World War ll Veteran gets recognized 75 years after Iwo Jima

Only on NBC5, a local World War II Veteran is being honored for his achievements in the Marine Corps.

Delbert Littrell is a World War II Veteran. He’ll be 96 years-old this month.

Littrell’s family says the Marine Corps cares a lot about its history and honoring the soldiers before them. When retired Marine, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Turley saw Littrell’s military history, he wondered why Littrell never got those stripes.

“There’s guys still getting Purple Hearts and things from World War II because they got lost in the paperwork,” says Littrell.

Last weekend he and his family drove down to Camp Pendleton in Southern California where he and other Iwo Jima survivors were honored.

“I thought I would get to see a lot more people, but there was only six of us that was actually on the island. I would have liked to see more of the guys there. There was no one there from my outfit,” says Littrell.

Now he is waiting for the Navy to sign his petition for promotion, where he will finally be a corporal all these decades later.

He says some guys were stripe happy, but they didn’t mean anything to him. He still doesn’t. All he is proud of serving his country as a Marine.

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