FRIDAY FOTO (February 21, 2020)

Warrior’s Face.

(Marine Corps photo by Staff Sergeant Royce Dorman)

This distinguished old gentleman is retired Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sergeant Len Maffioli, an Iwo Jima veteran. This photo was taken before the start of the 75th commemoration of the Battle of Iwo Jima in a sunset ceremony at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in California, Feb. 15, 2020.

The sergeant wasn’t just a participant, he was the master of ceremonies. But wait, there’s more. Not only is he a veteran of one of the most horrendous battles of the Pacific in World War Two — nearly 7,000 Marines and sailors were killed, as were some 19,000 Japanese defenders between February 19 and March 26, 1945 — Master Gunnery Sergeant Maffioli is a veteran of three wars.

If you look at the medals of his left breast, you see a Bronze Star medal with a “V” for valor pin. Next to it is the Purple Heart medal for wounds suffered in battle. Down below is a United Nations Korean Service medal. There’s also a Vietnam Service medal and a  on the left, the medal with the long vertical black stripe, that’s for a Prisoner of War (POW).

During his thirty-three years in the U.S. Marine Corps, Master Gunnery Sergeant Len Maffioli saw combat in World War II, the Korean War and the war in Vietnam, according to the website, Together We Served.

He was also one of 18 Marines who participated in the only successful organized escape from a Chinese Communist POW camp during the Korean War. In his book, “Grown Gray in War,” he offers an eyewitness account of his three wars and how war fighting changes after each war. He was a remarkable man. — Gunnery Sergeant John D. Foster.

We’d say the sergeant still is a remarkable man, and he’s earned every one of those wrinkles.

The west side of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington County, Virginia. (photo by FaMartin via wikipedia)