For Don Graves, the memory of walking off Iwo Jima a beleaguered U.S. Marine is as fresh today as it was some 80 years ago.
Now 98 years old, Graves recalls vividly leaving the site of one of the Marine Corp’s bloodiest battles, this pivotal triumph in the Pacific Theater of WWII.
Of the 335 Marines of his 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Division — Dog Company — only 18 survived the ferocious fight to take the island. There were no officers and no sergeants remaining.
“Just a bunch of PFCs [Private First Class], corporals, and privates,” he says. “And that’s how we fought.”
The Battle of Iwo Jima is best known for the Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of a group of Marines raising the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi. It’s as iconic as any photo taken during the war, “that flag business,” as Graves calls it. Graves was nearby when the flag was raised.
“When we went down [to catch their transport off the island], our regimental commander, ‘Harry the Horse,’ Col. Liversedge met us, and he said, ‘Men, before we go board the Higgins and join our transport and go back to Hawaii, I want you all to line up and go through our 5th Marine Division's cemetery. I want you to say goodbye to your buddies.
“The gate was at the foot of Suribachi, it's not there now. But one by one, we went through the gate. When I finally reached it, I looked over on the left pole of the arch, and there was a K-ration turned inside out and it was tacked, and on that I read, ‘Fellas, when you go home, tell the folks we did our best, that they may have many more tomorrows.’
“Every Marine that read that broke down. There wasn’t a dry eye. That’s what the Greatest Generation did.”
Graves, a Fort Worth resident, is one of the few survivors from that ghastly encounter, which lasted from Feb. 19 to March 26, 1945, still alive.
That moment to the one on Sept. 24 when he’ll perform “God Bless America” prior to the start of the NASCAR Cup Series Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Texas Motor Speedway is a fascinating journey that started with his answering the call of his country. Graves enlisted as a Marine at 17 years old in 1942. He was following in the footsteps of his father, also a U.S. Marine.
That’s why we’re writing this story. Graves has performed the national anthem at a number of venues and events over the years, including for the Texas Rangers baseball team.
He has a great set of pipes, there’s no question about that. Just talk to him. You wouldn’t be surprised to learn he possesses an exceptional vocal talent — which he has been using for years — but his voice isn't solely a product of genetics. It has been crafted by the tapestry of life experiences, echoing 98 years of witnessing every facet of humanity: from the darkest depths of savagery known to mankind, to the heavy burdens and scars borne through those years, and ultimately, to the radiant redemption found in their aftermath.
What he saw at Iwo Jima he shares today while making any one of a number of speaking engagements each year to discuss religion, the war, and patriotism. He's concerned about younger generations' apathy toward their country. And, so, he speaks to them about it at schools. His visits are impactful. Students see in real life the history they read in their textbooks.
After serving his country later answered the call as a Christian pastor, inspired to do so after attending a Billy Graham revival meeting in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Graves accepted the invitation at the urging of a neighbor who was concerned that the war’s scars were manifesting in self-destructive behaviors, something Graves does not deny.
“He said, ‘You are a mess’,” Graves recalls the conversation with the neighbor. “You are losing your best friends — and I had a lot of it because I was a public singer — you're losing your wife, and you’re losing yourself.”
Graves managed to escape harm in the Pacific, but his life was saved in Oshkosh. He retired from active ministry at age 82 after ministering to thousands in a number of states.
He was asked years ago to speak at a Daughters of World War II event by Laura Leppert, wife of former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert. It was at one of those meetings that he was asked to perform the national anthem.
A star was born. Or maybe reborn.
“The opportunity to sing ‘God Bless America’ to a national TV audience is a rare treat and I am so thrilled to be able to do it,” said Graves. “It is a great honor.”
“All of us at Texas Motor Speedway are honored to welcome a true American hero like Don Graves to sing God Bless America prior to the start of the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400,” said Mark Faber, Texas Motor Speedway executive vice president and general manager. “We will celebrate Mr. Graves for his valiant service to his country as a U.S. Marine in World War II as well as his 32 years of service to his church and parishioners. He is a hero to us all.”
That he was not among the 6,821 Americans killed or nearly 20,000 wounded is certainly only by the grace of God. That’s what he thinks anyway.
Graves, who more recently received a presidential citation from President Trump, will attest that there are no atheists in the foxhole.
The American forces assaulted Iwo Jima for the purpose of securing the island and its three airfields. Graves’ division landed in the third wave on Feb. 19 at 8 in the morning, he recalls.
“On the beach, we knew this wasn’t going to be easy,” he says. “We couldn’t move, we couldn’t get up. Guys were getting killed. Every time they’d go over the top, they’d drop. I was on the beach at least two hours.”
It took the division three days to go 540 feet to Suribachi, he says, “inch by inch, foot by foot, shell hole by shell hole.”
Graves, all 5-foot-6 of him, hit the beach with 300 of his “buddies." He was carrying a 72-pound flamethrower on his back and a .45-caliber pistol on his hip. The fighting was fierce.
“When I was on that beach, I put my face in the sand,” Graves recalls. “I had that 72-flamethrower on my back. There are marines all over. Some are dead. Some are wounded. A man way over to my right. Everybody knew about him.”
John Basilone was already a war hero by the time of the Iwo Jima landing, awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for duty on the island of Guadalcanal in 1942. The medal is the United States’ top honor for war-time combat. He returned home to ticker-tape parades and nationwide fanfare, which was more than useful in him helping raise $1.4 million in war bonds. He met with the president and mingled with the Hollywood set. He got married. However, when he was offered a commission and a cushy desk position in Washington, he declined.
“I ain’t no officer, I ain’t no museum piece, and I belong back with my outfit.”
Uncommon valor is what that is. Basilone went back into action. He did not return, killed mere feet from Graves on Iwo Jima.
“John took a sniper rifle was killed instantly,” says Graves, who will turn 99 in May.
Graves spent six weeks on the island. Afterward, he and what was left of his division returned to Hawaii to train for the invasion of Japan which was averted by Truman’s decision implement a decisive strategy to end the war.
Analysis after the war ended estimated that the capture of Iwo Jima saved tens of thousands of lives.
“I think about my buddies all the time,” Graves says. “How can anyone go through that thing — day one through the end and not get hit?
“Grace of God.”