Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, the site of the famous flag-raising by U.S. Marines during World War II. A Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command team was on the island Wednesday looking for the remains of Marine Sgt. William H. Genaust, a combat photographer who filmed the famous second raising of the American flag on the island. (Bryce S. Dubee / S&S)
Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, the site of the famous flag-raising by U.S. Marines during World War II. A Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command team was on the island Wednesday looking for the remains of Marine Sgt. William H. Genaust, a combat photographer who filmed the famous second raising of the American flag on the island. (Bryce S. Dubee / S&S)
Maj. Sean Stinchion, a team leader with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, describes the layout of an area of newly discovered caves found during a JPAC site investigation on Iwo Jima. (Bryce S. Dubee / S&S)
Bullet and shell holes pockmark a rock face near the entrance to a tunnel on Iwo Jima. (Bryce S. Dubee / S&S)
A row of Japanese glass bottles is seen inside a tunnel near Hill 362 A during a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command site investigation on Iwo Jima. (Bryce S. Dubee / S&S)
A view from inside one of the newly discovered caves found during a JPAC site investigation on Iwo Jima. (Bryce S. Dubee / S&S)
IWO JIMA, Japan — The stench of sulfur from thermal vents filled his nostrils as Chief Petty Officer Pete Janse crawled through a dark tunnel near Hill 362 A, searching for signs of Marines who fell in battle more than six decades ago.
Janse, a corpsman, is part of a seven-man Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command team that on Wednesday completed a 10-day survey of Iwo Jima, the first U.S. search of the island in nearly 60 years.
The team is made up of five servicemembers, including Janse and an explosive ordnance disposal technician, and two civilian anthropologists.
Looking for a location where they might find a cave containing the remains of Marine Sgt. William H. Genaust, the team hacked its way through the dense brush that has taken over much of the famous battlefield.
Genaust, a Marine combat photographer who filmed the famous second raising of the American flag on the island, was killed nine days later, reportedly near the southwest side of Hill 362 A while using a flashlight to light a tunnel for Marines attempting to secure the area.
Because a vast network of caves and tunnels runs underneath the island’s surface, finding the exact location where Genaust fell may prove to be a challenge, said Army Maj. Sean Stinchion, the JPAC team leader.
“A lot of the terrain has changed since the battle,” Stinchion said. “We couldn’t move through the brush without using machetes. Movement was slow, but it was good and we were successful.”
Stinchion said that while his team did not find any material evidence of any U.S. servicemembers’ remains during its survey, it did find several caves that may lead to future discoveries.
“We’re going to recommend that we (JPAC) come back out here with some heavy equipment to move some dirt away to better help us identify some of the hidden caves,” he said.
The team hopes to compare the locations of the caves that it found with cave locations marked on a post-battle map made by Seabees. This would rule out where Genaust’s remains would not be, explained Hugh Tuller, a forensic anthropologist with the team.
After Genaust was killed, said Tuller, many reports of the incident indicate that the Marines accompanying him withdrew and called for demolition support to seal the entrance of the enemy-occupied tunnel.
“What we are looking for now is caves that they could not see in their post-battle survey,” he said.
Exploring the newly discovered caves gave the team a glimpse into the past and the fierce battle that took place where its members now stood.
Bullet and shell holes pepper the cave entrances, while inside the team found signs of the tunnels’ previous occupants, including a few grenades, a three-inch artillery shell and even a few sake bottles, Stinchion said.
Concerns over discovering 60-year-old unexploded ordnance while searching the tunnels meant that Marine Staff Sgt. Isaac Tibayan, the EOD technician for the team, had to research what types of explosives could be left over from the battle.
“I was concerned about the potential discovery of duds, grenades or possibly booby-trapped cave entrances during the mission,” he said.
Another hazard facing the team was the intense heat that flows through of the tunnels of the volcanic island.
“We could only dig for five minutes at a time in some of the hotter tunnels,” Stinchion said. “In some of the caves you would be crawling on your hands and knees covered in dust, and it would feel like your skin is burning it is so hot.”
With a background in caving and mountaineering, Janse became known as the team’s “tunnel rat,” often leading the way into the caves.
“It was dark, dusty and hot in some of the tunnels, easily over 120 degrees,” he said. “But inside it was like opening a time capsule, like walking into a dust-covered museum. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.”
The team was to leave Japan Thursday for its headquarters in Hawaii, where the members will file their report, Stinchion said. If the recommendation to send another survey team back to Iwo Jima is approved, Stinchion said JPAC could return to the island sometime during fiscal 2008.
