"Black Dragon is the unique account of a single Marine Rifle company-2-F-23, or "Fox" Company-and its drive through the central Pacific in World War II. Author Steven D. McCloud, through painstaking research in battlefield reports and extensive interviews with surviving members of Fox Company, has reanimated the grueling, day-by-day slog through the Pacific theater through the eyes of the US Marines who endured it. This is the story of American teenagers who left home, many for the first time, trained together, and formed a team that held strong until, at last, those who survived tried to leave it all behind as they dispersed, returned home, and sought to build their lives. Decades later they reformed through correspondence and reunions. Fox Company also welcomed McCloud into their midst and began telling their stories. McCloud took notes, chased down company reports and other documents to fill in the gaps, and reconstructed their journey. As one member of Fox Company recalled after returning to Iwo Jima half a century later, "I think the pilgrimage to Iwo has helped me conquer my black dragons-those bloody and stinking nightmares that made nightly uninvited visits for fifty-six years. My dreams were in color, predominantly bloody red. Those remaining are in black and white and shades of gray, not so violent and stinking. These I can live with.""-- Provided by publisher.

Series numbering from cataloging-in-publication data.

Foreword / by Lt. Gen. Lawrence F. Snowden -- Introduction -- Old Corps -- China Marine -- Readying for Battle -- Birth of 2-F-23 -- New River -- Camp Pendleton -- War in the Central Pacific -- First Fight, Roi-Namur -- To the Marshalls -- Roi-Namur, First Fight -- On to Maui -- Saipan -- The Long Leap in the Pacific -- To the Marianas -- Amphibious Blitzkrieg -- Expansion of the Beachhead -- The Marines' Death Valley -- Pursuit to the North -- Fighting on Eastern Saipan -- Cutting Off the Japanese -- Banzai! -- Getting It Over With -- Tinian -- A Brief Rest -- Tinian Landing -- First Night -- Mop-Up -- Back to Maui -- Iwo Jima -- Readying for "Island X" -- Iwo Jima, the Landing -- Corps Reserve, 20-27 February -- Hill 382 -- Reserve Again, 1-5 March -- The Big Push -- Back Up, 6 March -- Dillon Returns, 7 March -- The Corridor, 8 March -- The Counterattack -- An Eerie Quiet -- Leaving the -- Victory and Home -- Next, Japan -- Last Days and Victory -- Farewell, Maui Marines -- Life and Reunion -- Reunion Era -- Acknowledgments -- Appendixes -- Postwar Lives -- 2-F-23 Killed.