Former Hamden, CT. Councilman and Mayoral candidate Floyd Atchley landed with the second wave of Marines at 0800 with the 5th Service Battalion. I interviewed Atchley for my book on Hamden history and he provided info that was just plain mind-boggling.
He was pinned down in the water due to increasingly accurate enemy fire. He eventually was able to move inland when the battleship North Carolina fired point blank into enemy positions on the island. He was at the base of Mt. Surabachi when the flag raising took place. The first flag raising was with his buddy B.C. Cleveland of the 28th Marines and with Ira Hayes, his Native-American friend who later took part in the second flag raising photographed by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal. Those two along with 11 others charged up Mt. Surabachi and reached the top. Cleveland had been hit 17 times, yet once the flag had been hoisted walked down to the beach and onto a hospital LST where he was treated and survived. He died at age 75 in Alabama.
Actor Tony Curtis played Hayes in the first movie and Adam Beach portrayed Hayes in Eastwood's film. Atchley was a buddy of Basilone and described him as, "He believed in a life of immunity. He took unnecessary chances. He had a fearless attitude to the point of stupidity."
On a lighter note, after the battle Atchley and many of his buddies hijacked 30,000 cases of beer bound for Japan and a lot of Marines found relief from wartime tension.
Former Hamden, CT. Councilman and Mayoral candidate Floyd Atchley landed with the second wave of Marines at 0800 with the 5th Service Battalion. I interviewed Atchley for my book on Hamden history and he provided info that was just plain mind-boggling.
He was pinned down in the water due to increasingly accurate enemy fire. He eventually was able to move inland when the battleship North Carolina fired point blank into enemy positions on the island. He was at the base of Mt. Surabachi when the flag raising took place. The first flag raising was with his buddy B.C. Cleveland of the 28th Marines and with Ira Hayes, his Native-American friend who later took part in the second flag raising photographed by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal. Those two along with 11 others charged up Mt. Surabachi and reached the top. Cleveland had been hit 17 times, yet once the flag had been hoisted walked down to the beach and onto a hospital LST where he was treated and survived. He died at age 75 in Alabama.
Actor Tony Curtis played Hayes in the first movie and Adam Beach portrayed Hayes in Eastwood's film. Atchley was a buddy of Basilone and described him as, "He believed in a life of immunity. He took unnecessary chances. He had a fearless attitude to the point of stupidity."
On a lighter note, after the battle Atchley and many of his buddies hijacked 30,000 cases of beer bound for Japan and a lot of Marines found relief from wartime tension.
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