I recently met a family member for the first time His name is Pete (Real first name Irving) Park. He is my great uncle and my grandmother told me that he participated in WWII and that he never talked about it. I planned a visit with him expecting to here a few sentences with little info about the war but it turned into several visits consisting of several hours each.
I learned that he was in the 3rd Marine Corp. and then the First after the war. He was in a demolition squad (the FIRST to land on Iwo Jima), and out of the 60-64 men in his platoon he was the only to survive that day it was quite a moment. Especially after he ended with tears and then stated that I was the only person he had told that since the day it happened.
He showed me photos which I hope to soon get copies of and then gave me his bayonet, a flashlight, and a 50 cal. Shell that were all with him on Iwo. He told me he carried a garand but was issued a carbine, thus why he gave me a carbine bayonet.
This sparked my interest in collecting USMC items now....
The Bayo, 50 cal casing, and flashlight were his.
Ps does anyone know the designation for this flashlight could it be earlier than the TL-122s or PX?
Trying to patch together a 3rd USMC Dress uniform as well...
-Ben
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