World War II Veterans Share Accounts Before Numbers Decline

During World War II, over 16 million Americans served in the Armed Forces. Today, fewer than 45,000 remain alive. A historian conducted interviews with 130 Marine Corps veterans who fought in the Pacific Theater for a forthcoming book. The youngest interviewee was 90 and the oldest was 103 at the time of the conversations.

One veteran, interviewed at age 95 in 2021, described landing on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945, as a radio operator. He recounted watching flamethrower operators engage Japanese positions and the subsequent use of bulldozers to seal bunker entrances.

accounts A second veteran, who served as a chaplain’s assistant, spent the first day of the Iwo Jima battle aboard a troop ship assisting with wounded personnel. He later helped record final messages from dying service members and participated in the burial of nearly 7,000 Americans on the island.

He stated that he did not discuss his experiences for more than 50 years after the war. A conversation with a college student in the 1980s prompted him to begin sharing his account publicly.

Bougainville account A third veteran, interviewed at age 98 in 2021, served in the Third Raider Battalion during the Battle for Bougainville. He described being shot on the eighth day of the battle and later declining a hospital request to feed a burn victim because of the smell.

The Department of Veterans Affairs projects that the final World War II veteran will pass away by 2037. The three men profiled died in 2022, January 2026, and September 2022, respectively.