Nineteen forty-five. The Pacific Theater of Operations. Halfway around the world, the eight square miles of the Island of Iwo Jima came under fierce attack from U.S. Naval Forces on February 16 as a prelude to the most crucial island beach landing yet attempted by the United States Marine Corps. The Emperoras Imperial Army of Japan was not on the island but inside eleven miles of island tunnels with orders for each soldier to fight to the death to repel the first attempt by the United States to occupy Japanese soil. After the Japanese allowed 3,400 Marines to land on the soft volcanic soil with zero cover, the deadliest crossfire in the history of mankind was unleashed in an instant with hellish efficiency. Six hundred were left standing on D-Day, February 19, 1945. D-Day +7, with three Divisions of Marines pinned down in an area not suited for one regiment, and casualties accelerating far beyond anyoneas imagination, First Lieutenant John B. Minnick was ordered to advance his Regimental Weapons Company to reconnoiter the southern edge of Motoyama Airfield Number #2 into the now infamous Meat Grinder. Less than 24 hours on the island, he knew in his heart that he would not make it. This is a story of one manas fight to live, but what you wonat read is his ensuing life as a husband and father, a patriot dedicated to ideals of our forefathers and recognized by his peers in constitutional law, a teacher, a lawyer, a Scoutmaster, a decorated soldier and testament to soldiers with disabilities, and a pillar of the communities he lived in. Without question, he was a man of conviction with deep, abiding religious beliefs with a body broken by a Japanese mortar shell, but a spirit that couldcarry ten men on his shoulders. He is our father, and he is our hero. aDonald Minnick