Iwo Jima Veterans Reunite as Honorary Marshals for Memorial Day Parade

Centenarian Marines Don Graves and William Byrd reunited in Washington, D.C., to serve as Honorary Grand Marshals for the National Memorial Day Parade. The two veterans, aged 101 and 100 respectively, served together in the 5th Marine Division during the brutal battle for Iwo Jima. Upon meeting after several years apart, the pair immediately resumed their lifelong habit of playful banter and trash talking.

Both men were teenagers when they fought in the Pacific theater during World War II. Graves, a Detroit native, joined the Corps at 17 and served as a flamethrower operator. He remains the sole survivor of the flamethrower operators from his battalion, noting that only 18 of the 335 Marines in his unit survived the assault. Graves describes the harrowing experience of advancing inch by inch toward Mount Suribachi under heavy fire.

Byrd, who grew up in a sharecropping family in Mississippi, enlisted at 18 to seek new opportunities. Like Graves, he was 19 years old during the Iwo Jima campaign and has often reflected on the luck that allowed him to survive the conflict. For decades, Byrd regretted not keeping the contact information of his fellow soldiers, making this recent reunion particularly significant.

The event culminated in a public celebration of their service and longevity. While the occasion was formal, the relationship between the two men remained informal and spirited. The gathering served as a living reminder of the sacrifices made during the 1945 campaign, ending with Graves performing a rendition of "God Bless America" for the crowd.