JSMDF's Mine Warfare Force (MWF) executes IWOTO, the largest live MINEX in the Pacific, every year at
Iwo To, formerly known as Iwo Jima, but this is the first time a U.S.
A light division of three E-2C Hawkeye 2000s from VAW-115 approach the island of
Iwo To, where my grandfather flew so many years ago.
On 16 April, 63 years after 31,000 Marines landed on the island of Iwo Jima, VFA-97 received permission from the Japanese government to land on the island, known as
Iwo To in Japan, to perform a professional military education visit.
After our plane landed on the airport (elevation 370') and approximately on top of where Hill 382 had been during the battle, the first two things I noticed were indeed the Japanese had renamed the island
Iwo To because it was painted prominently on the airport control tower, and we could certainly smell sulfur in the air as so many accounts from 1945 reported.
