When the smoke cleared on Iwo Jima in March 1945, 19,000 American Marines had been wounded and 7,000 were dead, a casualty rate of nearly 39 percent. Lasting over a month, Iwo was the Marines’ bloodiest battle of the war and the only Pacific battle in which a U.S. landing force suffered more casualties than it inflicted. It was also the most highly decorated single engagement in Marine Corps history.