The "Iwo Trio" Honors a Fallen Friend
Group Will Continue as a Trio, Despite Fellow Marine's Recent Death
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Photo by Chris Wilson
Bob Gasche, who was among some of the first troops to arrive at Iwo Jima, presents a High Springs Boy Scout Will Sands with a signed photo of the Iwo Trio at a flag retirement ceremony held in summer 2009.
Clif Cormier did not see the now-famous raising of the stars and stripes over Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima; he was too busy protecting himself. But, Cormier did hear the soldiers' cheers within seconds of the flag being hoisted over the Japanese island.
"It was like something out of a major Hollywood movie," Cormier said.
Cormier is one of a trio of veterans in the Gainesville area who was involved in the invasion on Iwo Jima. Bob Gasche and the late Clair Chaffin also fought in what was the first United States attack on the Japanese home islands. Cormier, Chaffin and Gasche fought with the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions, respectively. Each veteran represented one of the three divisions that were part of the invasion.Chaffin recently died at age 83, after being gunned down in a robbery attempt in South Carolina. But the two remaining Gainesville area Iwo Jima veterans still refer to themselves as the "Iwo Trio," an indication that Chaffin will live on in the hearts of his fellow Marines.
"What he has meant to our country and our community is indescribable," Gasche said. "He fought in four battles. He also fought on Iwo Jima. He was a true patriot, a war hero, and we will not change our name. We will always be the Iwo Trio, even though only two of us are left."
According to an article by historian and editor Diane Fischler of the University of Florida's Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, Chaffin, who was a medical corpsman, had performed a tracheotomy on another soldier in a foxhole during the war. He had amputated a fellow soldiers' arm to save the man's life. He rescued eight Marines in a fire zone between enemy and friendly lines of fire. He even treated a wounded Japanese soldier he had found laying in a ditch. For his bravery in Saipan, he received the Silver Star, the third highest military honor.
"Our family just wants to thank all of you for the outpouring of love and support," Chaffin's daughter Kathy Dowd said at a recent monthly meeting of the Iwo Trio. "I don't know how we would have made it without all of you. All the cards and letters and flowers were incredible."
The remaining two Marines have promised to honor their friend's memory.
"The second Tuesday in 2010, we will have a memorial service for our friend, and have Clair Chaffin Day," Gasche said. "The spirit of America is still alive as long as we can celebrate his life, because he is what America is truly about."
The Battle of Iwo Jima, which began on February 19, 1945, has been hailed as the fiercest battle in the Pacific Campaign. More than 17,000 Japanese soldiers had hidden in bunkers and tunnels throughout the island. Only 216 Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner, while the rest were killed in action or had committed suicide to avoid being taken alive. More than 23,000 Marines and an additional 3,000 Navy seamen died in the month-long battle.
Cormier had previously fought with the "Fighting Third" at Bougainville and Guam. Following World War II, Cormier also fought in Korea. He retired from the Marine Corps in 1959. He went on to earn a degree in journalism from the University of Florida and later worked as a reporter and editor at the Gainesville Sun. After his retirement, he wrote a book entitled "A Postcard From Joseph," which is an autobiography written in the third person.
Gasche was a 21-year old private in the 5th Marine Division the day of the Iwo Jima invasion. While he was not among the first to land on the beaches of the Japanese island, he remembered seeing bodies of dead soldiers in the waves and on the sand upon his arrival.
He said he was thrilled to see the U.S. flag raised on Mount Suribachi.
"Yes, we had suffered casualties [at Iwo Jima]," Gasche said. "But we knew, from that moment on, that the mountain was no longer going to fire on us."
Gasche was wounded in his abdomen and taken to a medical ship to have shrapnel removed. He received a Purple Heart. Gasche also saw combat in Korea.
The Battle of Iwo Jima is most remembered by the raising of the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi, an event captured in the famous photo by Joe Rosenthal.
"The photo raised the morale and spirits of the soldiers," Cormier explained. "The flag raisers and survivors were sent on bond tours. The flag raising on Iwo Jima saved the Marine Corps."
For some, though, the battle raged on in their hearts. Chaffin, before his death, spoke at a forum on Veterans Day at the University of Florida. A video clip of his talk, courtesy of the Sam Proctor Oral History Program, is available online. In it, Chaffin talks about saving the life of a fellow corpsman who had "13 bullet wounds from the top of his head to his feet."
Chaffin tagged him and moved on to treat the others, saying to himself, "This poor devil will never make it."
Two years later, Chaffin was walking down a hallway at Oakland Naval Hospital when a man said to him, "Hey Doc, come over I want to talk to you."
"He said, 'Do you remember me?'" And I said, 'No, I can't remember you,'" Chaffin explains in the video. "He said, 'Well, I'm the one that you said, 'this poor devil will never make it.'"
Chaffin chokes up at the thought of having helped save this man's life.
"There's so many that I wish I could have saved that I wasn't able to," he says with tears in his eyes. "It was just too many to treat." §
Chris Wilson is a freelance writer living in Newberry. He may be contacted through the editor: editor@towerpublications.com.
