Richard E. Overton - Corpsman, USN

Richard E. Overton - 1944	George E. Wahlen & Richard E. Overton - 2001

Richard E. Overton was assigned to "D" (Dog) Company, 2^nd Battalion, 26^th Marines.  Although he did not serve in the same company as George, he did train with George and many of the corpsman mentioned in “The Quiet Hero.”

 Since leaving Iwo Jima in 1945. Richard E. Overton earned a bachelor's degree from San Jose State University in police administration. He went on to work for the Santa Cruz California Police Department, where he spent 27 years working in municipal law enforcement.

Additionally, he taught technical writing Cabrillo Community College. He retired from the police force with the rank of Captain.

 He currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, to be closer to his daughter who works for the Salt Lake County library system. 

 Richard has written about his Iwo Jima experience, and his memoirs have been published into the title "God Isn't Here: A Young American's Entry Into World War II and His Participation in the Battle for Iwo Jima." 

 In writing this book, he relied upon written material he had gathered during those war years, such as military pamphlets, directives, newsletters, memoranda, and photographs.  In addition, while he was serving in Japan, in an attempt to better understand what he had endured, he made hand written notes, which he still has today. Those notes were used to create this impressive title. For more information, go here.

 This book was instrumental in giving the author the critical background necessary to understand the Iwo Jima battlefield. Few books provide such a rich and detailed description of what a corpsman endured.

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