This Military Service Page was created/owned by
CWO2 Philip E. Montroy
to remember
Marine BGen Carl Fleps.
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Contact Info
Home Town Youngstown
Last Address McClean, VA
Date of Passing Feb 28, 2007
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Upon his retirement from the USMC in 1956, Gen. Fleps was promoted to the rank of BGen. The promotion was awarded in recognition of his meritorious wartime service.
Following his retirement, BGen Fleps launched a successful business career. He rose to the position of Vice President with the Greyhound Corporation, later the Dial Corporation. During the 1960 presidential campaign, he led the "Maryland Volunteers for Nixon-Lodge" organization. After leaving the Dial Corporation in 1979, he then held a position with the American Enterprise Institute, in Washington, D.C. for one-year.
Other Comments:
BGen Fleps died of complications from Parkinson's Disease on February 28, 2007. He was buried with full-military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
Ryukyus Campaign (1945)/Battle for Okinawa
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Description The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg. was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources, mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000–150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting on Okinawa.