Clifford Lemke, Dennis Blocker’s grandfather
Pacific War Historian, Dennis Blocker, will give a talk at the Orange City Public Library on July 28 at 6:30 pm. Blocker will share about his research for The Heart of Hell: The Untold Story of Courage and Sacrifice in the Shadow of Iwo Jima. Blocker’s research was initiated after the suicide of his grandfather, and inspired by Blocker’s mother. The research that started with his grandfather’s experiences in World War II grew to include the experiences of  men who served with his grandfather. Blocker will share the story of Fred Cooper, an Orange City resident during WWII, his wife, Mary, and their daughter, Rebecca. A memorial in honor of Fred Cooper can be found at the West Lawn Cemetery in Orange City.
Find more information about the book and the history behind it on the book’s website, http://www.lci449.com/.
Read a blurb about the book, from the N’West Iowa Review.
Copies of The Heart of Hell will be available to check out at the Orange City Public Library in the weeks before this discussion.
Dennis Blocker Bio:
Dennis Blocker was born into an Air Force family and as such traveled the globe. He had the privilege of attending DOD schools all over the United States and Iceland. A tremendous love of country and an appreciation of the military were instilled in him early on.
Dennis has worked in San Antonio Emergency Rooms for the past 17 years as a medic. 12 of these years were in a Level 1 Trauma Center. In his spare time Dennis researched his grandfather’s WWII service to fulfill a request by his mother. What Dennis discovered was an untold story of WWII in the Pacific.
Over the past 15 years Dennis has interviewed over 300 WWII veterans who were associated with his grandfather’s gunboat group. The research also uncovered over 400 letters written by men who were killed in action at Iwo Jima. This research has led to the publication of the book The Heart of Hell written by Mitch Weiss who was approached by Dennis regarding the amazing story.
Dennis has served as the Pacific War Historian for the National Landing Craft Infantry Association for the past 10 years. In that capacity he began a strong campaign to attain the stories, photographs and memorabilia from LCI veterans. The effort was a tremendous success and saw the LCI Archive Log Book grow from 15 pages to well over 100. Dennis then oversaw the donation of that organizations Archive to the National Museum of the Pacific War. Dennis has also been responsible for the indexing and bequeathing of WWII veteran and author William McGee’s Research Files to the museum.
Dennis has enjoyed a close relationship with the National Museum of the Pacific War where he has been active in preserving WWII history and encouraging veterans and families to donate their WWII stories and memorabilia to the museum.
Through his research Dennis has been able to provide documentation to families allowing them to procure headstones for their loved ones, disability for those veterans wounded at Iwo Jima and closure to families grieving over 70 years.
Recently Dennis was invited to speak at Auburn University, Alabama and the Alabama State Archives. These venues were well attended and feedback has been very positive. Attendees were amazed to learn about the pre-invasion mission at Iwo Jima as well as the years of research that went into the telling of this story.
