Sands of Iwo Jima Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought mainly by US Marine ground forces supported by the US Navy and by US Army Air units. Although never really identified in the movie, Sgt. Stryker's squad would most likely have been a part of the 5th Marine Division. The 3rd and 4th Marine Divisions also took part in the initial landing.

The movie was given unparalleled cooperation by the US Marines at the time of its shooting. Camp Pendleton was used extensively during the filming and the Marines provided a full infantry regiment along with amphibious tractors, tanks, and airplanes for the filming. Actual Marine engineers supplied and set up many of the explosions during the filming of the combat scenes. After the film's release, the Marine Corps used the film for decades as part of its indoctrination program for new recruits.

Answer: Sgt. Stryker

John Wayne portrayed the fictional Sgt. John Stryker. Stryker had learned the brutal lessons of combat on Guadalcanal and he aimed to teach his men these lessons, whether they wanted to learn them or not. He was a flawed hero who drank too much and was probably demoted for it because at one time he had been a sergeant major but now was a buck sergeant in command of a squad. He also had a son and ex-wife that he feels he was a failure towards as a husband and a father. But as a combat leader and trainer of men there was no better.

Gunny Highway was a character played by Clint Eastwood in "Heartbreak Ridge". Gunny Hartman was a character portrayed by R. Lee Ermey in "Full Metal Jacket". Sgt. Slaughter was a WWE wrestler portrayed by Robert Remus.

Answer: Battle of Guadalcanal

The Guadalcanal Campaign lasted for six months at the end of 1942 and into 1943. It was a brutal campaign that saw intense and determined fighting by both the Marines and the Japanese. This battle and Stryker's experiences living through it were the motivation behind how he trained his men. Stryker used unconventional means because he learned that combat cannot be taught by a book.

He told his men, "In boot camp, you learned out of a book. Out here you gotta remember the book and learn a thousand things that have never been printed...probably never will be. You gotta learn right and you gotta learn fast. And any man that doesn't want to cooperate, I'll make him wish he'd never been born."

Answer: John Agar

John Agar played the fictional PFC Conway, the son of Sgt. Stryker's former commander who is now deceased. Conway despised Stryker because of his resemblance to his father and because of his tough methods of training but learned by the end of the movie that Stryker was right in how he did things. Combat showed Conway the error of his ways when it came to Stryker. After Stryker was killed, Conway took over leading the men the same way Stryker did.

Agar starred in six films with Wayne altogether: "Sands of Iwo Jima" (1949), "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1949), "Fort Apache" (1948), "Big Jake" (1971), "Chisum" (1970), and "The Undefeated" (1969).

Answer: Forrest Tucker

Forrest Tucker played the fictional Marine Al Thomas, a man who got two men killed during the Battle of Tarawa because he stopped for a cup of coffee instead of bringing back ammunition right away. He and Stryker tangled after Stryker found out what happened but Thomas covered for him when an officer showed up because he knew he deserved what he was getting for what he had done.

Tucker went on to have a quite active career in movies, on stage and on TV. He starred in numerous Westerns in the 1950s including, "Rock Island Trail" (1950), "California Passage" (1950), "Rage at Dawn" (1955), and "The Quiet Gun" (1957). He played "Professor" Harold Hill in "The Music Man" on stage for over five years and Sgt. Morgan O'Rourke on "F Troop" for two years.

Answer: Tarawa

The Battle of Tarawa saw the Marines lose as many men in 76 hours as they had lost in six months on Guadalcanal. Although controversial at the time because of the high casualty rate, the battle proved instrumental in helping the Marines learn about amphibious operations against a determined enemy.

In the movie, the men began to respect Stryker's methods as the harsh realities of combat opened their eyes to his wisdom. Only Conway still held a grudge against Stryker for what he thought was Stryker's callous actions towards a wounded Marine who was beyond help.

Answer: Ira Hayes

Not only did Ira Hayes appear in the movie, but so did the other two surviving members of the original six who raised the original flag over Mount Suribachi during the real Battle of Iwo Jima, Rene Gagnon and John Bradley. They all appeared as themselves and re-enacted the famous scene.

Col. David M. Shoup and Lt. Col. Henry P. "Jim" Crowe also appeared in the movie as themselves. Col. Shoup won the Congressional Medal of Honor at Tarawa and went on to become the Commandant of the Marine Corps. Lt. Col. Crowe earned the US Navy Cross at Tarawa.

Answer: Shot by a sniper

After Stryker's squad witnessed the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi they stopped to take a rest. Right then a sniper popped out of a hidden hole and shot Stryker. The men killed him quickly but not before the damage was done. Conway found a letter on Stryker written to Stryker's ten year-old son explaining what a failure he had been as a father. Conway was dumbfounded by the revelation that Stryker wasn't the uncaring tyrant he thought he was.

Answer: Lock and load

The first documented mention of the term 'lock and load' occurred in the movie, where it appeared twice in the more traditional meaning explained first below and once with a more slang connotation. Although there is no documentation as to the actual origin of the phrase, most sources agree it probably comes from the way an M-1 Garand had to be loaded.

The bolt on the Garand had to be locked into the open position before the rounds could be loaded into the gun. The slang connotation most likely derived from this first meaning but instead means to get drunk or loaded with alcohol.

Answer: True

The US Marine Corps made thousands of feet of actual footage available to the production team for inclusion in the film. Some of this made it into the film both in the Tarawa sequences and in the Iwo Jima sequences. In fact, not only was real combat footage used but the actual flag that was raised over Mt. Suribachi was brought in for use in the film.