‘All hell broke loose.’ Kennewick veteran recalls his fight at Iwo Jima. He died at 98

Bob Brown was among the first troops to land at Iwo Jima in the spring of 1945.

“We thought we would move in and take right over. We didn’t think it was going to be as bad as it was,” Brown wrote about his experiences in the U.S. Marines.

The Kennewick man died just weeks shy of Veterans Day and his 99th birthday. He was part of a rapidly dwindling group of World War II veterans still alive.

The National World War II museum estimates there are about 325,000 of the 16 million who served who are still living.

“Bob really was an incredible man and his positive influence will stay with many the rest of their lives,” his son-in-law John Odegard of Seattle recently told the Herald.

Brown’s father worked for Sears, and moved his family from Iowa to Michigan to Utah. First his brother, Jack, was conscripted into the Army in 1940, and stayed in after war was declared.

At the same time, Brown stayed in school, joined the reserves in 1941 and finished his business and marketing degree in 1943 before the U.S. Marines called him to join.

After boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., he went to officer training school in Quantico, Va. He became a 2nd Lieutenant, and went on to artillery school.

He was shipped out to Maui along with the Fourth Division to join the war effort in the South Pacific.

In January 1945, they shipped out — first to Guam and then Iwo Jima.

As they headed out, Brown said he wrote his dad a letter. He held off sending his mother one, because he didn’t want her to worry.

“I told Dad we were on our way to combat. I didn’t know if I was going to survive this war, be we were young and not really thinking of death,” Brown wrote.

Iwo Jima

The enemy was prepared, and had higher ground in the caves, he recalled.

“All at once, all hell broke loose,” he said. “It took only 30 minutes for it to get really rough. ... This assault lasted a month. There were no trees for cover so we had to keep moving to survive. We had to take turns sleeping as soldiers watched over sleeping comrades.”

By the time the fighting ended, 6,800 men had died and 26,000 were wounded, Brown said.

For the Marines, it was more costly than it was for the Japanese but, strategically, the American won a key geographic base.

Brown called it a sad truth that the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved their lives. The plutonium for the Nagasaki bomb was produced at Hanford.

“After Iwo Jima, we were scheduled to land in Japan, which we would not have survived,” he said.

He promised himself that if he ever made it out of Iwo Jima, he would never complain again, according to an obituary.

Life after the Marines

Brown left the Marines in 1946 and after being told he would need to start college over again if he wanted to be a doctor, decided to start working at Sears.

He had a 32-year career with the retail chain, which started in Utah and moved to Tacoma where he met his first wife, Patricia Gregory. They had three children.

After several promotions, the Brown family ended up in the Tri-Cities when Brown took over the Sears in Pasco in 1970. He retired eight years later.

His first wife died in 1990, and he remarried in 1993 to Betty Rounds.

He was a sports fan that rooted for the Cougars, Huskies, Mariners and Seahawks. He shared a passion for golf with both of his wives. He was a member of Tri-City Country Club and was active even after his 90th birthday.

A celebration of his life is scheduled in spring 2021, family members said.

This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 11:30 AM.