WWII USMC 5th Marine Division Reunion Detroit 1954 Iwo Jima Sand

Really incredible souvenir from the 5th Marine Divisions Association 1954 Reunion in Detroit. A glass bottle of Iwo Jima Sand.

WWII USMC Visualizer Crayons for Maps

A really unique WWII Marine item currently on Ebay right now: USMC issued crayons for use on Maps directly from the depot crate. Great for field desk and map case displays.

WWII Cream Protective Flashburn Iwo Jima Marines

For those that study The Battle of Iwo Jima or have a passing interest in Marine battles of WWII, you might have seen photos of Marines with what appears to be white cream applied to their faces. After a few years of searching a very rewarding thread appeared on FB that answered a few questions. While I was familiar with the usage of Anti-Flash cream at Iwo Jima I was not exactly sure what kind of containers were used to distribute the cream to Marines. A little background, it was believed at the time that the Japanese on Iwo Jima had buried barrels of explosives on the beach and the anti flash cream was worn by Marines in the first landing wave to protective themselves from the flash of the detonations of the buried barrels. It appears that the anti-flash cream, Cream, Protective Flashburn, was distributed to Marines in tubes of cream in small cardboard boxes. These have a "S1" stock number which was used during WWII by the US Navy. A second type was produced in a small tin with a screw on cap, but not exactly sure when they were issued as they have no stock number to date it. Still a lot of research needs to be done to confirm that this indeed is how the anti-flash cream was distributed to the Marines, it's one step closer in securing the full story on this obscure piece of Marine gear. Thank you Eric Oehlberg, Howard Smith

Update 1/19: These Flashburn tins were listed recently, which appear to be the tins above but with the wrapper with the contract date of 1952. This should solve the mystery of when the tins above were produced.

WWII 4th Marine Division The Marine Rifle Squad in Combat 1945

Interesting booklet of the The Marine Rifle Squad in Combat 1945 as published by the 4th MarDiv.

Amphibious Medicine Corpsman at Iwo Jima

Excellent article on the different Corpsman roles at Iwo Jima.