Eighteen young Marines stand atop Mt. Suribachi, Feb. 23, 1945, for a photo taken by Joe Rosenthal. The picture became known as the “Gung Ho” photo. Jack Thurman is standing on the far left with his helmet in the air behind Cpl. Ira Hayes. (Courtesy of Jack Thurman/U.S. Marine Corps)
(Tribune News Service) — Jack Thurman, a Marine veteran who was on the beaches of Iwo Jima during World War II, was a fighter, his daughter Karen Thurman said. When he lost his wife Carol in 2009, his doctors said that he likely had only a few months to live as well. Despite multiple health scares, including one code in 2018, he lived over 15 more years.
“He was a fighter, God bless him,” his daughter remembered. “He wanted to live.”
After nearly a century on Earth, Thurman died at his home with his daughter by his side on Feb. 1.
A prolific speaker who told his story to veteran’s groups and elementary schoolers alike, Thurman appeared in the famous “Gung Ho photo,” featuring Marines on Iwo Jima soon after the battle had been won.
Thurman was born on Sept. 27, 1925, in Mitchell, S.D., on a dairy farm. Raised in the midst of the Great Depression, he would wake shortly after 4 a.m. to milk the cows and tend to the chickens, pigs and other livestock on the farm, before making deliveries to the nearby households so that children going to school could have milk with their breakfast. Soon after, he would leave for school himself, on the back of his horse, Brownie, where he would often doze off, his daughter remembers him telling her.
After school he would return to the farm to continue the work, often until 2 in the morning, before catching a few hours of sleep and waking up early to do it all again.
When the United States entered World War II, Thurman had planned on joining up himself, but at the age of 16, he needed parental permission, and his father insisted that he stay on the farm. Thurman later joined the Marine Corps on his 18th birthday, completing basic training in the Great Lakes area before being stationed at Camp Pendleton in California, and finally being shipped out to the Pacific Theater, a tour of service that culminated in the now famous Battle of Iwo Jima.
“When the day broke and the sun rose, they were up on deck, and looked out, and they could just see this smoke filled island,” his daughter said. “They couldn’t believe they were going into that.”
A Marine sniper, Thurman had provided cover while other Marines planted the American flag on Mount Suribachi, a moment captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal and which became one of the most iconic images of the entire war.
World War II Marine veteran Jack Thurman speaks about his experience during the battle of Iwo Jima before the start of a ceremony commemorating the 67th anniversary of the battle. (Johnie Hickmon/U.S. Marine Corps)
Thurman survived the battle and made his way home to South Dakota, where he met his wife, Carol Jean Meier. Thurman engineered a date by offering to treat Meier’s brother to ice cream, asking coyly that he bring his sister along.
“Every time he came back here he’d tease him, ‘You just invited me for ice cream because you wanted to get to know my sister,’” Karen Thurman laughed. The pair maintained a long distance relationship when Thurman was working as an apprentice draftsman in Iowa, a difficult prospect in the late 40s and early 50s, when cross country phone calls were quite expensive. Primarily they kept in touch by writing each other letters, thousands of them that Thurman’s daughter later found.
The two were married soon after. Thurman turned his growing success as a draftsman into a career as an architect, eventually moving to San Diego to work at a number of firms before going into business for himself, eventually moving to Boulder, where he raised his family.
One of the great honors of his life, his daughter said, was a visit to Washington, D.C., in 2020 for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima.
“I am so grateful that I was able to get him up there for that, it was so important to him,” his daughter said. “He got to talk to other Iwo Jima veterans that he had never met.”
In his final days, Thurman remained at home with his daughter. He died peacefully, with his daughter holding his hand. She told him that she loved him, and his last words were: “I know you do honey.”
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