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Iwo Jima veteran laid to rest

Mohave Valley Daily News - 7/9/2017

Family and friends remembered Lawayne David Brown, 91, at his funeral and committal services Saturday at Desert Lawn in Mohave Valley. He died June 29.

The decorated World War II veteran served in the U.S. Marines and was seriously injured during the Battle of Iwo Jima. He was among the first wave of troops sent to the island where the Japanese had built aircraft runways. The goal was to take control of the location from the Imperial Army and, after one of the fiercest battles in the Pacific theater, the Americans succeeded.

Brown went into the Marines in 1944 and was out in 1946.

"He had just turned 19 - it was his first and only battle," said James Robinson, president of the Colorado River Chapter of the 1st Marine Division Association. Brown was an automatic rifleman, thus "a target for the Japanese."

He was also on the island for the raising of the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi. The second such flag raising was documented by photographer Joe Rosenthal, who won a Pulitzer Prize. It's considered an iconic moment of the war and the image was used later by artist Felix de Weldon in the design and sculpting of the Marine Corps War Memorial.

A Marine honor guard with members from Twenty-Nine Palms and Las Vegas paid their respects and conducted a flag-folding and presentation ceremony. The Honor Guard from the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 404 also marked Brown's passing with formations and three-shot volley.

Air Force Chaplain Lt. Col. Paul Pitts spoke about the sacrifices of Brown and others who served their country as they put on hold their dreams and their lives to serve their country. And for a Marine, such as Brown, it was also "for the honor of the Corps."

Brown was Grand Marshal of the Tri-State Veterans Day Parade in 2013.

"In my mind's eye I can see him as a brand-new Marine," said Chris Carroll, Brown's nephew and a deacon in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino. He was the officiant for the services.

But he knew him simply as his uncle, his mother's brother.

Carroll shared some stories about Uncle Lawayne growing up in Nebraska. Uncles Lawayne and Corky had a paper route when they were young and they competed to determine which one could throw the best and hardest in a make-believe battle.

He also convinced Corky to jump off of a roof once.

Later, he "helped take care of us when Dad was gone," Carroll said. "He was very giving, sharing, understanding."

His uncle was among those relatives with whom he watched astronaut Neil Armstrong take man's first steps on the surface of the moon in July 1969. He

taught a 10-year-old Carroll to conduct "surgery" when a fishhook was caught in his thumb. Those skills turned out to be unnecessary because his uncle was able to remove the hook himself.

Uncle Lawayne later found Carroll's brother in a bar, underage, after drinking copious amounts of beer. The two came to an accord and decided it was an event that didn't require being mentioned to the young man's mother.

"And he never said anything about it," Carroll remembered. "And I've never said anything about it until now."

And Carroll, wiping sweat from his upper lip on a summer's day in the Mohave Valley, said his uncle would never wear shorts. He then joked: "Did I mention my Uncle Lawayne was stubborn?"

He then bemoaned the fact that his own relatives -and many other families - only come together for funerals and advised that it's important to take time out to connect with them.

"Text ? Or call unexpectedly," he said. "Tell them you love them."