ALFRED — James Hammond was never wounded, but he can tell you what a bullet sounds like when it whizzes by your head, because it happened to him.

He was on Iwo Jima in 1945. He was in the Marines and the fighting was tough. The Americans were fighting to take control of two airfields and the Japanese had dug in.

“The bullets don’t sing, they snap,” he said. “You find the ground awful quick.”

It was a close call. There were a lot of close calls for Hammond and others like him, who took up the call to fight.

Hammond arrived on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945, just five days after the first wave of U.S. troops made their way to the heavily fortified island in the Pacific.

He saw the American flag flying on Mount Suribachi just minutes after it had been raised by five Marines and a U.S. Navy corpsman. A photographer captured that image in a photo that remains an enduring symbol of World War II.

While the flag was raised in February, the fighting went on for months. Hammond, who was there in the thick of it, said there were “a couple of harrowing nights.”

Hammond, now 85, of Waterboro, is among many World War II veterans who are members of the Brown-Emmons Post 137 American Legion. Located in Alfred, the Legion Post is made up of veterans who call Alfred and Waterboro home.

On Monday, those World War II veterans attached to the Brown-Emmons Post, along with some others, were recognized by U.S. Senator Susan Collins, who delivered on a pledge she had made several months before.

Collins had promised to stop by to honor the World War II veterans ”“ and she did.

“We are here today to pay tribute to those modest American heroes who six decades ago saved the world,” said Collins. “All that stood between civilization and the abyss of tyranny was your courage, your faith, and your devotion to duty.”

The post has about 80 members, estimated Post Commander John Bshara. Of those, about 18 are World War II vets.

Among them are George Roberts and Clifford Randall, who, following the ceremony, rattled off their military identification numbers like they had just used them yesterday.

Roberts was in the Army, Randall in the Navy.

“The pay was $50 a month,” said Roberts, with a grin. He ended up in Japan after serving in the Philippines.

Randall was at a submarine tender at sea when he agreed to join Operation Crossroads, on Bikini Atoll, where testing for the Atomic bomb took place. The incentive, he said, was the chance for an early discharge.

Member Gerald Burggren was a U.S. Navy corpsman, stationed in Washington D.C. A medic, he worked in a temporary hospital set up between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.

“We were taking care of the guys coming home,” he said.

Collins, whose father Donald is a World War II veteran, noted that more than 16 million men and women served in the armed forces in World War II and of those, more than 400,000 died.

She presented a U.S. flag to the post that had flown over the Capitol.

Recognized with certificates were World War II veterans Alton Abbott, Gerald Burggren, Phillip Gardner, James Hammond, Fred Pierce, Florien St. Arnault, Charles Thornton, Kenneth Booker, Margaret Ford, George Gendron, Roy Norton, Clifford Randall, Sumner Thompson, Mal Wescott, Robert Beaudry, H.R. Bicknell, Ray David, Joseph Wagner, Robert Gobeil, Charles LePage and Ted Baltras.

“The modest heroes we honor today inherited a legacy of standing for freedom from generations of American patriots,” said Collins. “They burnished that legacy and handed it on to the generations that have defended our freedom since.”

— Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.