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THE AMERICA'S PRIDE RING IS
IN HONOR OF
THOSE THAT LOST THEIR LIVES
THOSE THAT GAVE THEIR LIVES
THOSE THAT REMAIN
AFTER 9-11-01

Another time while searching caves, he came upon one with two dead Japanese soldiers lying in it. One had his wallet lying next to him. Marty picked up the wallet to find pictures of this man’s wife and children. He said at that moment he knew that the Japanese were real people too with families and that the slogan “the only good Jap, is a dead Jap” wasn’t true.

Marty was on Iwo Jima for a little over 20 days. Days in which many men died (only 30 out of 200 lived in his company). Once while getting passed hot food from one foxhole to another, a soldier in his foxhole decided he would take it to the next and was shot while doing so. Marty said that because the Marines had taken Iwo Jima, 26,000 lives were believed to have been saved since the airplane pilots now had a place to land. Iwo Jima was halfway between Japan and Guam.

Marty also told of another horrifying experience when he jumped into a foxhole in which another Marine was already there. The Marine was moving but not saying anything. Marty looked and saw that the man was dead and the maggots that were eating away at him were moving him. This was probably one of Marty’s worst memories of Iwo Jima.

While sitting on Iwo with some other Marines, a nice photographer came over and asked if he could take their picture in exchange for souvenirs the Marines had. Marty never wanted to collect any souvenirs like many of the soldiers, due to the fact that he never cared about them. So Marty just simply smiled and posed assuming he would not get a picture. The photographer that he had been talking to who later sent him the picture was Pulitzer Prize winner Joe Rosenthal.

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At nightfall, he heard American voices from behind a hill and found men from his platoon there. In the morning, he was still curious as to where the Japanese hand grenades had come from, so he went back to the place where he had been lying. Surprisingly enough, he found that the spot, in which he was laying on, was a Japanese pillbox, where from underground Japanese had been throwing those hand grenades.

The scariest part for Marty was what he couldn’t see or hear. The Marines did not shoot their guns at night because it would give away their position more easily. Later the Japanese came out at night to get water and the American soldiers would try to intercept them.

When he arrived back on Guam, he found his brother there who was a naval officer on the Battleship New Jersey. Besides spending time with him, he was also going through additional training which he later found out was the preparation work for an attack on Japan. But, the atomic bomb dropped which became a very happy day for all those stationed on Guam who were packed and ready to invade Japan.

Marty recalled listening to the American radio soon after the bomb dropped and hearing the people debate on whether or not to give Japan an emperor. Marty jokingly replied, “give them two for all I care, I just want to go home!”

Another comical event that happened was on V-J day. Marty, his brother, and a Marine chaplain that he knew from back home all went to party that night. As the night progressed, the chaplain started to get more and more drunk and started to get into a fight with a naval commander. Then the chaplain yelled to the commander, “I’m just a Marine chaplain, and he’s just a Marine Corps private first class, but we’ll kick the hell out of all of you.” After that, all three of them ran to their jeep and made their way through the jungle very quickly.

One thing I thought was really interesting that I learned was that while still on Guam and before coming home, Marty said they took cargo ships out into the ocean and dumped the supplies and jeeps they were carrying. He said that it was supposedly good for the economy, since everyone was starting to build things again. But, it could have also been cheaper than just shipping it all back.

Robert Martin Galvin's Story
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On Iwo Jima Marty had many experiences that became very memorable to him. Some were very comical, while others were very moving. Lucky Strikes was a common brand of cigarettes made in the U.S. During the war, Lucky Strikes had to change from green packaging to white packaging, due to a chemical in the green packaging needed for the war. One of Marty’s duties was to search the caves and while searching, he laughingly said, he came upon a cave in which there were hundreds of boxes of Lucky Strikes cigarettes with the old green packaging.

One night as he laid watch with his corporal, Archie, he heard a loud clanking from below the cliff they were laying on. As he looked over, he found 20-30 Japanese with canteens walking very closely by. When he asked Archie what to do, Archie told him just to keep very quiet. Laughing, Marty said he hoped he would say that.

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