Keifer Marshall, Jr.

Keifer Marshall, Jr.. "Tell Them for Us". During World War II, Temple native Keifer Marshall, Jr. (1925-) served in the United States Marine Corps, 3rd Marine Division, 9th Regiment, F Company, 2nd Battalion, as a rifleman. During February and March of 1945, Marshall saw heavy combat on the small, strategically placed island of Iwo Jima, in the South Pacific. The Battle of Iwo Jima is considered by many to be the bloodiest battle in United States Marine Corps history. During a 36-hour segment of the battle, Marshall's company was cut off from reinforcements and supplies, and Marshall was one of only three or four marines from his 250-man company to survive. The casualties incurred by F Company were the severest of the entire campaign., Marshall, one of the few survivors of the Battle of Iwo Jima, remembers as he was leaving that tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, he passed a graveyard full of fresh American graves. There he saw chiseled into a rock the words: "When you go home, tell them for us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today.", More than 6,800 Marines and corpsmen died at Iwo Jima in the battle that lasted from February 19 to March 26, 1945., Keifer has been both a public servant and community leader throughout his life. He is a former Temple mayor, and has served on numerous boards and committees throughout the community., Today the audio recording of his memories of that battle and others are a matter of public record in The Texas Veterans Land Board Voices of Veterans, and in the U.S. Library of Congress. He took his obligation seriously to those who fell at Iwo Jima, making every effort to share the message - "for your tomorrow, we gave our today.", Captions , Left: Private Keifer Marshall, Jr., Guam, 1945 United States Marine Corps, World War I Collection of the Bell County Museum Gift of Sammie (Mrs. Keifer, Jr.) Marshall, 2003, Middle Lower: Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, by Joe Rosenthal / The Associated Press, February 23, 1945. Courtesy of the National Archive. "I could see it and it was a great experience. Every guy got out of what they were doing and looked at it, all the ships blew their horns, their whistles, and it was euphoric," said Kaifer Marshall, Jr., Upper Right: Private Keller Marshall and Corporal Allen L. Grimin, Iwo Jima, March 1945 Collection of the Bell County Museum, Gift of Sammie (Mrs. Keifer, Jr.) Marshall, 2003, Steam Heated Fox Hole In A Pacific Hot Spot , Two Marines in hole hastily dug from smoking sulphur rook (note mine and refinery in background) stand ready to repel Japanese snipers, many of them in Marine uniforms. Left to right: Pvt Robert K. Marshall, 991007, and Cpl Allen L. Griffin, 462189., As the photographer was walking away, a shell had exploded near him, and the soldiers thought the photographer had certainly been killed. The two soldiers did not know each other before both jumping into the same foxhole during battle, and both assumed the other had been killed in action during this, the bloodiest battle in United States Marine history., This photograph was one of five chosen by the Unites States Marine Corps to depict the battle of Iwo Jima in history books and other media. Neither man knew of the publication of the photograph, nor of the other's survival, until they were both invited to Washington, D.C. for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the battle., Lower Right: Information courtesy of Bell County Museum and recollections of Keifer Marshall, Jr., This board has been provided by the generous gift of the Temple VFW, Post No. 1820 and the family of Kiefer Marshall, Jr., and Sammie (Mrs. Keifer, Jr.) Marshall, and their grandsons, Robert Keifer, IV and James Patrick Marshall., Leadership Belton 2011 Class-Team Patriot