[Baz]

Great story:

HIGASHISHIRAKAWA, Japan — A 93-year-old former Marine carried a calligraphy-covered flag to a small Japanese village Tuesday, keeping a battlefield promise he made more than seven decades ago.

In the summer of 1944, Marvin Strombo was a sniper scout serving with the 6th Marine Regiment on the Pacific island of Saipan, where U.S. and Japanese forces fought one of World War II’s bloodiest battles.

The young Marine was on the outskirts of the island’s capital city, Garapan, when he took the red and white Japanese flag from a fallen Japanese soldier.

He brought the flag home to Missoula, Mont., but always hoped to return it to its rightful owners. After a 5,000-mile journey to the village of Higashishirakawa in Japan’s mountainous Gifu Prefecture, Strombo, 93, finally completed that mission, handing the delicate heirloom to the fallen soldier’s family members.

Go here for more:

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/us-wwii-vet-returns-flag-to-fallen-japanese-soldier-s-family-1.482878#.WZL-cekpDyR


Former Marine Marvin Strombo, 93, hands a Japanese flag to the family of the fallen soldier he took it from in 1944 on Saipan, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017.