Our visit to the monument to Iwo Jima

We toured the museum and monument to Iwo Jima the other day.


It was about a one mile walk and a beautiful warm day, so off we trucked along back roads and drainage ditches.  Left Brain does love his "short cuts".  I kept one eye out for scorpions and snakes all the way.


This is the actual monument - the one in Washington DC is a bronze copy made over this one.  It fits that there would be two monuments, since there were two flags.  The first one was apparently pretty insignificant and the boats had a hard time seeing it, so a larger one was put up.  That's the one that got the press and made famous.  Of course when I saw this huge flag flying I thought there was a Perkins nearby...but that's just me.

The museum had a lot of memorabilia and a short video about the war and the importance of taking Iwo Jima.  In one of the newspaper articles it mentioned that it would have been impossible to every have succeeded without the Navajo Code Talkers.  I wish the video had at least mentioned them briefly...even once.  


Is it just me or does this poster look like Colonel Sanders?  Or maybe the patriarch from Southfork on the old show, Dallas.

Of course the high light of the trip for Left Brain were the planes that have been rescued and restored and are able to fly.


Those propellers are made of wood due to the shortage of metal available during the war.

My highlight was the women's bathroom.  I pondered the sign attached to the toilet paper.  I mean if it said to use just toilet paper in the toilet, that would make some sense.  But to only use toilet paper in the toilet?  Where did they think I was going to use this?

Then there was the attempt at beautification by placing this dainty little plant on top of a wobbly table covered in some sort of dreadful plastic. 


There were more objects d'art in there, but too many to capture.


All in all it was a nice monument to visit and it is a good reminder never to forget those who have died so we may have the freedom we enjoy.


But, as with any war.  It just seems such a waste of lives and is so sad.


Long Live the Queen