The Marines called him “doc.”
Renee Tabet explained her stepfather, Escolastico “Cole” Griego, a young Navy corpsman drafted at 19, was tasked with making life-and-death decisions on Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest battles of World War II.
“He would go from one soldier to the other soldier, doing the best he could,” she said.
In the weeks of fighting that killed 7,000 Marines, Griego decided who could be stitched up, who needed to be sent out for additional care and who wasn’t going to make it, she said.
He worked through flying bullets on the black, gritty volcanic island in 1945.
“He ate and slept in foxholes,” Tabet said.
Tabet shared Griego’s story during after an interment service at Pikes Peak National Cemetery on Tuesday. He died on June 27 at 99.
She noted that Griego didn’t share much about his service until he visited Washington, D.C., in 2017.
Escolastico “Cole” Griego was a 19-year-old Navy corpsman when he arrived at Iwo Jima in February 1945, unaware that he was about to take part in one of the bloodiest battles in the Marines’ history.
During the three-day trip through the Honor Flight of Southern Colorado, the corpsman was honored for his service — and he started to share with Tabet and others.
In the years since, Griego sat down with The Gazette to share his story and appeared at several public events in town.
It was important to Tabet for the story to be shared again at his passing so people…
