When the smoke cleared on Iwo Jima in March 1945, 19,000 American Marines had been wounded and 7,000 were dead, a casualty rate of nearly 39 percent. Lasting over a month, Iwo was the Marines' bloodiest battle of the war and the only Pacific battle in which a U.S. landing force suffered more casualties than it inflicted. It was also the most highly decorated single engagement in Marine Corps history. James H. Hallas is a graduate of the Newhouse School at Syracuse University and has been in the weekly newspaper business for more than thirty years as reporter, editor, and publisher. He is the author of four books: Killing Ground on Okinawa, The Devil's Anvil: The Assault on Peleliu, Squandered Victory: The Battle for St. Mihiel, and Doughboy War: The American Expeditionary Force in World War I. He lives in Portland, Connecticut

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