Remember Iwo Jima --- and PFC Forrest J. Exley

This Pulitzer Prize-winning image --- U.S. Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi --- flashed by on social media the other day, accompanied by the wrong start date for that horrible, deadly battle for a tiny scrap of a Japanese island that actually was of little strategic importance.

The U.S. assault began at 8:59 a.m. 77 years ago today, Feb. 19, 1945, when the first wave of Marines landed on beaches along Iwo Jima's southeastern coat. The Associated Press's Joe Rosenthal took the photograph four days later, on Feb. 23.

The battle continued until 9 a.m. on March 26, when Marine commanders declared the island secure. That battle for control of two airstrips was the first U.S. attack on a Japanese home island and because of overwhelming force, a U.S. victory was assured. 

But because U.S. planners had misinterpreted the situation on Iwo Jima and vastly underestimated the deadly potential of its defenders, the fighting was fierce and bloody. A total of 6,821 U.S. troops were killed and more than 19,000 wounded. The Japanese death toll exceeded 16,000. 

U.S. Army PFC Forrest J. Exley, 21, a farm boy from the Last Chance neighborhood of Lucas County's Union Township, was among those who gave up their lives on Iwo Jima 77 years ago. A son of J. Clarence and and Gertrude B. Exley, he was born March 28, 1923, inducted after working as a farm hand on Feb. 2, 1943 and deployed to the Pacific theater during 1944.

PFC Exley, serving with the 147th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division, reportedly was among troops who volunteered to fight on Iwo Jima after a year of service on New Caledonia. He was struck in the head by a bullet as the battle was winding down, taken to a field hospital and died there of his wounds on March 27th, a day short of his 22nd birthday.

His remains, along with those of thousands of other U.S. troops, were buried initially on Iwo Jima, Forrest in the 4th Marine Division Cemetery with a view of Mount Suribachi in the distance.

On Valentine's Day, the 14th of February 1949, his remains were reburied at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, where they remain. He was awarded the Purple Heart Medal and Bronze Star.

PFC Exley's unit, the 147th Infantry, U.S. Army rather than U.S. Marines, sometimes is overlooked by those compiling accounts of Iwo Jima. Today's a good day to remember the men of the 147th --- and Forrest J. Exley.