U.S. Marine Corps

Staff Sergeant Jerry Ingram U.S. Marine Corps No Greater Honor

Photo of Marine Corps Veteran Jerry Ingram saluting at a remembrance ceremony.
Marine Corps veteran Jerry Ingram, a survivor of the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima, salutes before placing a flower on the 4th Marine Division Monument at the Leavenworth National Cemetery. Photo by Prudence Siebert/Fort Leavenworth Lamp

When most of us are 16, our biggest worries are getting our drivers license or figuring out our date to the prom. When Staff Sergeant Jerry Ingram was 16, he was a combat tank commander with Company C of the 4th Tank Battalion, 4th Marines, preparing to fight his way to victory across the Pacific to Japan. This is Jerry’s story.

Jerry was born on May 20, 1927, in Kansas City, Kansas. Scraping by at the height of the Great Depression, Jerry left home when he was 10 and lived on the streets. He made enough money to survive working on local farms, but after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Jerry enlisted in the Marines when he was only 15. He was a big kid at 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, just what the Marines were looking for. Jerry says he lied about his age to get into the Marines, and he’s been lying about his age ever since.

Jerry reported for duty on November 9, 1942, and was sent to Marine boot camp in San Diego California. He lived in a tent his full time there, and would continue to live in tents all the way through to the end of the war. Jerry said his drill instructor was a Pearl Harbor survivor, which made him especially tough on his men. Whatever the requirements were, he made them do more. At the time, Jerry thought they were being over-trained. Looking back, he attributes a significant part of his survival to his Marine Corps training, which taught him to never give up. The rest he knows is due to the hand of God. Jerry is certain God has allowed him to survive so he can relay his story to others, so that they, too, can learn to never give up.

One story stands out for Jerry from boot camp, where there was significant competition between platoons to outdo each other. On the night before the final inspection and graduation parade, Jerry and some buddies from his platoon took permanent shoe die and painted black mustaches on sleeping Marines in the other platoons. Then they painted mustaches on themselves so no one would know which platoon did it. Jerry said you can only imagine the reaction the next morning when the new Marines showed up for their graduation inspection with mustaches painted on their faces.

After boot camp, Jerry reported to the Marine Corps camp at Jacques Farm, also in San Diego. He thought he was going for Raider training, but he learned when he arrived the camp had just been repurposed to train Marines to fight with tanks. By the time he left Camp Jacques, still at the age of 15, he had become a tank driving instructor.

After Jacques Farm, Jerry was assigned to Company C, 4th Tank Battalion, 4th Marine Division at Camp Pendleton in California. As part of this unit, he participated in the island battles in the Pacific that served as the crucible for the Marine Corps and made it the legendary fighting force it is today. These landings were:

  • Roi and Namur Islands, February 1944
  • Saipan, June 15 – July 9, 1944 (13,000 U.S. casualties, including 3,000 killed)
  • Tinian, July 24 – August 1, 1944 (2,300 U.S. casualties, including 389 killed)
  • Iwo Jima, February 19 – March 26, 1945 (26,000 U.S. casualties, including 6,800 killed)
Image of Sherman Tank.
Sherman Tank

Jerry fought in these battles as a commander of a Sherman tank, which was the main battle tank for the United States during the war. He recalls that when they conducted the Roi and Namur Island landings, U.S. Navy ships offshore mistakenly fired on their tanks. To prevent that from happening again, someone up the chain of command came up with the idea to paint the tops of the tanks yellow so they could be easily identified from the air. When the tanks landed in Saipan, they learned the hard way that the new paint scheme was not such a good idea. Jerry and his tank Company had landed in the wrong place, so they got out of their tanks to check their maps to see where they were. Suddenly, Japanese shells rained down on them because the yellow tops made them easy to spot and target.

When the shells started coming in, Jerry and a Gunnery Sergeant (Gunny) jumped under one of the tanks and the tank took a direct hit. The Gunny said he was hit, and Jerry reached over and felt blood all over the Gunny’s leg. Despite being in cramped quarters and unable to see because they were under the tank, Jerry managed to get a tourniquet around the Gunny’s leg. When the shelling stopped, Jerry pulled the Gunny out from under the tank only to find that it wasn’t blood on the Gunny’s leg, but warm diesel fuel that had leaked from the tank after it had been hit.

After securing Saipan, the 4th Marine Division returned to its base on Maui to prepare for their next assignment: Iwo Jima. This proved to be one of the costliest battles of the war and the only battle in the Pacific where more American attackers were killed than Japanese defenders. Jerry remembers going to the cemetery on the island after the island was secured and being overcome by the thousands of crosses marking the graves of his fellow Marines. He says this was the only time he cried during the war.

After surviving these horrific island-hopping battles, Jerry was transferred to the 1st Marine Division in Tientsin, China, as part of the occupation forces securing the area after Japan surrendered. Jerry said the Chinese people were destitute, having suffered greatly at the hands of the Japanese. He saw people stripping bark from trees to eat and using sand as filler in some of their meals. Yet when the Americans shipped food for the starving people, corrupt local officials kept it from those who needed it most.

Image of Jerry Ingram saluting at Royals Game.
Jerry Ingram at Kansas City Royals baseball game

Jerry returned to the United States from China and was honorably discharged in 1946. He still suffered from the effects of the war, especially amoebic dysentery, which plagued him for years. Amoebic dysentery is caused by a one-celled organism that invades the intestines, resulting in severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, and blood loss. Further complications occur when the parasite gets into the bloodstream. Early on, Jerry’s infection was so bad that he went to the VA Hospital in Leavenworth, Kansas. At one point he overheard that he was in the St. Peter’s room, which meant he was not expected to live. But the Marines had taught him to be a survivor, and if the VA Hospital couldn’t help him get better, he would go back home to Kansas City and try something else. So he snuck out of the hospital wearing nothing but his hospital gown with the ties in back, and hitchhiked to Kansas City. As he looks back on it now, he can’t believe someone actually stopped and gave him a ride given how he was dressed.

Jerry recovered and went back to school to complete his education. Not only did he get his high school degree, but he also used the GI Bill to get his bachelor’s degree from Kansas University.

As if Jerry’s experience in the war wasn’t enough, he had two other close calls with death. First, when Jerry was 25, his car was hit head on by a drunk driver. Jerry suffered massive head trauma and was in surgery for 23 hours. He eventually had an acrylic plate put into his head and he had to re-learn his memory, but he never gave up and he recovered. Then, in 1981, he was caught in an elevator with 3 other men when an arsonist set fire to the Las Vegas Hilton. When the elevator door opened, Jerry crawled to safety, but the 3 other men, who tried to run through the smoke, died from smoke inhalation.

Sketch of Jerry Ingram.
Jerry Ingram

Jerry attributes his longevity to the Marines who instilled in him that he must never give up, no matter how bad things get, and his faith in God as a Christian. He feels duty-bound to tell people his story so they understand that there is a cost to the freedoms we all enjoy.

When I asked Jerry if he thinks serving in the military is a good option for young people today, he didn’t hesitate. He said there is no greater honor than serving God, Country and the Corps. He is a Marine through and through, who knows and appreciates that next to life itself, freedom is the most precious gift we have.

At almost 91, Jerry still works full-time at Jerry Ingram Fire & Rescue, providing fire departments with uniforms and other required first responder equipment. He also supports the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, and is active in the Marine Corps League. He remains the driving force behind a memorial and annual remembrance ceremony in March for the battle of Iwo Jima at Leavenworth National Cemetery in Kansas.

Voices To Veterans proudly salutes Staff Sergeant Jerry Ingram for his distinguished service in the United States Marine Corps and for his lifelong commitment to preserving the freedoms of every American. There is no doubt how Jerry would close out his story if he were telling it in person: Semper Fi!

U.S. Marine Corps Memorial in Washington, DC.
U.S. Marine Corps Memorial in Washington, DC.

Sergeant Richard “Dick” Sowinski, U.S. Marine Corps

Sergeant Richard "Dick" Sowinski, U.S. Marine CorpsNatural leaders rise to the top, no matter where they start out. That’s why when the Marines recruited Richard “Dick” Sowinski, they knew they had a winner. They could not have been more right.

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Dick graduated from West Tech High School in 1953. That fall he attended Kent State University, but it was his first time away from home and he spent a little too much time having fun and not enough time studying. It wasn’t long before Kent State sent him a letter inviting him not to come back.

Disappointed, Dick decided to straighten himself out, so he went to a military recruiting office. He intended to join the Navy, but he felt like the Navy recruiter gave him the “song and dance,” so he enlisted in the Marines instead. He didn’t tell his parents right away because he knew they would worry. To put his enlistment into historical context, the Korean War had just ended and the Cold War was in full swing, so when his parents found out, they were scared for him. Dick’s father also feared Dick would never finish college.

Dick and other local recruits began their Marine Corps enlistment on October 20, 1954, by boarding a train in Cleveland en route to Parris Island, South Carolina. When they arrived in South Carolina, they took a bus to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. As soon as the bus stopped, drill instructors rushed aboard and started yelling at them to get off the bus. Dick’s immediate thought was “Oh no, what have I gotten myself into.”

Dick found out the next morning. “In processing” began with a haircut that left him totally bald. In addition to the rigorous physical and military training, which began right away, recruits were required to shave every day, whether they needed it or not, and field day meant cleaning every inch of the barracks to the drill instructors’ exacting standards. Failure meant doing it all over again. Dick had to wash his clothes by hand with a scrub brush and hang them outside to dry. The one bright spot was mail call, where Dick’s drill instructor would hand out mail to the waiting recruits. Any recruit receiving lots of letters from a girlfriend was teased in front of everyone, and it was the one time the recruits were permitted to laugh.

Despite the demanding training and new way of life, Dick did well at boot camp. So much so, that his drill instructor designated him the “house mouse,” which meant he had to clean and take care of the drill instructors’ duty hut. Being the house mouse had its advantages, because when the rest of his platoon had mess duty working in the kitchen, Dick stayed in the duty hut getting coffee and doing other tasks for the drill instructors. Dick was also designated to carry the platoon flag, known as the guidon. That honor signaled to everyone Dick was squared away.

Dick learned early on that if a recruit didn’t get rifle qualified, he was looked down upon. Knowing his right eye was weak, Dick was afraid he might not qualify if he had to aim with his right eye, so he decided to learn to fire his M-1 rifle left-handed. To his surprise, he earned his rifle qualifications firing left-handed even though he was right-handed by nature.

Dick graduated from boot camp in January 1955. After a short leave period, he reported to Camp Geiger in Jacksonville, North Carolina, for advanced infantry training, and then on to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to the Second Marine Division, Sixth Marines, for his first assignment.

Dick excelled at Camp Lejeune just as he had at boot camp. He was made squad leader for his rifle platoon and soon his company commander recommended him for an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. He passed the physical and written tests with ease and then had to interview with the regimental commander, who was a Medal of Honor winner. During the interview, Dick learned the course of study at the Naval Academy would be engineering. Afraid he could not handle the math, and believing rumors he’d have to commit to twenty years in the military, Dick turned down his appointment. His company commander was not pleased.

Soon thereafter, Dick’s unit sailed to Vieques Island off the coast of Puerto Rico for amphibious assault training. Dick’s ship had an admiral on board, and the admiral brought his barge, which is a small boat an admiral uses to go ashore or to entertain dignitaries. One of the Marines on board thought it would be a good idea to steal the admiral’s stars off the barge. When the admiral discovered they were missing, he turned off the smoking lamp (which meant no smoking), stopped showing movies, closed the ship’s store, and restricted the Marines to their quarters. As the seas got rougher, the situation got worse, until the offending Marine snuck back one night and returned the admiral’s stars to the barge. Appeased, the admiral lifted the sanctions and life at sea returned to normal.

Eventually Dick’s unit was ready to assault the Vieques beach as part of the exercise. After a steak and eggs breakfast, at 5:00 a.m. they climbed down the cargo nets on the side of the ship into the waiting landing craft and assaulted the beach. Once ashore, they dug in and camouflaged their foxholes. Dick knew he had done a good job because later that night his company commander came by to check out the unit’s positions and, not seeing where Dick was, fell into Dick’s foxhole.

After the exercise, Dick’s unit went ashore for liberty at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Since Fidel Castro had yet to take over the country, the Marines were permitted to leave the base and go into town during the day, but they had to be back inside the gates by nightfall. Still, Cuba’s precarious political situation meant Dick’s unit was on call in case they were needed for action.

When Dick returned to Camp Lejeune after the exercise, his company commander recommended him for Drill Instructor School. Only the very best Marines are permitted to become drill instructors because they are responsible for molding the next generation of Marines. Now a corporal, Dick was selected and began the school. He remembers early on sitting toward the back of the class when the instructor called him out and accused him of sleeping. Dick wasn’t sleeping, but he decided not to defend himself and just absorbed the berating. The instructor stopped abruptly and said to the rest of the class, “Now there’s a disciplined Marine. He didn’t challenge me or act disrespectfully. He just took my yelling calmly. Drill instructors need to be disciplined like this Marine.” Dick was really glad he hadn’t said anything to the instructor.

Dick graduated from Drill Instructor School in 1956 as a sergeant and then reported to Parris Island to train new recruits. While he has many drill instructor stories, one stands out in particular. One of the men in his platoon was a small, unassuming recruit, but he had a lot of spirit. One day a general was inspecting Dick’s platoon, which meant Dick followed right next to the General in case the general had any comments while inspecting Dick’s men. The general stopped in front of the unassuming recruit and barked, “What’s the motto of the Marine Corps?” Misunderstanding what the general said, the recruit answered enthusiastically, “There’s nothing the matter with the Marine Corps, sir!” Dick said all the general could do was laugh, pat the Marine, and move on.Dick and Maureen Sowinski

After serving as a drill instructor for 18 months, Dick got out of the Marine Corps and re-enrolled at Kent State. This time he made the Dean’s List every year. He graduated in 1960 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Health and Physical Education, and later earned his Master’s Degree in 1966.

One other thing happened in 1960 – Dick married Maureen, his wife of 57 years. They have four children (including one who served in the Navy), and ten grandchildren. They’ve had a wonderful life together.

Dick credits the Marine Corps with giving him a philosophy to live by – a philosophy he’s shared with countless youth over the years both as a teacher and a much-loved high school and then college freshman football coach at Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio. Here is Dick’s philosophy for personal success:

  • Spiritual Soundness – Have a deeply rooted faith in God.
  • Respect – Show respect for your parents, the girl you are dating, and authority.
  • Courage – Stand up for what is right and don’t be afraid to say no to what is wrong.
  • Excellence – Do your best at whatever you are called to do and never do less than you are able.

Voices To Veterans is proud to salute Sergeant Dick Sowinski for his service in the Marines and his years of helping young people succeed both on and off the football field. Thanks for a job well done!

1st Lieutenant Iris Nigg Lundin – WWII Marine Corps Trailblazer

When I met 1st Lieutenant Iris Nigg Lundin, U.S. Marine Corps, to talk to her about her experience as a female Marine Officer in World War II, she handed me her prized possession from her service – her Aerial Navigator Wings. “I was one of the first 4 women to get these wings,” she said with well-deserved pride, “and I hope my story inspires young women to give the Marines a try.”

Iris just celebrated her 99th birthday in June. She was born in Minnesota, but grew up in Webster, Wisconsin, a town of about 600 people. She attended the University of Wisconsin in Superior, starting with a one-year scholarship for being the valedictorian of her high school class. She graduated with a four-year bachelor’s degree and began teaching school and working extra jobs during the summer. With World War II raging in the Pacific and Europe, Iris’s summer work in support of the U.S. war effort included operating a factory machine that inserted grommets into canvas pup tents.

After the law authorizing the U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve went into effect, Iris heard the recruiting slogans “Uncle Sam Needs You” and “Free a Man to Fight,” and walked to a recruiting office. She wanted to be a Marine because the Marines had a top-notch image. On her way into the office, she passed two women on the street who asked her what she was doing. She told them she was going to enlist in the Marines. They said, “you must think you’re pretty good.” Their observation confirmed the Marines were right for her.

Iris enlisted in August 1943 and headed for boot camp in Camp LeJuene, North Carolina, right away. Her days consisted of training and learning about the Marines, including observing all of the training the men did so she would understand the Corps and its mission.

As part of boot camp, Iris also had mess duty. Iris’s first thought as she reported to her initial mess duty assignment was that she would be peeling potatoes all day long. When she got to the kitchen, she saw a machine in the middle of the room that looked like her mother’s Maytag washing machine. She assumed everyone working in the kitchen must get so dirty that they just washed their clothes before they left. Then she saw someone dump a sack of potatoes into the machine and turn it on. Forty seconds later, all of the potatoes came out peeled because the machine was lined with sand paper. Much to her surprise, Iris never peeled a potato in the Marine Corps. She concluded that inventions must be made by lazy people!

After completing boot camp, Iris was selected to go through Officer Candidate School, likely because she had a college degree. There she made friends with a brilliant and beautiful fellow officer candidate named Betty. Betty was fluent in multiple languages, including sign language. She was also a ventriloquist and could throw her voice, and on more than one occasion they had fun with Betty’s surprising talent at the expense of their unsuspecting Marine instructors.

Iris was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant upon graduating from Officer Candidate School. She and three other women were sent on short notice to a Navy navigation school in Hollywood, Florida. Because it was a Navy school, Iris thought it would be ship navigation. But when she arrived, she found out it was aerial navigation. Her classes began the day after she arrived. Her training was intense – she had to quickly learn and master navigation by dead reckoning, radio, LORAN (long range navigation), and the stars. Some of her classes began at midnight and lasted until 8:00 a.m. Her star identification classes were held outside and she had to know 100 stars. She also practiced navigation on four-hour flights heading south over the Florida Keys. On one of these flights, she saw a capsized vessel that had apparently fallen victim to a German submarine just a few miles off the U.S. coast. She was amazed that the war was so close to home. She was told news about ships being sunk right off the U.S. coast wasn’t publicized out of concern people would panic.

Iris and her three female classmates were the first four women in the Marine Corps to go through the necessary training and earn their Aerial Navigator wings. They were sent to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina to teach aerial navigation to Marine Corps combat pilots. Iris took her job seriously, because she knew men’s lives depended upon what she did. And, because she respected the pilots for willingly putting themselves in harm’s way whenever they flew in combat, she never wore her Aerial Navigator wings on base because they looked like pilot’s wings and she didn’t want any of her fellow Marines to think she’d qualified as a pilot. She did, however, wear her wings on her uniform off base because she wanted women to see what she had accomplished and learn that there were now doors open to them that had previously been closed.

The aerial navigation classes Iris taught, which included training rides with students up and down the East Coast in rickety twin engine Beechcraft airplanes “held together by bobby pins,” were for both new pilots and experienced pilots coming through Cherry Point for refresher courses. The most famous pilots Iris taught were from Major Pappy Boyington’s legendary Black Sheep squadron, made famous by their success in shooting down Japanese aircraft in the Pacific. Iris said they were the roughest and smartest guys to come through, but she goes out of her way to say that she was never given a hard time or told she couldn’t do anything because she was a woman. She said if you were competent at your job and worked hard, the men respected you and treated you like a Marine. She was proud of her students and continued to correspond with some even after the war.

Iris demanded that every Marine be treated with respect. She despised racism and segregation and on one occasion put several officers senior to her in their place when they put down an African-American steward working in the officer mess. Iris expected a backlash for her criticism of the senior officers, but there was none so she knew “they got the message.”

Iris remained in the Marine Corps until her discharge in December 1945. She married the love of her life, Bill Nigg, one week later. Bill, who remained in Minnesota during the war, proposed to Iris by mail. They had two children and were happily married for 38 years until Bill passed away in 1983. At one point Iris and Bill were adopted by a tribe in Nigeria after they opened their home for over two years to a young Nigerian man and his family while the young man studied at the Minnesota State University at Mankato. Iris estimates that approximately 2,000 tribe members from around the world attended the event in Nigeria. Iris remains close to the family’s children to this day. Iris remarried another wonderful man, Vern Lundin, seven years after Bill’s death, and they spent three-and-a-half years together before Vern passed away.

Iris has lived the Marine Corps ethos since the first day she put on a Marine uniform. She has the character and the courage to lead Marines, and she’s been a trailblazer for women in the military. She says if you are a young woman and willing to work harder than ever before and accept new things, the Marines will help open doors for you for the rest of your life. With more than a bit of Marine Corps pride she says, “when you meet someone else in a military uniform, you smile and maybe salute, but when it’s a Marine, you just stand taller.”

Voices To Veterans is proud to salute 1st Lieutenant Iris Nigg Lundin, not only for her wartime service in the Marines, but also for opening doors so others can follow.