Trip Of Honor: Doyle, Burkhart Travel To Salute TC’s Marine Veterans

Trip of Honor: Doyle, Burkhart travel to salute TC’s Marine veterans
ALL TOLD, the trip was over 32,000 miles, taking Chuck Doyle and Mike Burkhart across the
Pacific Ocean, stopping at islands with names that have lasting memories in the United States’
drive to defeat the Imperial Armed Forces of Japan in World War II.
This was no vacation, and while there were moments that allowed for laughter, the trip of
Doyle and Burkhart was one with a purpose, a trip whose conclusion was realized at Gus’
Restaurant in Texas City on Monday afternoon.
Doyle and Burkhart visited Iwo Jima, site of one of the bloodiest battles of the unforgiving
violence that marked the Pacific Theater. Over the course of 36 days in February and March
1945, more than 20,000 Japanese and 7,000 Marines were killed as the U.S. moved closer to
the main island of Japan.
“It was a real touching ceremony,” said Doyle of the 74 th anniversary of the initial assault on Iwo
Jima. “This was part of my bucket list.”
Doyle, who served in the famed 3 rd Armored Division under General George S. Patton in Europe,
said part of the reason for going to Iwo Jima was to gain a better understanding of the Pacific
war. “It was just an all-out, dirty war,” he said. “The measure of violence compared to what I
saw in Europe was drastically different.
Beginning in Pearl Harbor, the two traveled to Guam, Tinian and Saipan, each of which were
occupied by U.S. forces in 1944, setting the stage for the invasion of Iwo Jima, which was
considered a critical island to launch bombers to Japan.
The pair returned bearing sand from the island and presented them to fellow local Marines
Bruce Clawson, currently the Texas City Commissioner, Frank Furleigh, Ivan Hammond and
Texas City Fire Chief David Zacherl. Texas City Mayor Matt Doyle was also among those who
helped celebrate the event.
“It was an honor to present them with this,” said Burkhart, who made the 10-mile hike to
Mount Suribachi, the highest point on the island.
For Hammond, receiving the sands harkened him back to February 19, 1945, when he was part
of the invading force.
“They told us it would take about 3-4 days to capture it,” said Hammond, whose task was to call
in air strikes. “I was part of the third wave that landed on Green Beach, and once we got on, we
were pinned down for about three hours by a machine gun nest that was just yards away from
us.”
Hammond was also a witness to one of the defining photos of the 20 th Century, the placing of
the flag on Mount Suribachi – nearly 600 feet above the landing zone — that was taken by Joe
Rosenthal of the Associated Press.
“I could see everything they were doing,” he said. “They first put up a little flag before they
went down to find the biggest flag they could.”
Doyle and Burkhart will next visit Normandy this June to take part in the 75 th anniversary of the
D-Day invasion that opened the second front in Europe and spelled the beginning of the end of
German occupation of the continent.