MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif. -- Seventy-two days of naval gunfire. Eight hundred ships. Seventy-two thousand Marines of which 6,821 died. Twenty-seven Medals of Honor. One Island.On a map, Iwo Jima is nary a speck of volcanic dirt floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. For the Marines and sailors who fought the Japanese in the dawn of the year 1945, it was a 25-day hellish nightmare.For three days preceding the Feb. 19 invasion, virtually every square foot of the island was pummeled by ship and air bombardment. The final pre-invasion artillery missions concentrated on the beach areas where Marines would land.Charles W. Lindberg, a survivor of the battle recalled his feelings shortly before going ashore: "I didn't expect any resistance," he said. "When they tell you they bombed it for 72 days around the clock ... I thought, 'what could live through that?'"At 8:59 a.m., the first Marines hit the shore. Two days previously, underwater demolitions experts, including Harold Lucas, namesake of the Lucas Sword presented to the MCLB Barstow Marine of the Year, checked the shoreline for obstructions and demolitions, drawing a heavy wave of enemy fire that inflicted serious casualties.Japanese troops had dug elaborate under ground strongholds as deep as 30 feet, providing a blanket of earth to protect them from naval shelling. Mt. Suribachi alone had an estimated 1,000 enemy installations, including 642 blockhouses, pillboxes and other gun positions located by aerial reconnaissance.Max Haefele, a retired gunnery sergeant now Barstow, Calif. resident, served with the 28th Marine Regiment and was part of the fourth wave (the first two waves were armored assault vehicles) of Marines to land on Iwo. Haefele said he was going to enlist in the Navy, until "the biggest Marine" he has ever seen showed up at the enlistment center and said they needed more men to join the Marines. Haefele said he got up and didn't look back.Haefele attended boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and was then stationed at Tent Camp One, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif.From there he went to Hawaii and then on to Saipan, though he said his unit, the 5th Marine Division, never disembarked the ship. Before word had cleared that the Marines would land at Iwo Jima, Haefele said it was only known as "Workman Island."Haefele stared into an unknown distance and as his voice got shaky with the fog of a war not forgotten, he recalled his personal experience of hitting the beach amongst severe enemy resistance:"I can say this with no hesitation now, but it was the only time in my life I ever considered being a coward. I crawled up on the beach and got behind an amtrac, and like I'd done in training so many times before, flipped my helmet upside-down, sat on it, and lit up a cigarette. I looked to my left and there was a dead Marine. I looked to my right and there was a dead Marine. I sat there and watched the entire next wave come in. Then I heard a friend of mine yell 'let's get the hell out of here,' and we advanced. From that point on, I was never scared."Haefele said that combat stress and the fog of war lead him to a "constant state of shock" that he learned how to function in. In the midst of Haefele's personal hell, a division of Marines was strategically planning to surround and conquer Mt. Suribachi, a 554-foot "toad-like" climb to the heavens. Suribachi was heavily fortified with machine gun nests directly above the beach. In just four days, a 40-man patrol consisting of old-corps leathernecks from E Company was sent up the hill to seize and occupy the crest. Sgt. Lou Lowery of Leatherneck magazine was sent up to record the patrol. At 10:30 a.m., Feb. 23, Cpl. Charles Lindberg, Pfc. James Robinson, Sgt. Earnest Thomas, Sgt. Henry Hansen and Pfc. James Micheals raised the first American flag. It was said that the first flag raised was too small for troops to see from across the island, and four hours later, the second and most famous flag raising (possibly in U.S. history) was made. Joe Rosenthal, an Associated Press photographer, captured the everlasting moment in the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph. The battle was far from over. Over the next few weeks, Marines would sweep east across the island in order to seize strategic airfields critical for U.S. victory. One of the biggest difficulties, said Haefele, was the tunnels the Japanese had dug throughout the island. "We would throw satchel charges into the holes and the Sea Bees (Navy Construction Battalion) would come and plow the holes shut. We could hear the Japs try and dig themselves out at night. ...They were buried alive," he said.Through the end of February and the month of March, the battle continued. On March 26, the Japanese launched a final attack in the shadow of the night, attempting to catch Marines asleep. Marines held off the attack until dawn when the Japanese retreated. A manhunt ensued, and the Marines killed 228 enemy warriors. On April 4, U.S. Marines left Iwo Jima and were relieved by an Army infantry regiment. Haefele said that in retrospect, Iwo was like Marine Corps boot camp."You're glad you did it, but you'd never go back," he said.