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Show 1 I - " " Ralph IRalph | Preece PreeceWrites Writes of ofIwo IWrites ' Iwo Invasion .1Ralph I Ralph Preece gunner'snute gunner's gunners ' ' mate matesecond nute nutesecona : matesecond USN hiswife his hiswife hiswife secona second class , . , , wrote wrow wife , . Carma Ross Preece , andhis and andhis andhis his parents , Mand Mr M- M . - and Mrs Mr8 Alma AlmaPreece AlmaPreece AlmaPreece Preece an ' interesting 'interesting descrip descrtp descrip- description description . - tion tton of the invasion of Iwo Jtma Jima JtmaMr JtmaMr JimaMr : Mr Preece writes , "Right Right " now nowwe nowwe nowwe we ale ate are * within swimming dis dts- dts dtstance distance distance - tance of Iwo Jima , but you prob prob- probably probably probably - - ably know more about how the thewar thewar thewar war is progressing than I We Wehave Wehave Wehave have had some pretty tensemoments tense tensemoments tensemoments moments since we started bom bom- bombarding bombarding bombarding - barding the b beach ach before the themarines themarines themarines marines landed I 1 believe it itwas itwas Itwas was th e second 0 o or r t thirdday b h 1 l r y d dday dday day after the marines landed landedthat landedthat landedthat that they climbed to the top tOD of ofa ofa ofa a volcano and raised the Stars Starsand Starsand Starsand and Stripes It was really a wonderful wonderful won wonderful derful sight to all of usWe USWe us usWe We were the first ship to goInto goInto go Into the beach to fire rocketsWe rocketsWe rockets We really blaste blasted the devil devU outof out outof 1of of it too Our shi ship put about 10 10ner 10ner 10ner ner cent of the rockets on the I Island is- is island . - - Iland land We made two runs on thebeach theheach the heach beach each before the marines landed landedthen landedthen landedthen then moved down the coast and andstarted andstarted andstarted started . blasting again We firedon fired firedon firedon on ' it for two days and nights nightsAs nightsAs nightsAs As a matter of fact there isn't isnt isn'tmuch isn'tmuch isn'tmuch isntmuch ' ' much mucharound around here we haven'tdone haven't havent haven'tdone haven'tdone haventdone ' ' done We even pulled up to the thebeach thebeach thebeach : beach and took our hose ashore ashoreto to fieht filzht fight firesWhat firesWhat fires firesWhat What makes one start to wonder won wonder wonder der is when the enemy start startfiring startfiring startfiring firing back at us You can see seeshells seeshells seeshells shells splashing splashinl ( the water allaround allaround all around \ nnd J\nd J nd and they keep gettingcloser getting Itetting closer But we have been lucky luckyand luckyand and haven t been hit once'Other once Other 'Other ' ' than what we see rightRround rightaround right right.around .around around Rround . ui U"l Ul us " you know more about aboutthll aboutthis aboutthis thll this ' ; war than we do because the theonly theonly theonly only way we know how far they"re theyre they theyAre Are " re on th the the , beach Is to listen to tothp tothe tothe thp the news from the states ' ' Mr Preece is on a LCS boat boatHe boatlie boatHe He lie entered the navy 15 monthq months monthqago monthsago monthsago ago and took his boot training trammg at atFarrpgut atFarraeut atF'arrRRut atFarrRRut Farrpgut Farraeut ' and anrt received advaneedtraining advanred advaneed advanredtraininp advancedtraining traininp training : at Camp Peterson Farragut Far Farragut Farragut ragut He rp received "eived eived < " Further trAtn train trainme trAtnIl1g trainine Il1g me at Ft Pierce Fla alw allo also ' ; VIr Virainia Virfinia 11,11'1 11111 ainia ' ' , ' Portland Oreeon Oreeol1 Orecon and ann wac was wasassigned wasassigned ; assIgned to a ship at San Diego |