Oral History Interview with Keifer Marshall, January 13, 2009 Page: 5
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money, and those poor guys that they had all that, the Indian you know, he had to bring him
back. He couldn't stand it.
Yeah, Ira Hayes.
Keifer Marshall: And he ended up an alcoholic and died in the snow in New Mexico which is
really sad, but he wanted to get back with his outfit and it was a sad deal.
Have you ever had a chance to go back to Iwo Jima?
Keifer Marshall: We've been to three of the reunions, and in 1975, they started calling, I was,
my family and my mother and father had moved to San Antonio while I was a Marine. So when
I got out, they put my name down as Robert K. Marshall. I go by Keifer all the time. And they
were, I was in a picture that I didn't know existed, and they were trying to find this other fellow
and I, and he and I had been together for one night in this fox hole, and I'd never been with him
before with just the confusion and everything going on. We got in there and we spent one night
together. He was from Levelland, Texas, and he was in Weapons Company and I was in the
Infantry part. And we got together that time. Well, this guy came up to our fox hole and took
our picture. It's all around behind the parapet of the fox hole, took our name, rank, and serial
number. Either one of us, he ran off and a shell hit right over about that time, and this fellow
said we'll never see that picture. So in 1975, they found him and he told me he thought I'd been
killed, but then they found out that I was in Temple some way, and they called Miss Marshall
here, said do you know Robert K. Marshall? Said she knew Keifer Marshall. That way is the
way they found us, wasn't it? And so then they flew us up there. The Marine Corps paid for our
trip up there and had a real great reunion and the 25 anniversary. Then Sammy and I went back
for the 50th and took our son and his boys, and then we went back for the 55 and every time
they have a trip going back to Iwo Jima, she said don't you want to go? And I said no, I prayed
so hard to get off there, I don't want to go back.
So you've never actually been back to the island.
Keifer Marshall: No, I haven't been back at all, but I've known people that have been back and
of course it's not, it's all green and beautiful now, like an island should be. We were there, it
was just blown to hell everywhere, and we had so many, so many people that were killed and
wounded and it didn't make any difference where you were, you were in harm's way all the time
because Japanese had great snipers and they had these spider hole kind of things, and they hadpill boxes, and whoever designed that defense, and the whole thing was honeycombed
underneath the island in caves and tunnels, and it was a great defensive effort they had. If they
had had any Air Force or any ships to help 'em, they probably, I don't know if we'd have ever
taken them.
Mrs. Marshall: James, we were flying from Bangkok to Tokyo one year, one summer, it was
1975 I believe, and we were on Pan Am, and the pilot was great. He would announce as we
would go over historical places, and he announced about 30 minutes before we were to fly over
the island of Iwo Jima, and I was sitting on the window, see, and I said Keifer, do you want to
trade with me so you can look down? And he said no, and he didn't look down. He said I don't
want to see it. That's the only, he had no desire to go back to the island.
Keifer Marshall: Well you know what kind of training you get in the Marine Corps, and I'll
say if it hadn't been for that training well you really learn to depend on the guy on your left, the5
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Marshall, Keifer. Oral History Interview with Keifer Marshall, January 13, 2009, text, January 13, 2009; Fredericksburg, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1606772/m1/5/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting National Museum of the Pacific War/Admiral Nimitz Foundation.