just finished reading the book,knew about iwo jima,mt. suribachi and ira hayes the indian.but never realized the toll of dead marines the battle took or the 22,000 jap soldiers who fought to their death.battle was only supposed to take like 3 days but took a month because japs had 750 pillboxes and underground tunnels that they were invisable until they showed themselves.it was a battle inch by inch,eyeball to eyeball,hand to hand.marines had just under 6,000 kia and about 19,000 wounded.great read for the marines who fought and died for our freedom.god bless all our military men and their families.

Hesh2, I am in the middle of reading this book as well. It was amazing what people were willing to do for our country, they are all heros. Schools should be having kids read this books in history instead of just learing the dates when things happened.