Iwo Jima is a storied moment in the history of the American military, most especially for the United States Marine Corps. It's touched many an American family, including my own; my late uncle, a Marine, took a Japanese bayonet through the shoulder on Iwo Jima, and almost died of sepsis as a result.
Now, in a story that will send fiery outrage through the Marines and indeed through all of America's service members and veterans, a man from Stafford County, Virginia, has allegedly taken a sledgehammer to the Iwo Jima monument near Marine Corps Base Quantico. His name: Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano.
A Stafford County man is being held without bond after allegedly taking a sledgehammer to the Iwo Jima monument in Quantico.
Around 10:13 p.m. Wednesday, Prince William County police officers responded to the statue near Richmond Highway and Fuller Road in Quantico, just outside Marine Corps Base Quantico.
Officers found a man – later identified as 27-year-old Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano – “actively damaging the statue with a sledgehammer,” according to a police news release. Officers quickly detained Maldonado Soriano.
It's difficult to see what could have driven Maldonado Soriano to such an action, unless he has been paying attention to goings-on in France and was anxious to start smashing American monuments here. But he was angry, or at least motivated enough to knock off the heads of one of the men depicted, according to authorities..
Destruction included removal of one of the soldier’s heads. Damages are estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, police said.
Soriano has been charged with felony destruction of property, trespass with intent to damage property and felony injury to a monument. He is being held without bond.
Maldonado Soriano's immigration status is, as of this writing, not known.
I would (as, I feel certain, would any Marine) take exception with one item here: These were Marines, not soldiers. "Soldiers" describes Army personnel, and the six men who raised the flag on Suribachi, the highest mountain on Iwo Jima, were Marines. And here's the thing: If the authorities are smart, they won't put Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano in with any Marines, because they are liable to be harboring hard feelings. There's a brotherhood (and these days, a sisterhood) among those who have served. This doesn't just apply in our own branches of service, either; we chaff each other all the time, Army making fun of the Air Force, the Air Force making jokes about the Navy, the Navy razzing the Marines, and so on.
But when the malodorous assimilated product of the digestive process hits the oscillating air-movement device, we're all on the same team; we're all Americans, we're all sworn to defend the Constitution, and we're all ready to give our lives, if necessary, to protect our country — although, as General Patton pointed out, the general idea is to make the other guy die for his country.
And an act like this, because of that brotherhood, enrages all of us. We don't know if the goblin who did this originally came here from somewhere else, whether he is here legally or illegally, or whether he was born here. And, honestly, in this context, it doesn't matter. The hate and disrespect he showed towards a monument depicting the ultimate moment on what was one of the greatest American feats of arms tells us all we need to know about Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, and if the local authorities wanted to put him in a cell with a couple of Marines and look the other way for a little while, most of us veterans wouldn't have much problem with that.
Editor’s Note: The American people overwhelmingly support President Trump’s law and order agenda.
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