S/Sgt Gareth W. Rosson
Iwo Jima 1946-1947

I was on Iwo Jima in 1946- 1947. I was acting first Sgt over the 3605 HAM Co. and the 199th Depot Company. In late 1947, I had made S/Sgt.

C-46G Commando 44-78961
Crashed on November 16, 1946. There was a team of black solders in it. They were coming back from Japan. They went there to play baseball (they lost). At the time, I was a S/Sgt with the 3605th HAM Shop Co. and they had made me acting first Sgt. over the company. I was outside the orderly room with T/ 5 John Willinghoff and T/5 Walker. The plane we could hear it, it was coming in on Airfield No. 3 approaching north to south.  It was way to high and missed the field. It came to our left about 600 feet away. It went on down to the water. It hit about 1,200 feet out in the water to the left of the main office for the island. Col. Thomson was the top man in the office at that time. We saw it hit the water, no one came up and to the top of the water and the plane went down. Record shows that this plane went down about 15 miles out into the water.  ( That is a lie) This plane had 20 enlisted men on it, also Capt Queen was flying it."

General's Bunker & Tunnel
I've been in a lot of the caves. The General's Cave was one of the biggest. We went all over it (all levels). Then about a 1/4 of a mile up the main road there was another cave. We went in to it, it went down to the next level. IT was hotter then hell there and the smell was real bad.It was around 120 there. Well we found another opening going down. So myself and T/5 Walker and T/5 Willinghoff went on down. It was a lot hotter there and the smell was really bad.Walker got sick and went back.Willinghoff and myself went a little more down. There we could see a big room and it was full from one end to the other end There were appro. 200 dead Marines all over the place still with their dog tags on them.Now this island has rose 65 feet in the past 60 years. The web tells me that this island has only rose 71/2 feet in the first 1o years. So it would have been too hot in that 10 years to remove any of the dead Marines.