World War II veteran Don Graves was just a teenager when he heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was listening to President Roosevelt’s speech on the radio.
“Here we are, the three of us, same neighborhood: Detroit, Michigan,” said 91-year-old Graves while pointing to a picture of three young men in military uniforms.
“The music was playing then all of a sudden it stopped and it said ‘we interrupt this broadcast, the President of the United States will now address the nation,’” said Graves.
It was that speech that inspired Graves to enlist.
“I said, ‘I’m going to sign up in the Marine Corps.'”
In 1942, he was out of boot camp. He pointed out his picture in Marine dress blues, they were borrowed.
“The photographer let us use it. We never had blues because there was no place to really wear it during the war,” said Graves.
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From the excitement of service, to the reality of war, three years later he was fighting in one of the major battles of World War II: the battle for Iwo Jima.
He recounted the difficulties.
"It was a disaster. The beach was just jammed and loaded. You know three marine divisions, the third division could not get in, so they held them back aboard ship. They held them in reserve for a few days. We were jammed up on the beach getting hit like crazy."
In the battle for Iwo Jima, 26,000 Americans were injured and 6,800 were killed.
Graves and his buddies from his old neighborhood all made it home safe.
“We’re known in the neighborhood as the three musketeers,” Graves said with a laugh.
That is, until they each got married.
"It took women to break us up,” said Graves.
Each year, Graves attends a reunion with his fellow Iwo Jima survivors.
In February, their reunion had 38 people.
But next year will be different.
“There will be a few less because there’s only eight percent of the second World War veterans alive, and they’re dying every day. I don’t intend to leave just yet.”
