Uncle John at Iwo Jima

Indepundit has more on the Fallujah shooting, in the form of advice he gave his own troops on the rules of engagement.

Read through the discussion thread as well. With a few exceptions (there is always some loon who can't resist using the towelhead epithet), the commentary is interesting.

The issue of not knowing whether a wounded enemy is likely to try to take U.S. marines with him reminded me of a story that my Uncle John told about Iwo Jima.

Uncle John went ashore with a 105 battery - the marines' mobile front line artillery. After the beachhead was secured, they set up operations and began exchaning fire with Japanese guns hidden in caves behind steel doors in Surabachi.

Even after the infantry pushed the perimiter back so the battery was not in range of direct rifle fire, marines were being shot periodically. The battery could not find the sniper anywhere and no one could see any flash. This went on for a couple of days, with two or three marines getting tagged.

The break (as it were) came as the battery commander sat down to take a dump on a used mess can. As he sat there, he saw a flash and a round tore through both buttocks. My Uncle would always start giggling at this point - an officer shot in ass while taking a dump. But as they administer first aid, he directed his men to a length of pipe sticking out of the sand.

The pipe looked like any other piece of detirtus of the shelled beach. But it was actually a breathing/firing tube. As the Americans closed in, a young Japanese soldier - a teenager, crawled into a pit with water and bags of rice. His comrades fashioned postioned the pipe, laid a steel door on top of him, and buried him alive.

You have to respect the courage of this soldier who voluntarily laid down in his own grave. He laid there for days, and whenever a marine stopped in his tunnelvision long enough, the Japanese soldier would light him up.

My uncle was part of the party of marines who dug down through the sand and found the metal door.

One of the marines said that they should take the sniper prisoner.

The sergeant looked at him disdainfully. "He's likely to have a grenade down there with him. You're welcome to try, but I'm going to go stand over there."

The marines considered this.

They pried up the edge of the door and a dozen marines poured rifle fire into the exposed crack.

An execution.

I'm glad the prisoner guy got overruled by his buddies.

Uncle John came home, raised a family, built a dairy farm, and helped feed the nation.