Recap of Iwo Jima, D-2 for Victor Taraborelli - Bronze Star

February 17, 1945, D-2 was designated the day for the UDT teams to "open" the beaches of Iwo Jima. The morning operation would be the east beaches followed by the afternoon reconnaissance of the west beaches.

On the morning of the 17thm Team 13 was assigned Green Beach #1 which was the southern section of the east beaches. Team 13 was to swim in under the near shadow of Mt. Suribachi which towered to the swimmers immediate left. It appeared to be the most dangerous beach of the entire east side.

The fire support for the UDT swimmers was awesome. Battleships, cruisers, and destroyers, were positioned to rain a withering fire upon the eastern slope of the small island. In close were 12 LCIG gunboats which would pour a continuous flow of rocket fire on the enemy gun positions.

Team 13 sent two LCPRs from the Barr. One with the swimmers onboard and the other as a standby crew to be used only if needed. The LCPRs moved inside the line of the LCIG gunboats and started to receive fire from shore. With the throttles wide open they turned and moved parallel to the beach dropping the swimmers one by one, Mortar fire and machine gun fire rained down all over and around all the reconnaissance boats until they moved out of range beyond the line of LCIGs.

Excerpts from "The Chronicles of Underwater Demolition Team 13" by Marvin Cooper