Floyd Fogg was born in April 1926 in Lacombe, Louisiana. When he was three years old, his family moved to Slidell, Louisiana, where Fogg lived a "wonderful" rural life. He loved sports, and in high school lettered in basketball, baseball and football. There, he met his first wife with whom he had four children. The war was on when he graduated high school, and Fogg was expecting a call from the Marine Corps at anytime, but there was a shortage of coaches in the area, and at 17 years old he became coach of the league championship basketball team at Slidell High. One day after the season was over, Fogg heard from the Marine Corps recruiting office.

In February 1945, Floyd Fogg was among the Marines of the 23rd Marines, 4th Division [Annotator's Note: 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] who hit Iwo Jima. He considers himself one of the luckiest men in that initiative, because on the 19th [Annotator's Note: 19 February 1945] their mission was to take the airfield on Suribachi, an inactive volcano, and he survived. Fogg said the operation was under the control of the Navy, and he feels the volcanic ash, the effect of which had not been adequately considered, was responsible for the heavy loss of life on the black beaches. Nine days into the assault, Fogg was hit in the leg with shrapnel from a hand grenade, some of which the surgeons left in his body to work its own way out. Not wanting to lose his outfit, Fogg protested that he was ready to go back into combat, and rejoined his unit in the field. Then, on 9 March, the unit was on their fifth attempt to take and hold Hill 515 when they came under enemy attack from the hill below. Fogg was asked to lob a 17 pound satchel charge with a rattlesnake fuse 100 feet into the door of the cave where the Japanese were based. He threw the explosive and it hit within one foot of the cave's door. Hill 515 was taken.

Further into the fighting on Iwo Jima, and while going through a sniper-infested thicket, the call came for an "advance to the rear", the Marine term for retreat, and Floyd "Froggy" Fogg's unit [Annotator's Note: 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division] reversed and jumped into their previously abandoned trenches. Each Marine was responsible for one other man, and Fogg's buddy was missing. Someone had seen him go down, and, against orders, Fogg took his M1 rifle [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] and went to find him. Fogg continuously called out, and when he got a groan in response; he found the man with a hole through his knee, and bleeding badly. Fogg applied a tourniquet, slung the Marine over his shoulder, and carried his buddy in a zig-zag pattern over 75 yards back to where the unit was dug in, pursued all the while by sniper fire. Fogg and his burden were met by the corpsman, who took the injured man with Fogg's pleas to save him ringing in their ears. [Annotator's Note: Fogg sobs.] Fogg didn't know what happened to him afterward, and wasn't aware that he survived. But many years later the man appeared at Fogg's back door; the two embraced and "cried like babies." They have remained in touch ever since.

Revisiting the time of his enlistment in the Marine Corps, Floyd Fogg said he signed up before he finished high school. His father worked at the creosote plant and later with the police department to support his wife and seven children. As a young man, Fogg sold peanuts to buy his blue jeans from the Sears-Roebuck catalog, and later worked in a drug store alongside another young man that Fogg admired. In the rest of this clip, Fogg tells the story of how he enlisted because of the influence of that friend, and how, while performing dangerous duty that he volunteered to do, that Marine was hit by an illegal Japanese bullet, called a "dum-dum." That injury put him in the same hospital with Fogg; where they recuperated together for months. They were discharged from the hospital and the service together, but Fogg's friend's injuries plagued him all his life. Many years later, Fogg helped care for him after his wife died.

Floyd Fogg went to Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California for basic training, From there he sailed through rough seas to Maui, Hawaii for further training among the fields of pineapples. He remembers enjoying the cooling effects of the fruit after a hot day of maneuvers. On leaving there, Fogg recalls traveling on a transport that had bunks five high, and stacked close together. He said the odor from the seasick soldiers was so foul he began sleeping on the steel deck. Asked for details on when shrapnel from a hand grenade struck him, he talks about the early part of the invasion of Iwo Jima, and the difficulty of taking the well-fortified island. Fogg praised the work of the Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] in clearing mines ahead of their advance. Reviewing the incident when he threw the satchel charge, Fogg said he had to get in as close as possible to the Japanese cave. After he was injured the second time, Fogg was taken to the hospital ship, USS Solace (AH-5). He was being transported back to Hawaii on a C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] when the plane's left engine caught fire, and it was diverted to Kwajalein [Annotator's Note: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands] for two days of repairs. He reached Hawaii then finally ended up in Santa Margarita Ranch Hospital [Annotator's Note: Naval Hospital Santa Margarita Ranch, Oceanside in Oceanside, California] where he spent six months recuperating.

The second and final time Floyd Fogg was wounded, the Marines were taking Hill 515 for the fifth time. They were digging in for the night, leaving one of the occupants above the foxhole to watch for the night-crawling enemy. Their sergeant was shot dead when he rose from his position of safety to peer out at the battlefield conditions. And while Fogg and his foxhole buddy were changing guard, a mortar blast ripped the right leg off his partner and dislocated both of Fogg's shoulders, burst both his eardrums, and damaged his back. Fogg took time out from his story to commend the heroic efforts of the Marine corpsmen, saying many more Marines would have died without their aid. After Fogg's partner was taken away, and the corpsmen were working on Fogg, someone came along and yanked on his dog tags. Fogg snapped alert, and told the soldier, "I'm not dead yet. Leave my dog tags alone, please." As it turned out, the man was also a Slidell, Louisiana boy, and he persuaded Fogg to take his handgun in case he needed it. Once they were both back in Slidell after the war, the guy rarely missed an opportunity to joke that he wanted his .45 [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M1911 semi-automatic pistol] back. Although he has had surgery to repair them, Fogg can't raise his elbows above the level of his shoulders; nevertheless, he has a batting cage in his backyard, and still teaches young people to play baseball. Fogg said he is fulfilling a promise that if he returned home safe to his family, he would devote the rest of his life to helping young people.

When he was discharged from Company C, 23rd Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Floyd Fogg said he "had it good… but it was terrible." While he was in a hospital for six months, the doctors worked to prepare him for coming home. [Annotator's Note: Fogg is emotional while discussing this issue.] Fogg was so glad to see his mother and his dad, and then his brothers and sisters. He said it is hard to explain. He had written his wife every day he that he was not in combat, and had developed a code so that his mother could know where he was. When he came home, he returned to the Baptist church, and asked his pastor for help in dealing with the guilt of killing; he was reassured that the Bible relieved him in its scripture on self-defense. Fogg said he still had a hard time dealing with it. He didn't talk about it to his family, and has taken refuge in his faith. He also got back into baseball, and accomplished his lifelong dream trying out for professional play.

Floyd Fogg is a deacon of his church, and he is thankful that God was with him on Iwo Jima, and is with him still. His work with young people in baseball is his way of showing his appreciation. He recounts the story of a young man who played second base for Slidell High School [Annotator's Note: Slidell, Louisiana]. He was small but possessing all the tools to be a pro ball player. The child was living with his grandparents, but was willing to work hard and practice regularly. Fogg taught him to bunt, helped him to master the fundamentals of baseball, and arranged for him to have try-outs with a scout. He excelled at both right and left handed batting.