from Okinawa takes about 3-4 hours.  When you come up on the island it is in the middle of nowhere.  All you see is Mount Sirabachi which comprises about a third of the island and an air strip that occupies most the rest.  A few sparse buildings that house the Japanese Defense Forces (only males on the island for 9 months at a time) are next to the air strip.

I first realized that there was a problem when the third pilot in the back with us started to rifle through a procedure manual.  He was frantically communicating with the pilots in the cockpit.  Next thing I know he opens a small hatch in the floor of the plane and is cranking away at something, but seemed to having difficulty completing his task at hand.  Finally, word gets back to everyone of what has occurred.  The landing gear is not coming down.  Neither the controls nor manual override has been able to bring the wheels down.  We are told this in order to prepare us for the next attempt to bring the gear down.  We were going to start purposely jerk the plane up and down to try and throw the wheels down.  If I remember correctly, we were doing about 3 G's which is above the normal rating for that aircraft.  (not to ruin the story, but when we finally landed, the Japanese forces told us we looked like we were on a roller coaster and they had no idea what the heck we were circling around going up and down for).

Our attempt to throw down the gear was unsuccessful.  We had to land at Iwo Jima.  Okinawa and Guam were both too far to fly to and besides, we would still need landing gear there as well.  So, the decision was to pull the side door near the front of the plane.  This is the main egress point.  If we had to crash land it would likely cause the plane to bend near the front and thus obstruct the main door.  If that were the case, you would have to exit through the second door near the tail which would then be sticking up and about 12 feet from the ground.  By removing the front door it assured the door would not be jammed shut and there would still be a way to exit the plane safely.

Once the door came off wind started to rush through the cabin.  We are told to get into crash position (get low, hands over your head).  It was quite the seen with the loud noise, the wind whistling through the aircraft, and the sailor to re-enlist having a panic attack (his friends trying to calm him down while dealing with their own anxiety).  looked over at my friend, the flight surgeon, and asked 'are you getting into crash position?'  He replied 'Heck no, I want to see this'.  So we both leaned into the aisle and watched what was about to transpire through the open cockpit door.

As we went in for the landing we did not know what to expect.  When the ground neared the plane landed without a hitch.  We all looked at each other with amazement.  When we got out of the plane we saw that the landing gear had finally came down.  Apparently a latch ditch attempt to crank it down during descent of plane worked.  You could see purple hydraulic fuel all over the plane from a broken line, explaining the difficulty with the landing gear.

The bad news was that we almost crashed (though the pilot stated that crash landing that plane would be a piece of cake!)  It was also getting late with little daylight left to do the re-enlistment ceremony.   The good news was that we had no way to fly back that day so we had to stay overnight on Iwo Jima.  The Japanese Defense Forces (JDF) were very friendly.  They gave us a shuttle that we took up to top of Mount Sirabachi to do our re-enlistment.  Once we got up there there were more JDF who were having a party.  They started to hand us beer and yakitori which we gladly accepted.  When we got back to our housing for the night, they came to our rooms and brought us whiskey (because that is obviously what Americans drink).

The next morning we had a chance to explore the island.  We walked along the beach where the main landing occurred during the battle for Iwo Jima.  It was awe inspiring to think how our Marines took that island.  The beach is full of black sand that you sink in.  The beach slopes upward toward high brush where the enemy would have had a clear shot at you.  Meanwhile above you the Japanese would have had fortified positions on Mt. Sirabachi to attack from.  All the while, they also had an extensive network of caves where they could pop in and out of.  There are a few caves that you are allowed to visit (and others you stumble upon).  They are impressive in their design.  Whole rooms underground.  Many still had relics from the war (cooking pots, helmets, even a rifle).  I certainly left that island with a greater appreciation for what our sailors and Marines had to go through in order to take the island during the war.

All of us flew back that day except my pilot friend.  He had stay behind and wait for parts to fix the plane.  When I got back I took a little bit of grief from my colleagues.  By staying overnight I had missed another duty and the next work day.  My boss said that was the last time she would agree to let me go on a boondoggle trip like that.  I did owe people some favors for my adventure, but hey, it was worth it.