Born in Everett in 1921, Richard Leslie worked at J.J. Newberry stores before and after World War II, including four years in the early 1960s as manager of the downtown Bellingham store.

Leslie trained as a machine gunner with the Marines during the war. He was deployed to Hawaii aboard a Dutch freighter, then continued on aboard a converted ocean liner.

Excerpts from his written war recollections follow:

We crossed the Pacific without incident. When we were a ways out, they told us we were going to Iwo Jima.

We arrived at Iwo Jima in the middle of the night. It was surprising, come daylight, to see all those ships; there was an armada of airplane carriers, battleships, cruisers and the flagship USS Indianapolis, all shooting at the Japanese on the island.

The first five days I worked ship to shore, delivering ammunitions, medical supplies. We would bring wounded back to the ship with us. Back on the ship I would help in the hospital.

On the sixth day the ship's platoon went ashore as replacements and I joined the fight.

I saw my first Jap, probably going from one cave to another and in view for only a second. I pointed and yelled "I just saw a Jap." This 18-year-old from Yazoo, Miss., just looked at me and said, "Well, shoot him."

My good friend "Buss" Lewis, from training and aboard ship, was also in the same squad, so we usually were in the same foxhole at night.

The day started with bombing by our Navy planes. Red markers or red smoke marked our lines, so they tried to bomb close to the markers but on the enemy side. They were 500-pound bombs, so we would be bounced around a little, too.

This was followed by our artillery, which was the most terrifying to me. We could hear the swish of the shells and immediately the explosion.

We threw hand grenades; counted to "two" first, then threw them at the Japs (that's what we called them during the war) so they didn't have time to throw them back.

One Jap grenade did hit me in the nose and laid me back in my foxhole, but it didn't explode. I thanked my lucky stars (guess my number wasn't up yet). It made a cut below my nose, which bled, and knocked some teeth loose.

We continued to take casualties will small or no advances. We were not able to use the machine guns too often because of the rocky terrain and no field of fire.

After 10 days or so I was the machine gunner and Buss was my assistant. We were in the foxhole together one morning; I had the watch while Buss slept.

When he awoke, he rose up and barely peeked out of the foxhole when he was hit. The bullet passed in and out of his helmet, killing him instantly.

Japanese knee mortars made a "thunk" noise as they came out of the tube, so we would scan the sky looking for them. If we were in a foxhole and it looked like it was coming in, we would jump out; otherwise we would duck and hope it missed us.

(Even after I returned home, for a year later I would have to keep one leg free of the blankets in bed so I could jump out in a hurry.)

One replacement in our foxhole was a Marine baker who fell asleep on his watch. I put a .45 pistol up his nose and said, "Don't you ever do that again or I will shoot you." If he fell asleep on his watch, it would jeopardize all the rest of us.

Soon we realized we weren't getting shot at anymore. Our fighting was over. Before we left the island, all the troops paid tribute to the fallen Marines buried in the new cemetery on Iwo Jima. It was inspiring to see our flag flying over Mount Surabachi.

The 5th Division boarded ship and sailed for the big island of Hawaii. We were to train for the assault on Japan.

On Aug. 6, 1945, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, then Nagasaki, leading the Japanese to surrender. What a relief to all of us.