Redding School District

Partnership Educators,

In addition to the obvious hardships and horrors, war can be a lonely business.  On a dark night in the Pacific in 1945, the marines started singing.  One man at a time at first.  Tunes that glowed of happier times.  Every marine on that supply barge knew that the others were there, but it was their joined voices in the song that let them know of the presence of all the others.   The loneliness of war was fought back during those tense terrible hours. 

It was one man on that barge that sang a song for his buddies that became the battle hymn for the Iwo Jima landing February 19, 1945.  As the ship reached that dangerous beach, all of the marines were singing.  As marines from other landing vessels landed, they caught on and they began singing it as well.   

An Australian newspaper correspondent first reported it to the outside world that the battle of Iwo Jima had its own anthem.  Pretty soon servicemen the world over were singing it.  First on cruisers and aircraft carriers in the Pacific and then on the beaches in Italy and France.  Radio operators flashed the lyrics to everyone who asked for them.  Famous singers of the time got in the act, Frank Sinatra, Gene Autry, and many others. 

So it was that the First Amphibious Core hit the Pacific’s most fortified shore singing that song, to the tune of the stars and stripes forever, which was written in 1931 by a seventh-grade girl named Marjorie Statler aged eleven.  

Before the invasion, the marines on that barge began singing college songs.  Then one marine protested that he didn’t go to college and had no song to offer.  After some prompting from his shipmates, he began singing the school song from his alma mater.  “Three cheers for our Jones Junior High. It’s the best Junior High in Toledo.”  That’s right, the battle for Iwo Jima was won, as the Australian Journalist put it, “on the playing fields of Jones Junior High.”  

Many of you can picture those marines planting the flag on the day in question on a distant shore after the dreadful battle of Iwo Jima.  However, it was the connection of one young man to his Junior High School and the songwriting talents of a seventh grader that helped hordes of marines be ready to fight and then continue to help pull together a nation. 

Keep up the great work with our kids and remember that tough times are only temporary and good times are coming.   The connections that you don't think kids are making isn't true.  They are making connections and memories that will stay with them and hopefully offer some comfort to them in times of intense need.

Thanks to our veterans for their service to our country and to us all personally to be able to live in the great land of the free. 

Enjoy your three day weekend in their honor,

Rob