Miscellaneous Musings by FunGirlDi

Wartime Correspondence to Home…

Memorial Day weekend is a few days away and the official start of our summer season. It is worthy to repeat that Memorial Day is a national American holiday that is observed on the last Monday of May. It was set aside to honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day and originated in the years following the Civil War. In 1971, this day became an official federal holiday. The holiday this year is on Monday, May 26, 2025.

As I have written before, my father served as a medic in the U.S. Army through five battles in the European Theatre during WWII. I have several items from his time overseas and know how much he languished to return to Ely, his family, and friends. He wrote home quite often to express to his family how much he missed them and longed to return.

A few months ago, I ran into my cousin, Mary Louise Icenhour on the streets of Ely. We both have returned to our beloved Ely for our retirement years. Mary Louise and her late sister Rose Ann were Mavetz girls – the daughters of my father’s eldest brother, Joe Mavetz, Jr., and favorite nieces of my father, John Mavetz.

My father did not marry my mother until he was almost 38 years old. He was second to the youngest of 12 children born to my grandparents, Joe, Sr. and Frances Koprivetz Mavetz. My dad was the favorite uncle to many of the children of his older siblings and had a remarkably close bond with many of them.

When I ran into Cousin Mary Louise, she mentioned she had letters from her “Uncle Johnny” as he was called, that he wrote to her and her parents when he was overseas during the war. She said her wish was to give these to me and right there was born the inspiration for this column.

I met with Mary Louise a few weeks ago at her home in Ely and was tickled to get my hands on these handwritten communications from 80 years ago. As I held the letter addressed to Mary Louise, I was on the verge of tears. My father’s beautiful cursive handwriting was easy to read, and I was astonished at how well the notepaper has survived over the years.

Many correspondence pieces have not made the trip into the 21st Century, as so many families tossed these treasures after grandparents and parents passed away. I feel so fortunate to have in my possession these snapshots from a different time and will treasure them with plans to pass down to my sons and grand babies.

I was so excited after I spoke with Mary Louise all those months ago that I mentioned our conversation to a friend of mine, Ron Forsman. He mentioned that his brother was in possession of letters their father wrote to his parents when he was a Marine in WWII.

His father most notably served in three island storming battles - Roi-Namur, Saipan and Tinian, and the bloodiest of them all - the Battle of Iwo Jima.

This man that served so valiantly and proudly as a U.S. Marine was Dale Clayton Forsman and what a story I have the privilege to tell. Dale was born in Ely on September 8, 1923, and passed away on November 2, 2011, at the age of 88.

On December 5, 1942, Dale enlisted into the 4th Marine Division and started Boot Camp in San Diego on December 8, 1942. He then transferred to Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California for infantry and artillery training.

In early 1944, Dale was on a ship that took him to the first of three intense battles where he was a gunner on a Field Howitzer artillery weapon. I did a bit of research on what a Howitzer is and found out it is a weapon that falls between a cannon (or field gun) and a mortar. These weapons are capable of both low angle fire like a field gun and high angle fire like a mortar with long range capabilities.

Dale traveled back and forth to Maui, Hawaii between battles and in his down time, spent a lot of time penning letters to his parents, Emil and Lillian Forsman in Ely.

Last Sunday I had the pleasure to visit Paul Forsman, Dale’s 7th born child on his property on beautiful Johnson Lake outside of Ely. Paul’s home is at the end of Forsman Road, which was named aptly so as it enters into a homestead of 160 acres that has been in the Forsman family for five generations.

Paul is the steward of a wonderful collection of letters Dale wrote to his parents. This collection holds 100 letters (I counted) from a time long since removed from today.

When I got to Paul’s, I had no idea of the immenseness of what he was about to share with me. There was a small box on his dining room table with envelopes jammed tightly into it. We sat down at the table and Paul began to explain to me how he got the collection and what it meant to him. Tears came easily to his eyes when he purposely pulled out a couple of the letters his father wrote while sitting in a foxhole on the small island of Iwo Jima.

I took the time to reacquaint myself with where, what and history of Iwo Jima. We learned about this battle in Mr. John Perko’s American History class when I was a junior in high school at Ely Memorial High School.

Iwo Jima (translated to “Sulfur Island”), located in the Pacific Theatre of WWII, was the site of the 36-day battle in 1945 that secured the strategic island. It is about 660 miles from Tokyo and lies halfway between Saipan and Tokyo. This island, shaped like a pork chop, was a stronghold of crucial strategic importance and could not be bypassed.

Three Marine divisions of more than 80,000 men, were assigned the task of taking the island, which was barely eight square miles and dominated by the 556-foot Mount Suribachi. The battle was an assault that began on February 19, 1945, that started with a terrific amphibious naval bombardment followed by the Marines ground attack. It was the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides with 7,000 U.S. Marines killed and more of the 21,000 Japanese defenders killed in action.

Dale Forsman was in the 4th Marine Division and with the 5th Marine Division were the first units to land on the island. American war plans had underestimated the Japanese prowess as they had burrowed underground tunnels and dug in far deeper defense wise than was expected.

Historians later described the battle at Iwo Jima as “throwing human flesh against reinforced concrete.” Some strongholds were so heavily defended and brutal that the troops gave them nicknames like, “The Meat Grinder” and “Bloody Gorge.” The myth that the Japanese were nearsighted and poor marksmen was effectively ended.

Even though the casualties were high on the American side, on February 23, 1945, Lt. Harold G. Schrier led a patrol up the side of Mt. Suribachi. He was following orders to take the mountain and plant a U.S. flag at the summit. This first planting had a small flag that was attached to a pipe and raised at 1020 that day. An interesting fact is that in this first planting, Minnesotan Charles W. Lindberg was one of the men who raised this flag. His son Rod Lindberg is an Ely resident.

Later that day, another patrol was ordered to raise another larger flag. The order was this flag was to be “large enough that the men at the other end of the island will see it.” Six men raised the flag on another section of pipe. The photo was snapped by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal while Marine Sgt. Bill Genaust filmed next to him. The film from both flag raisings were sent home for development and Rosenthal’s reached the U.S. first.

This image sparked a fire in the hearts of the American people and was used in the Seventh War Bond Drive, on postage stamps and earned a Pulitzer Prize for Photography. The flag raising is now a beloved symbol of American military courage and is further memorialized in Arlington, Virginia as the Marine Corps War Memorial.

Two letters written by Dale Forsman I have featured in this column. These two letters were written while he was waiting in a foxhole on Iwo Jima – one on March 5, 1945, and the other on March 6, 1945. I cannot know for sure, but it seems like Dale as a young man was trying to lighten his situation for his parents and perhaps for himself, as well.

The first of the letters was written two weeks after the storming took place on the island. In Dale’s beautiful cursive penmanship, the first one reads exactly as follows:

March 5, 1945 Iwo Jima Dearest Mom and Dad: We’re told we could write regular airmail letters today so thought I’d drop you another note. My fountain pen’s dry so I’m using this blue pencil.

Really don’t have a heckuva lot to write about – the situation here is about the same yet.

Had to shave off my beard today but still have my mustache.