This collection relates to Ernest "Boots" Thomas, a Platoon Sergeant for Company E of the Second Battalion, 28th Marines of the Fifth Marines Division. He led the small group of men that raised the first flag on Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima, during Operation Iwo Jima. The collection includes the letters from the collections that Boots sent home to family during his service, from before his enlistment in 1942 until the Iwo Jima Operation, where he was killed in action.
