Survivors of Iwo Jima: 'I credit that battle with making a man out of me'

[Omaha Steve]

MATT MILLER/THE WORLD-HERALD
Duane Tunnyhill, an Omaha native who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima as a Marine, and other local veterans of the battle meet monthly at the Bohemian Cafe in Omaha. On Thursday, the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the invasion, widows and children of deceased veterans joined the group for lunch.

http://www.omaha.com/news/metro/survivors-of-iwo-jima-i-credit-that-battle-with-making/article_438629d4-9b58-572f-9308-d2d6b94a8657.html

POSTED: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2015 12:30 AM
By Steve Liewer / World-Herald staff writer

From his boyhood in Omaha, Duane Tunnyhill wanted nothing more than to be a Marine. When he turned 17 in January 1943, he begged his parents to let him enlist so he could fight with the Marines in the Pacific.

His dad wanted him to wait for a draft notice. Tunnyhill wouldn’t hear of it.

“I said, ‘If I get killed, I’ll be killed in the service I want to be in,’” said Tunnyhill, now 89, whose parents finally relented and signed the papers just before his 18th birthday.

The young Marine fought in only one battle, but it was a big one: the battle of Iwo Jima.

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