On Tuesday, I attended the Wethersfield Veteran's Day Ceremony at town hall. Among the many veterans in attendance, I had the chance to talk with Herb Philbrick, 97, who served in the Navy during World War II. Philbrick was a Chief Machinist Mate, and among his many memories of serving his country, he clearly remembers watching the battle of Iwo Jima, including the now iconic raising of the American Flag on Mount Surabachi from his ship, the U.S.S. Oceanus.
"One of the things -- because of the historical part of it -- was the raising of the first flag at Iwo Jima," Philbrick said. "We saw the raising of the second flag, which was photographed, and became such a famous statue, but the first flag was raising during the skirmish on Mount Surabachi. In fact, when they were getting ready to raise the flag, a Japanese officer came out, and charged with a saber, and he was killed. When the first flag came up, it was a three by five, and what looked like 20 feet of gas pipe. When the flag went up, the ships blew their whistles, even the Marines on land, as hot as it was, took time to wave and so forth. We were right off the beach."
"The other point was the (USS) Nevada, was one of the ships from Pearl Harbor," Philbrick continued. "The Nevada was torpedoed. She was the only one that didn't sink. They ran her aground, and she was one of the first ones repaired after Pearl Harbor. The Nevada with 14 firing point blank into Mount Surabachi, to close the caves [the Japanese had an extensive system of tunnels and caves that prolonged the battle of Iwo Jima], we were right next to the Nevada, and we were bouncing up and down in the water from the concussions."
Philbrick served from 1940 until the end of the war. The Rocky Hill resident has written down his memories of World War II for his family.
If you know someone who has served our country, please encourage them to chronicle their military experience. For more information, go to the Library of Congress' Veteran's History Project, at http://www.loc.gov/vets/.
