Colonel Vernon E. Megee, USMC, had the distinction of commanding the first Landing Force Air Support Control Unit, a milestone in the evolution of amphibious command and control of supporting arms. Megee came ashore on D+5 with General Schmidt, but the offloading process was still in such disarray that he could not assemble his communications jeeps for another five days. This did little to deter Megee. Using “borrowed” gear, he quickly moved inland, coordinating the efforts of the Air Liaison Parties, encouraging the Navy pilots to use bigger bombs and listening to the complaints of the assault commanders. Megee’s subsequent work in training and employing Army P-51 Mustang pilots in direct support was masterful.
Before the battle’s end, General Kuribayashi transmitted to Tokyo 19 “lessons learned” about the problems of defending against an American amphibious assault. One of these axioms said: “The enemy’s air control is very strong; at least thirty aircraft are flying ceaselessly from early morning to night above this very small island.”
The Bitter End
The American drive north continued after the 5 March standdown, but the going never got any easier. The nature of enemy fire changed—fewer big guns and rockets, less observed fire from the highlands—but now the terrain grew uglier, deteriorating into narrow, twisted gorges wreathed in sulfur mists, lethal killing zones. Marine casualties continued to mount, but gunshot wounds began to outnumber high-explosive shrapnel hits. The persistent myth among some Marine units that Japanese troops were all near-sighted and hence poor marksmen ended for good at Iwo Jima. In the close-quarters fighting among the badlands of northern Iwo Jima, Japanese riflemen dropped hundreds of advancing Marines with well-aimed shots to the head or chest. “Poor marksmen?” snorted Captain Caldwell of Company F, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, “The Japs we faced all fired ‘Expert.’”
Mopping up the caves with grenades and Browning automatic rifles, Marines flush out remaining Japanese hidden in Iwo Jima’s numerous and interconnecting caves.
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 142472
Supporting arms coordination grew more effective during the battle. Colonel “Buzz” Letcher established what some have identified as the first corps-level Supporting Arms Coordination Center (SACC), in which senior representatives of artillery, naval gunfire, and air support pooled their talents and resources. While Letcher lacked the manpower and communications equipment to serve as corps artillery officer and simultaneously run a full-time SACC, his efforts represented a major advancement in this difficult art. So did Colonel Vernon Megee’s Landing Force Air Support Control Unit, which worked in relative harmony with the fledgling SACC. Instances of friendly fire still occurred, perhaps inevitably on that crowded island, but positive control at the highest level did much to reduce the frequency of such accidents. In terms of response time, multiple-source coordination probably worked better at the division level and below. Most infantry battalions, for example, had nothing but praise for the Air Liaison Parties, Shore Fire Control Parties, and artillery forward observer teams which deployed with each maneuver unit.
