Johnny said, "Lee, I'll bet a lot of people are unaware that you were a Marine in the initial landing at Iwo Jima _ and that during the course of that action you earned the Navy Cross and were severely wounded." And you know how Lee was ... "Yeah, yeah ... I got shot square in the butt and they gave me the cross for securing a hot spot about halfway up Suribachi ... bad thing about getting shot up on a mountain is guys gettin' shot hauling you down. But Johnny at Iwo I served under the bravest man I ever knew . We both got the Cross the same day but what he did for his Cross made mine look cheap in comparison. The dumb b d actually stood up on Red Beach and directed his troops to move forward and get the hell off the beach. That Sergeant and I have been life long friends. "When they brought me off Suribachi we passed the Sergeant and he lit a smoke and passed it to me lying on my belly on the litter ..."Where'd they get you Lee?"... "Well Bob ... if you make it,home before me, tell Mom to sell the outhouse ... ..... "Johnny, I'm not lying ... Sergeant Keeshan was the bravest man I ever Knew ... Bob Keeshan ... You and the world know him as Captain Kangaroo." Back to Dispatch April 2002 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com