To the editor:

April 1, 2015, is the 70th anniversary of the landings on the beach at Okinawa, the southernmost island off the Japanese mainland. We suffered 50,000 casualties, and the Japanese 100,000 during a fierce battle that lasted for 83 days. The remaining Japanese either surrendered or committed hara-kiri.

The island was declared “secure” on June 21. I was only 18 years old and with the Navy Construction Battalion (Seabees) attached to the Sixth Marine Division. We were under the command of a very tough “old” Marine colonel — he was 35 years old!

During the remainder of June, July and early August, we were preparing for the invasion of the Japanese mainland 300 miles away. Almost one million troops were on Okinawa with all of their equipment. The predictions were that we would lose 50 percent of our troops during the invasion as the Japanese would be desperate to repel us.

Then early in August 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and World War II was over.

After two years in the service, I came home to Kansas in May 1946 at age 19 and enrolled in the University of Kansas on the GI Bill.

I hope that the current and future generations never forget that “freedom isn’t free.”