Norman P Sprague - Another Iwo Jima Hero

My dad, Norman P Sprague, was a Iwo Jima veteran. Although he told me very little about his exploits in the South Pacific, while I was growing up, he did talk about being on the first boat ashore, on more than one occasion. When I read the book, "Flags of our Fathers" by James Bradley, recently, I was there with my father, too, as I imagined how it would have been. Bradley had such an excellent way of presenting the novel and he described it wonderfully. Later, I also saw the film but I enjoyed the book, best of all. It helped me to understand why dad never talked much about his time there, from so many years ago.

During World War II, as a fighting marine, dad had witnessed a horror, unimaginable to most. Not only on Iwo Jima but at Bougainville, Guadacanal and the Solomon Islands, Tarawa, Okinawa, and all the other places, that the 3rd Marine Division took him, as he faced so much danger and destruction.

Shortly after he returned home from the service, he married my mom, Janice Williams, in Boston. After living in Quincy, Massachusetts for a while, they moved to the old homestead in Woodland, Maine, in the town of Baileyville. My parents lived with my grandfather, Ralph Sprague, until his death in 1958. They raised us four children there. We were brought up in a semi-rural area of Maine that was peaceful, safe and it was a comfortable life for us there. We even had a summer cottage at a nearby lake, where we spent our summer vacations, when school was recessed for summer vacation, in early June. It was a great place to spend a childhood, we believed.

Dad worked at the St Croix Paper Company. This was where most of his brothers were also employed. Norman worked as a timekeeper, in the mill office. He referred to himself as a "pencil pusher" if someone were to ask what he did for a living. While in Boston, he had spent time at Bentley School of Accounting and enjoyed that type of occupation.

He helped organize the first office union and was also a trustee of the St Croix Credit Union. He was also involved in the town, as a town planning board chairman, auditor at the People's Methodist Church, adjutant of the W. T. Wren American Legion Post and numerous other activities in the community.

Norman was a hard working family man. One of our neighbors, Carlton Moore, once said that dad was the Mayor of "Little Woodland". This was due mostly to the fact that our section of town had the best roads and street lighting, especially after his annual spiels at Town Meeting. Dad was good at convincing the townspeople what should be their needed expenditures. He was also influencial as in his duties as an excellent union negotiator at his employer. I can't imagine what dad would say about the conditions at the mill today, under the current owners. I can't help but think that he probably would have made a difference.

Dad rarely spoke of his marine days from wartime, but later in his life, while being treated for lung cancer, the medication seemed to bring some of his long buried memories, to the surface. He became more open minded about some of the things that he had depressed far deep into his memory. At that time, he started to have nightmares and bad headaches from his recollections of the past.

I understand that I had been named john, after one of his marine buddies, that had died over there, in a foxhole with him. I wish that I had asked for more details, about those circumstances and about the details of his good friend, while dad was still alive. He was my hero but I don't think he knew that fact.

While in Iraq, I had the occasion to travel with the Japanese Air Force on a C-130 transport. My first thought was, "Dad would be rolling over in his grave", just seeing me on this aircraft, flying with his former adversaries. Of course, the Japanese were now helping to move US soldiers and contractors, into the current war. Time changes everything, it seems, and those former enemies, are now our friends.

John Sprague is an American currently working in the Mideast. He enjoys writing and working on his websites in his free time. He has a new site at http://www.marketingkindreds.com His website has photos of the Mideast and marketing articles that you may be interested in viewing. There are also website analysis tools and articles on genealogy and DNA.

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