Religion: Faith Under Fire

Two marines who had been through Iwo Jima wrote to their parents, trying to tell them something about it.

¶ Wrote wounded Private Carl G. Ekdahl of Providence, R.I.: "I . . . hope to get back to my outfit in the near future. I've got more to fight for now as most of my buddies will be staying on that island forever. People back home will never know what it was like to take Iwo Jima. . . . All the time . . . I never feared for myself be cause I knew the Lord was with me. . . ."

¶ Wrote Pfc. Felix J. Murphy Jr. of Bellaire, L.I.: "It still does not seem possible that so much hell could have been all in one place. Someone's prayers were answered, also mine, because I came out. . . . I don't really think I was afraid to die, but I was afraid of something. . . . I felt that when God wanted me he would take me, so I just kept on praying. . . ."