It was a battle that killed more than 6,000 Americans and injured many more.  Long after America's battle for Iwo Jima, the images of the fight still scar the minds of two World War II veterans on the third South Dakota Honor Flight.

There's a certain bond that comes with a shared experience.

"And I looked at him and he stared at me. I had seen him before," Sherman McCarlson said.

At the Marine memorial in Washington, D.C., two neighbors from northeast South Dakota recalled a battle full of shared experiences. But they didn’t know it at the time.

"I knew that Sherman was in the service but I certainly didn't know that he was on Iwo Jima," Richard Glad said.

McCarlson and Glad grew up together and found out years after the war where the other had served.

"We were on the same place at the same time. But everyone looks dirty and bearded and everything so I didn't even realize it," McCarlson said.

Looking back, McCarlson can even recall a time he thinks he saw Glad.

But beyond that, there's little about Iwo Jima the two men can smile about.

"It's ah, it's hard to tell you what I seen," McCarlson said.

McCarlson was a young marine in February of 1945 when the U.S. fought for control of the Island. He was a replacement and wasn't supposed to be on Iwo Jima. But troops needed help carrying off the wounded.

"First thing I saw was a Marine falling on the sand with his innards hanging out and dragging,” McCarlson said. “That's the way it was."

Those were the images all around him. Blood stained the boats he used to carry out the wounded but that first day he didn't join the combat.

"On the evening of the second day, I had to go in because all of the machine gunners were gone," McCarlson said.

As he joined the battle, the fighting was also surrounding a young Navy medic from Roslyn. Richard Glad tended more wounds than he ever cared to see.

"Amputations and wounds and whatever,” Glad said. “That's the way it was."

And those are the images the two neighbors see along with the one standing tall in bronze at the nation's capitol.

McCarlson spent 26 days on the island. Glad was there until September, more than six months. Their memories still last today.

"You wouldn't believe it, you wouldn't believe it. See them burning, see fires,” McCarlson said. “It was nasty."

The images still scar.

"You don't get over them; you store them away," Glad said.

Both men also remember the famed flag raising on Mt. Suribachi.

"I look back and everybody's screaming, hollering when that, lifted their hearts when that flag was up there so that helped," McCarlson said.

But with so many dead in one battle, there’s little the veterans can smile about when thinking back.

"You are insane after you seen what you seen,” McCarlson said. “You are insane."

Those images stand just as strong with two neighbors from northeast South Dakota as the bronze image right before their faces as they stood before the Marine memorial.

McCarlson credits the Lord for bringing him home. He said one time he had a bullet hit his helmet.