Little Brother's Hug Welcomes Home Iwo Jima Hero
Melvin Woodward • Mapleton, Iowa
Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps
Rest in Peace
May 15, 1923 – September 13, 2009
Don Doll, S.J. photo • Story by Tim Gallagher
Melvin Woodward entered World War II without his parents' knowledge. He left behind six younger siblings, including 4-year-old Lyle. "When I left for the service, little Lyle wouldn't sleep," says Mel, now 84 and a resident of Mapleton, Iowa. "I didn't have a welcome home when the war ended. I just remember Lyle running down the lane to meet me. He was 7 years old by then.
"He wrapped himself around my legs and wouldn't let go." More than six decades later, Mel remembers the touch of a baby brother he left behind. The U.S. Marine was shot in his leg and hands during fighting on Iwo Jima, a small island some 600 miles south of Japan and the site of one of the war’s deadliest battles. But the pain from those wounds didn't compare to those of leaving a little brother behind on the farm.
"I was just as happy to see him," says Mel of his quiet homecoming. World War II service for Mel began so quietly that his parents didn't even know it. The eldest of eight children on the family farm at tiny Ticonic, Iowa, Mel had a deferment from military service as the war raged on. The reason: He was needed to work at home, to help keep the farm productive.
"When my brother Everett, who was two years younger than me, went to sign up for the draft, I went with him," Mel explains. "I didn't tell anyone and I signed up. I felt that as the oldest one, it was something I needed to do."
Mel served in the Army for a grand total of 60 minutes. When an official asked for volunteers for the Marines, he raised his hand. "I hated cold weather," he says. "We picked corn by hand in the snow and I hated the cold. I went to San Diego with the Marines." After training in Hawaii for six months, Mel boarded a ship for Iwo Jima where he would serve on a machine gun squad. Eight squad leaders ahead of him had been killed or wounded. He would be No. 9.
He had never heard of Iwo Jima, a strategic point in the Pacific wanted by both the Allies and the Japanese as a landing base for aircraft. The island had two air strips.
On February 19, 1945, Mel landed on the island at about 11 a.m. Fifteen days later he was carrying ammunition and helping to move members of his squad back when a Japanese sniper got off two shots, hitting Mel in his left thigh and in both hands.
"We had come out of a big shell hole where we had spent the night. We were moving back for another group when I was hit. I fell face first to the ground and was pulled into a shell hole," he says. His leg was wrapped quickly, saving him from bleeding to death. Mel appointed a soldier from Sisseton, South Dakota, to take his place. The young man was killed before Mel even left the island. During the month-long battle for control of Iwo Jima almost 7,000 Americans died, mostly Marines. The U.S. Flag-raising at Iwo Jima by five Marines and a Navy Corpsman on February 23, 1945, was photographed by Associated Press Joe Rosenthal. The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph appeared on front pages across the nation and inspired the Marine Corps War Memorial near Arlington Cemetery.
Woodward was evacuated to a hospital on Guam, where doctors put a steel pin above his knee and saved his leg. He was discharged on June 28, 1946 after earning the Purple Heart, a Presidential Unit Citation and a Good Conduct Medal.
Best of all, Mel came home to Northwest Iowa in one piece. He was a hero to Lyle, the little brother who came running down the lane to meet him – the little brother he could hug.