The Marines’ 3rd, 4th and 5th Divisions led the assault of Iwo Jima with key support from the Army and Navy. Pacific Fleet Commander-in-Chief Admiral Chester W. Nimitz said that among America’s fighters at Iwo Jima “uncommon valor was a common virtue.” The non-profit Stories Behind the Stars (www.storiesbehindthestars.org) has written memorials about each of the eighty-nine PA Marines in the 4th Division who sacrificed their lives during the March portion of the battle’s hostilities. Warren County was home to two of them: Pfc. Peter A. Mangini Jr. and Pvt. Lawrence D. Stoddard.

Peter Andrew Mangini Jr. was born January 22, 1926, in Warren to Peter Andrew and Myrtle Marie Langworthy Mangini. His siblings included two brothers and two sisters.. Mangini’s father supported the household as an electric welder. Mangini graduated from Warren High School in 1944 where he was interested in mechanics.

When Mangini registered for the draft on January 22, 1944, he was employed at the Swanson Tire Shop in Warren. He enlisted in the Marines on January 13, 1944 and was called into duty on March 24, 1944. He was trained with the 2nd Recruit Battalion, Training Regiment, Recruit Depot in San Diego, CA and at Camp Pendleton, CA.

In July 1944, Mangini was moved to the 4th Replacement Draft, was sent overseas, and was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division. He was promoted to Private First Class in February 1945.

Pfc. Peter A. Mangini Jr.

Lawrence Davis Stoddard was born March 8, 1926, in Sheffield Township to James Davis and Rachel M. Decker Stoddard. He was the oldest son of the couple’s ten children. His siblings were older sisters Betty and Bernice, younger sisters Shirley, Eunice, Delaine and Janet, and younger brothers Allen, a veteran of World War II, Leroy and Vernon. Stoddard’s father was an Army Private during World War I. He supported the Protestant household working for the railroad and doing road construction. Stoddard’s parents separated in 1939.

Stoddard attended Sheffield schools through the seventh grade. His family worshiped at Sheffield’s Bethany Lutheran Church. Stoddard relocated to Bear Lake, Pa. where he worked on a farm. He enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves at Buffalo, N.Y., on January 12, 1944. Stoddard completed basic and advanced individual training and was on the west coast by July with the Fourth Replacement Draft. He was assigned to Company E, 2nd Marine Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division.

Stoddard and his unit were deployed to the Pacific Theater of Operations. The division faced combat at the Marshall Islands and the Marianas Islands where their bloody victories isolated the enemy’s bases and brought Japan’s homeland within striking distance of US B-29 bombers.

D-Day at Iwo Jima was February 19, 1945. Allied military planners anticipated an “easy time” conquering the enemy, predicting victory in a three-day battle. The reality was a gruesome slog of thirty-six days from February 19 – March 26, 1945 that historians have described as “throwing human flesh against reinforced concrete.” The island’s determined Japanese defenders had the most ingenious and deadly fortress in military history. Their miles of interlocking subterranean hideouts, concrete bunkhouses and pillboxes proved to be some of the most impenetrable defenses encountered by the Marines.

The 4th division arrived off the island on February 19 and commenced the assault. In the first two days, the division’s losses already totaled 2,011. By February 26, Mangini’s and Stoddard’s units began working their way into the enemy’s main defense line of prepared positions. For the next week, the 4th Division ground forward slowly, suffering bloody losses and engaging in the most savage type of close combat. As of March 3, 1945, it had lost 6,591 troops. On March 6, their units went over to the attack against die-hard Japanese defenders in the Minami pocket. The 4th Division’s combat casualties rose to 8,094. On March 11, the twentieth day after the landing, the 4th Division reached the ocean and overcame enemy resistance. On the division’s right flank, the Japanese chose to make their last stand to exact as heavy a toll of Marines as they possibly could.

Mangini and Stoddard were killed in action during combat missions at Iwo Jima on March 3 and 10, 1945, respectively.

The ultimately victorious 36-day assault resulted in more than 26,000 American casualties, including 6,800 dead. Iwo Jima was the only US Marine battle where American casualties exceeded those of the Japanese. Enemy combat deaths, however, numbered three times as many as American deaths.

Mangini’s body was laid to rest in the 4th Marine Division cemetery in Iwo Jima. In 1948, his remains were returned to the states with the WWII Dead Program. On July 8,1948, he was reburied at St Joseph’s Cemetery in Pleasant Township. Stoddard received temporary burial at Iwo Jima’s 4th Marine Division Cemetery until the World War II Dead Program repatriated his remains to Hawaii. Stoddard was laid to rest in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl), Honolulu, HI on March 17, 1949. Stoddard posthumously received the Purple Heart.

Stories Behind the Stars memorials are accessible for free on the internet and via smartphone app at gravesites and cenotaphs. The non-profit organization is dedicated to honoring all 421,000 fallen Americans from World War II, including 31,000 from Pennsylvania. To volunteer or to get more information, contact Kathy Harmon at kharmon@storiesbehindthestars.org or visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org.