75 years after storming Iwo Jima, a Lancaster County veteran recalls, ‘It was them or you’

Heading into combat for the first time, Pfc. George Aukamp wrestled with nerves. A farm boy from Lancaster County, Aukamp rode with about 20 other Marines in an amphibious vehicle bouncing across waves toward tiny Iwo Jima, where 22,000 Japanese defenders waited in caves, tunnels and 900 fortifications with orders to fight to the death.

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