Phil Porter lived through the battle of Iwo Jima and outlived most of his comrades.

He will show The Battle for Iwo Jima and answer any student questions 1 p.m. May 6 in WSTU 1303-05.

“Iwo Jima was probably the best-defended island ever,” Porter said.

The island had a network of underground tunnels six layers deep for the Japanese to hide in, but the U.S. soldiers were out in the open, Porter said.

“There might have been some places to hide, but we had bombed it,” he said.

Porter’s job in the battle was telephone communications.

“Running wires from place to place, keeping up communications as we moved across the island,” he said.

After he left the Marine Corps in 1945, he worked in the dairy industry, then went to college at 65 years old and got his social worker’s degree. He has worked at Venture High School, an Arlington alternative school, for 20 years.

He said many students have heard of Iwo Jima but do not know much about it or feel the magnitude of the price paid in all the wars to keep the U.S. free.

“I work at a school where when they present the flag, a large percentage of students don’t want to stand up,” Porter said. “I am so proud to be an American. Most of my prayers these days are ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’”

— Bethany Peterson