Remembering Ennis men lost at Iwo Jima

This Memorial Day marks 12 years since the savage conflict of Iwo Jima was memorialized in the Clint Eastwood film Flags of Our Fathers. But it was a lot more than a movie to the Ennis families who lost loved ones in the legendary battle. Seven Ennis men fought at Iwo Jima; four of them gave their lives on the infamous volcanic island in the Western Pacific that had become a fortress for the Japanese in the final days of the war. Only three came home. Ray Rickert, George Lucas, James Vinson Head, Dooney Pierce, Joe Crow, Airdale Goodwin and Jack Lummus were among the Marines who stormed the island for 37 agonizing days, during which time an estimated 5,931 American and 19,800 Japanese were killed. The heart-rending death toll included Pierce, Crow, Goodwin and Lummus, all felled within days of one another in February and March 1945.