Kenneth E. Stevens was born in July 1924 in Todd County [Annotator's Note: in Long Prairie, Minnesota]. He attended grade school. His parents were farmers. It was a lot of hard work. He had four brothers and one sister. He was on the farm when he heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. It was kind of scary. He thought he would have to go and fight them. His two older brothers did not pass the physicals, so he signed up for the Marine Corps which he thought would be the best. He was not really leaving anything but his family behind. He was not married. Boot camp was tough. The instructors taught them to be tough.

Kenneth E. Stevens and his outfit were the first Marines to get into the Poway Valley [Annotator's Note: in Poway, California]. There were a lot of snakes. The men slept on the ground. They went across the ocean to Hawaii and then to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] where they fought the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] and trained [Annotator's Note: with Company E, 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division]. He had some close calls being shot at a couple of times. He had never heard of Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] until he was in the boat going there. He mostly stood guard duty on the way there [Annotator's Note: for the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan]. They landed in Higgins boats [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP; also known as the Higgins boat]. They had a lot of firepower. The beach was crowded and was loose sand that was like gravel. The landing was difficult and scary. He spent his first night on the beach. The next day they moved against the Japs. They tried to blow up the bunkers that the Japanese were hiding in. They were fighting every day. There were no trees. He used the Browning automatic rifle [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle; also known as the BAR]. It was heavy. The day after they put up the flag [Annotator's Note: United States flag raised on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan, 23 February 1943], he and his outfit took the second airfield [Annotator's Note: also called Airfield Number 2, or Central Field, or Iwo Jima Air Base on Iwo Jima, Japan]. A lot of people were killed. It got pretty quiet when the island was secured. Then they went back to Guam and trained to get ready to go to Japan.

Kenneth E. Stevens heard the war was over when they [Annotator's Note: Company E, 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division] were just a couple weeks from going to Japan [Annotator's Note: Operation Downfall; proposed Allied plan for the invasion of Japan]. It would have been terrible and about the same as Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan]. It was nice to get back to the United States. He got off the ship and onto the dock and was given a carton of milk. He went to work. He was needed at home so he did not stay in the Marines. Stevens' most memorable experience of World War 2 was just all the fighting. It did not change his life much. He had joined the Marines because somebody had to go. He is kind of proud of having served. He thinks it is important to teach World War 2 to future generations, so they do not have to do it again. Stevens did not use the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] much. Stevens thinks he probably shot 100 Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese]. That was his job. He thinks the Japanese were stupid but good fighters.

Kenneth E. Stevens was on watch [Annotator's Note: with Company E, 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan] when the flag was raised [Annotator's Note: United States flag raised on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan, 23 February 1943]. He thought it was good deal and it made him feel they were winning. They were not. They had just started to fight. He does feel like they won at the end but does not know if it was worth it. They had the island though. He was one of the first guys to reach the north end of the island. They reached the north beach and he took off his shoes and put his feet in the ocean. There were about 15 of them in his group. Somebody asked how they would know they were there. He took one of his canteens off, dumped the water out, and filled it with sea water. He wrote on it, "for inspection and not consumption" and sent it back to Division Headquarters. That story was written up in a Marine magazine. There were still a lot of Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] on the island who were alive. A guy named Sullivan [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to identify] was sleeping and Stevens was on watch. Stevens looked over his soldier and looked right into a bayonet. Stevens had his BAR [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle; also known as the BAR] and just hit the trigger once. Sullivan woke up and Stevens told him to throw a grenade. He threw it too far. The next morning, they were eating breakfast and saw the Japanese soldier lying face down on the bank. Stevens lifted his helmet and saw he had three holes over his left eye. There were all kinds of things that happened like that. He had had that bayonet on his rifle and it was about a foot from Stevens' face. He did not know he killed him until the next morning. The soldier had a carbine [Annotator's Note: Japanese Arisaka rifle]. That will keep you awake.

One time, Kenneth E. Stevens [Annotator's Note: with Company E, 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division] had his stock shot off of the rifle he had in his hand [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan]. One day they were pinned down on a hillside and were out of water. They pulled a trailer behind a jeep with a water tank behind them. Stevens volunteered with another guy to go get water in two five-gallon cans. On the way back, the stock was shot off his rifle. He got back with the water. He picked up a different stock and put it on his rifle. There were stocks laying all over. There were bodies lying all over too. They did not try to bury the Americans. The burial detail came and picked up the bodies and buried them. On this same hill, he shot a guy. That same day, he was showing a squad leader some Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese]. They shot him [Annotator's Note: the squad leader] right through the arms and he got to go home. There were a lot of close calls. He was spent 39 days there. He was hoping to go home.

Kenneth E. Stevens [Annotator's Note: with Company E, 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division] did not take any souvenirs other than what he could stick in his pocket [Annotator's Note: during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan]. He got a wristwatch and some Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for the Japanese] insignia as well as some photographs. He was not interested in souvenirs. Some of his buddies grabbed rifles and some teeth. Stevens had some gold he had taken out of their teeth [Annotator's Note: Japanese soldier's teeth]. He was just glad to get out of there. He still has dreams of being on Iwo Jima but then he forgets it. He would not want to do it again. He is glad he survived Iwo Jima. A lot of the guys he knew did not. You make one mistake, and you are done. [Annotator's Note: Stevens asks the interviewer if they saw a book that he wrote a story in.] The book [Annotator's Note: "By Dammit, We're Marines! Veterans' Stories of the Heroism, Horror, and Humor in World War II on the Pacific Front," by Gail Chatfield, published in 2008] was published in California. He wrote about Iwo Jima. His dreams are memories and they come and go. He survives at the end of the dreams. Some of his buddies survived Iwo too. He kept in touch with a few. They could not figure how he had so many close calls. He thinks it was because he tended to business. He knows he was lucky. He was also smart and remembered his training.

Kenneth E. Stevens [Annotator's Note: with Company E, 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division] watched them put up the flag [Annotator's Note: United States flag raised on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan, 23 February 1943 during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan] and he has a painting of that. He thought they were winning, but that day would be one of his worst days. There were four guys with him and three of them were killed. He hid amongst the rocks and was quick and careful. When they got killed, they were doing something wrong and not ducking the machine guns. That afternoon after the flag was raised, he ran into a Japanese machine gun in a kind of a building. Stevens hid in the rocks and knocked out the machine gun. They kept sending Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] out to get him. He shot Japs all afternoon. Later that night, the 5th Division [Annotator's Note: 5th Marine Division] moved in, and those guys told him he had killed 50 some Japs. That was his second day on the island. He had 39 days to go. It was a rough day. He went without anything to eat all day after having had breakfast that morning. He had a couple of D bars [Annotator's Note: Army Field Ration D; chocolate bar intended as snack food] in his pocket and ate those until the next day. It was kind of hairy. At times, he took some rations off the Japanese. They had some canned goods. Some was not fit to eat, and some was pretty good. He slept whenever he could. They slept on the ground. They only had a blanket. A lot of nights he never got to sleep. He just watched.

Just about every day there was something amazing for Kenneth E. Stevens [Annotator's Note: with Company E, 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division during the Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February to 26 March 1945, Iwo Jima, Japan]. After they were done fighting, they were dispersed back to the second airfield [Annotator's Note: also called Airfield Number 2, or Central Field, or Iwo Jima Air Base on Iwo Jima, Japan] where the Marines had set up water so they could take showers. It was saltwater. They lined up and waited and Stevens had his BAR [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle; also known as the BAR]. He heard what sounded like a Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese]. A guy was coming through the brush with a Jap helmet, overcoat, and rifle. He was jabbering like a Jap and Stevens cranked his BAR. He heard the bolt go back and threw the helmet off saying he was an American. A lieutenant grabbed that young kid and told him he did not know how close he had come to being dead. Stevens would have shot him. That was kind of close. That was about his last day on the island. They got showers and something to eat. He was glad to get off of there. He went back to Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] and it was almost like getting home.