Flight Pundit

More living history, US Marine style.

They know he wears two hearing aids, thanks to the 105mm howitzer he manned. They know he served in the U.S. Marine Corps and made corporal. They know he has a basement room full of memorabilia after four major battles, including Saipan and Iwo Jima.

“They’d ask every once in a while, but then they’d get a dubious look on their face,” said Bien, 82, of Belle-ville. “They know some of it. I don’t think they know the depth of it.”

Four campaigns in 13 months — Roi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. You might think Iwo Jima was the battle that hit Bien hardest, but it was Saipan.
[...]
He and a buddy were ordered to dig a foxhole in the rain. They piled up sandbags for the walls, then decided to put on a roof of steel bars, mesh, canvas and several inches of sand to keep dry.

That night, a 75mm mortar round landed on the roof.

“We were asleep and it turned us both over. That roof saved us,” he said.

After Iwo Jima, the 4th Division was preparing for the invasion of Japan. Bien would have gone into Tokyo Bay several days after the invasion started to the south.

“Then Harry dropped the A bomb,” Bien said. “I stayed drunk for three or four days.”

He came home and drank away another $300 he got from the state. Then he became a carpenter, married the girl across the street and had six children.
[...]
“You never stop being a Marine,” he said. “I’m still a Marine.”

Semper Fi Cpl. Gordan Bien

1 Comment »