After nearly four long years of fighting, members of the United States Marine Corps, Navy, Army, and Coast Guard had accomplished many seemingly insurmountable tasks. Yet in February of 1945, a battle lay before them that would go down in our nation’s history as one of the most difficult victories ever achieved. On the desolate volcanic atoll known as Iwo Jima, a new chapter was written in the history of the United States military—and in particular of the Marines, who fought tooth and nail for every inch of land against a suicidal foe.