16-244 Garand Picture of the Day Iwo Jima

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...Iwo_Jima-1.jpg

Marine sleeping in foxhole on Iwo Jima

I thought Marines slept with their rifles.

Speaking as a guy that did that enough...you can't always drag your rifle down in there with you. It presents more of a hazard to come out with it and at least one other guy in there. There's lots of other guys doing sentry around them too I'll wager. Also, it may not belong to either of the visible troops in there...and I think there's more than two.

Perhaps but my rifle was always where I could lay a hand on it immediately.

I had a hard time sleeping way down in a grave. Between that and arty it would be a hard decision.