In this meticulously and exhaustively researched definitive book about the Battle of Iwo Jima, Colonel Charles A. Jones, US Marine Corps Reserve (Retired), honors the men fighting one of history's most brutal battles. Jones provides a new perspective of the battle while focusing throughout on a personal encounter: two "Tar Heel" Marines meeting on Iwo by chance and making a solemn "battlefield promise" to meet after the war for a drink to celebrate their survival.
Like Jones himself, both Major James Scales and Captain Edward Stephenson were "Tar Heels," meaning natives of North Carolina. Scales and Stephenson were from different small towns in North Carolina but had much in common. Each had survived different Pacific battles before meeting, but neither could be sure he would survive combat on Iwo, where so many officers died. If they survived, the two could honor the promise they made to meet after the war for a drink. Would Fate allow them to keep their "solemn vow" or would it kill one or both Marines, making their vow meaningless?
Jones uses the story of Scales, Stephenson, and their fellow Marines as background for a unique account of the battle and its devastating impact on combatants and their families alike.
