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The Austin Statesman
A Marine Corps hero who death was only a trigger squeeze away during fighting on Tarawa, Saipan, Guam and Iwo Jima in World War II has final succumbed to an illness which he has been battling 11 years. Clarence Emil Machu, 36, whose exploits with the "Forgotten Battalion" won him front page coverage on these newspapers after the historic flag raising on Iwo Jima, died Wednesday from an incurable skin disease and the weakening effects of pneumonia. The young building contractor, a resident of Austin 12 years, succumbed in a local hospital. A Second Division Leatherneck, Sgt. Machu stormed ashore with his buddies at Tarawa where a turn of the tides played havoc with the Marine landing craft. A short time later came Saipan in the Marianas, and when this island was secured his outfit was pulled out to land on Guam. Them came the bloody campaign of Iwo Jima, where well- entrenched Japanese rained mortar and artillery fire down on the Marine attackers. He was fighting on Mount Suribachi and saw the American flag raised on the crest of the mountain. He was a reservist and was called back for the Korean Conflict, and it was then that the Navy doctors diagnosed the skin disease. Services for Machu will be held Friday at 2pm at Weed-Corley Funeral Home with Rev. W. C. Ahlrich officating. Burial will be in Capital Memorial Park. Survivors include his widow, Mrs. Jean Machu, two sons, Bruce Machu and Clarence E. Machu, Jr., a daughter, Rhonda Jean Machu, his parents, Mr. & Mrs. Emil Machu, two sisters, Mrs. Bert Griggs and Mrs. P. Willard Hawkins, all of Austin
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