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| Sierra Madre's Alan Wood |
Sierra Madre resident who supplied Iwo Jima flag dies - Alan Wood, the man who claims he supplied the American flag raised on Iwo Jima by American GIs after an epic battle during World War II, has died at his home in Sierra Madre. He was 90. A scion of one the city's pioneering families, when Wood returned from the war he went on to work at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, first as a technical artist and later as a spokesman.
It wasn't until he got older that Wood began telling his story, mostly to veterans groups and Boy Scout troops. "He was like a lot of vets who downplayed their role," said his son Steven Wood. "When they came home, they wanted to go about their lives. "
According to accounts in both World War II era magazines and an internal JPL newsletter, Wood had recovered the famous Iwo Jima flag from a salvage depot at Pearl Harbor, and brought it aboard the Navy vessel LST-779, where he was a communications officer.
"I was on the ship when a young Marine came along," he explained in the newsletter. "He was dusty, dirty and battle-worn, and even though he couldn't have been more than 18 or 19, he looked like an old man. " 'Do you have a flag?' he asked me. 'Yes,' I said, 'What for?' He said something like, 'Don't worry, you won't regret it.' "
The official U.S. Marine Corps history of the flag's origin credits Second Lt. Alfred Tuttle for retrieving the large flag from LST-779, also noting that it had come from Pearl Harbor. Wood's said he needed permission from a supervising officer before handing over the flag.
During his life, Wood shared clear memories about what he saw at the battle of Iwo Jima.
"There was a feeling of death in the air that was overpowering," he wrote in a 1945 letter to a friend. "Suribachi was a few thousand yards down the beach on our left, and the front line, marked by some entrenched tanks was only a few thousand yards down the beach. Occasionally you could hear the spatter of small-arms fire, all too often a big Japanese mortar would explode with a shattering burst, and with terrible finality, right on the beach in the midst of all the men, supplies and machines. "
There was a concerted effort a couple of years back to honor our World War II veterans as Grand Marshals of our 4th of July parade. For reasons mostly having to do with some of the extremely petty politics of that time, this never happened. Which is unfortunate.
Sierra Madre's 4th of July Committee is taking nominations for this year's 2013 4th of July parade Grand Marshal. They can be e-mailed at 4thofjulysierramadre@gmail.com. Drop these folks a line or two and let them know that you think it is time we honored our surviving World War II Veterans by making them 4th of July Parade Grand Marshals.
Who knows? Maybe we could call former Congressman David Dreier and see if he can still get us that U.S. Army band he talked about.
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