Flags Of Our Fathers, Chapters 5, 6, and 7.

The six flag raisers arrive at Camp Pendleton.
(MORE INFO ON CAMP PENDLETON: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Corps_Base_Camp_Pendleton)
It is a huge Marine training cap between Los Angeles and San Diego. This is where they all met for the first. Mike, Harlon and Ira are back from home, Franklin and Rene are back from basic training, and Doc arrived from Medical school. All of these men were assigned to the Easy Company. Which was lead by Captain Dave Severence.

At this camp the marines learned a ton of different things. How to become riflemen, and mastering the use of their weapons. Mike, Harlon and Franklin became rifle specialists. This is when Doc Bradley met Ralph Ignatowski. He forged his urine test to be able to enlist. They both became buddies.
The flag raisers start forming close bonds with each other. But Rene. He is the shy one and is often on the sidelines.


After spending Christmas at Camp Tarawa
(MORE INTO ON CAMP TARAWA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Tarawa)
they begin their forty day sail to Iwo Jima. Which they know as “Island X.” They stop at Pearl Harbor.

The flag raisers are shipped to Island X on the USS Missoula, along with 1,500 other troops, which include all of the Easy Company. Two days after the soldiers left Pearl Harbor they found out that Island X was Iwo Jima.

They had to study maps so they could learn their plan of attack. Iwo Jima is really important to the Japanese.

The Americans want this land because the the Japanese military that is stationed there is shooting down American planes when they are on their way to bomb the Japanese mainland.

The main Lieutenant for the Japanese, General Kuribayashi knows where the marines were going to land. He had 22,000 Japanese soldiers waiting for them. They have underground tunnels and rooms on the island. The U.S. Didn't really have any idea of what the underground world would be like. They thought that it was going to be an easy small battle, but they were way wrong.

The marines arrived at Iwo Jima on Febuary, 19, 1945. The first hour of the battle it was silent. Kuribayashi's (the japanese army leader) wanted to wait until the beach was full of marines to attack.
Many marines died that day, and the next night which is known as “D-Day.”

(MORE INFO ON D-DAY: http://www.army.mil/d-day/)

D-Day was bad, if not worse. The darkness made it scarier. The Americans came up with an idea and used passwords to identify themselves to each other in the night, so they wouldn't be mistaken for a Japanese soldier and killed.