Iwo veteran, grandson share love of Corps

28 Nov 2002 | Sgt. A. Lyn Bell Marine Corps Training and Education Command

The heritage of the Marine Corps is delivered to recruits through 12 weeks of indoctrination into the brotherhood of leathernecks, but for one young Marine accepting the mantle of the Eagle, Globe and Anchor Thursday, that indoctrination began in the stories from his grandfather.

For Pfc. Mark Lapkiewicz, the stories of the Marine Corps began for his grandfather 57 years before, on an island called Iwo Jima.

?I remember that,? said Anthony Lapkiewicz, nodding at the Iwo Jima War Memorial. He had been in the tanker battalion supporting the Marines who took Mount Suribachi and staked the American Ensign atop Iwo Jima.

?I was in 8th Battery, 11th Marines, 5th Marine Division,? recalled the elder Lapkiewicz, 85, of Philadelphia. ?I thought the war was over when the flag went up, but all hell broke loose after that.?

Lapkiewicz joined the Marine Corps in 1936, extending in 1940 for two more years, but he received a disability discharge, just two weeks before the U.S. joined in World War II.

Two years later, he was itching to go back in and though his wife was reluctant to allow it, he requested to rejoin and reentered active service bound for ordnance school.

?I just sat there doing nothing, so I went to my company commander and said, ?I can?t stand this. Put me back on the line,? so they put me back in tanks and gave me a bulldozer and that?s what I operated from then on,? he remembered.

From his pocket, Lapkiewicz produced an aged, crumbled newspaper article, laminated now, years after it was cut from a Pennsylvania newspaper, of his exploits on Iwo Jima.

The article told the story of how his tank was disabled. The next day, accompanying another tanker battalion back to retrieve his lost mechanical partner, it was found to be overrun by Japanese troops.

He hated to do it, but there was no choice but to destroy his beloved tank.

His career would end as a gunnery sergeant with 7 years of service, but his love of Corps would be reflected through generations of stories.

Even with the legacy of the Corps in his family, that wasn?t the motivation to join for the young Lapkiewicz, it was the Corps itself.

A visit to a friend stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., was the turning point in his decision to join.

?It was the whole Marine Corps life,? said the young Lapkiewicz about what changed his mind. ?It was everything about it. The way my friend acted as a person, his job, everything ? it was everything about the Marine Corps.?

The stories from Iwo Jima began to help formulate his decision on what occupational field to try for. Like his tank commanding grandfather, the grandson also took to a highly mechanized vehicle - the AAV, or amphibious assault vehicle.

?He likes water, I like land,? added his grandfather.

Once his decision was made, the young Lapkiewicz saw nothing but the Corps. He earned his first stripe recruiting two friends before he left home 13 weeks ago. His outlook bright, he tried to persuade anyone else contemplating life in the Corps.

?Just go for it,? he said. ?Yeah, it?s tough but once you get the Eagle, Globe and Anchor it?s all worth it.?

Marine Corps Training and Education Command