Ronald Wesley Stephens

Ron passed away on 3/22/2022 at age 96. He and 12 others in his unit survived the assault and the Battle of Iwo Jima without becoming casualties. When his unit was relieved he was one of twelve pulled back to Maui from a total of 144 men that had landed on Iwo with his unit. Row after row of pyramidal tents in his company area were empty signifying the horrific costs of the marines’s sacrifices in capturing the strategically invaluable island of Iwo Jima. He had so few combat points after that that he was undoubtedly slated to go ashore in the planned invasion of the Home Islands. President Truman’s decision to use nuclear force almost unquestionably permitted I and other direct descendants of Ron to born. No second guessing or revisionist history here . We are eternally grateful for the service of men of men like Ron and we humbly thank President Truman for his avoidance of many thousands or millions of additional losses with his courageous action.