WWII Marine Veterans Speak to Monsignor Bonner Classes

Today, Monday February 24, three Marine Corps Leaguers from the General Smedley D. Butler Detachment and one member of the Upper Darby Detachment kicked off a new mini-history program devoted to WWll pacific battles at Monsignor Bonner High School.  The Butler Detachment regularly presents a Mini-Flag history program in the elementary schools of Delaware County and other near by locations.  The program started off with a description of the battle of Iwo Jima and proceeded to Gualalcanal, Talugi, the Makin Island Raid (led by Evan Carlson and his second in command, Jimmy Roosevelt, FDR's son), and Okinawa.  Both of the older Marines, Jim McGuigan (89 years old) and George Boyajian (90 years old) fought in the battle for Okinawa, the largest land battle of the Pacific war.  It was the tremendous casualties in the taking of Okinawa that convinced President Harry Truman to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The allies suffered 14,000 deaths and 65,000 casualties of all kinds.  It was estimated that it would take over one million American lives to defeat Japan on their home islands. The Marine Corps Leaguers made three presentations of their program to three different classes at Bonner.