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As the Latrobe man's ship approached the shore of Iwo Jima on Feb. 19, 1945, he tried to get out through the collapsing latch gate. It refused to budge, so the 20-year-old Navy Seabee jumped out of the ship and fell into the ocean at Yellow Beach One.

"I lost my rifle ... some Marine pulled me out," recalled Washabaugh, now 81, his mind clearly playing back the scene.

On the beach, Washabaugh sought out a foxhole to shield himself from the artillery rounds.

"I was next to this young Marine. ... We were attached to his unit. ... He had been on two invasions before this one. He said, 'There are too many in the hole. We're bunched up like grapes. The Japs are going to hit this hole. I'm getting out of here.' I said, 'I'm with you.' He told me to drop my pack, and we took off," Washabaugh said.

After 60 years, the young Seabee from Latrobe and the Wisconsin Marine who first met on the shores of Iwo Jima again made contact. They were able to meet again through a chance meeting with another retired serviceman at a flea market.

On that day in 1945, the two young men spent the day together, digging new holes, then moving, digging new holes, then moving.

"We were in one hole and I said I didn't feel too good about it, so we moved to another. Right after we found another, that old hole took a direct hit."

The young servicemen exchanged some idle talk. The Marine's name was Lipscy -- an 18-year-old from the Midwest. "I didn't know if that was his real name or his nickname," Washabaugh said.

"I told him I was with the 133rd Battalion of Navy Seabees. He was with the 4th Marine Division," he said.

Eventually, the pair saw an officer crawling along the beach toward them. He ordered Washabaugh and the Marine back to their respective units.

"He sent him down to the beach and me up the beach," he said.

When he finally caught up with his unit two days later, Washabaugh could not forget about the tough man-child Marine he'd spent the day with.

"I just wondered if he ever made it. I don't know how I didn't get killed and I was hoping he didn't," he said.

Approximately one-third of all Marines killed in battle during World War II died at Iwo Jima. The battle to capture the island has the highest number of casualties in the history of the corps. About 7,000 Americans lost their lives.

The U.S. military had captured much of the Pacific territories taken by the Japanese by that time. Iwo Jima, a small volcanic island 660 miles south of Tokyo, was a strategic steppingstone because of its location midway between the Japanese homeland and the American bomber bases in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Five days after they'd met, both young men saw the American flag raised atop Mt. Suribachi from different sides of the two-mile wide island.

Thoughts of the young Marine never faded from Washabaugh's mind over the years. At the 50th reunion in Atlanta in 1995, Washabaugh said he searched for his lost comrade.

"That's when I really decided I wanted to find out what happened to him. I didn't find him that day," he said.

But fate would eventually step in to reunite the men. Last summer, Washabaugh met a retired Marine 1st sergeant at a Latrobe flea market who would be instrumental in helping to reconnect the two servicemen.

Ronald Maxson, of Hempfield Township, said he saw Washabaugh wearing an Iwo Jima cap and was compelled to talk to him.

"I went up to him and said, 'Semper Fi,' and he said, 'I'm not a Marine.' I asked why he was wearing an Iwo Jima hat. He told me he had been with the Seabees and I said, 'That's the same thing.'"

Maxson and Washabaugh bonded quickly and became friends. A few months ago, Washabaugh mentioned in passing he often wondered what happened to his foxhole mate.

"I was in active duty for 21 years from 1958 to 1979 and in the Reserves for nine years. Marines have a bond, and I understood why he wanted to find him. I told him to give me his name," he said.

Maxson, a collector of World War II memorabilia, had some Marine division books that listed all who had served. "If he had been killed, he would have been in the back of the book. He wasn't in the back, so we knew he had survived."

While perusing Leatherneck, a Marine magazine, Maxson found a listing for reunions and division listings. In the May edition, there was a name, address and telephone number for Donald Lipscy, of Neillsville, Wis.

""I found him ... after 60 years and five months ..." Washabaugh said. "I couldn't believe I found him. We lived and walked out of there."

Lipscy, 79, was amazed and thrilled to hear from Washabaugh after so many years.

"It was such a long time ago," said the soft-spoken Lipscy, in a telephone interview. "There must be something about me," he mused.

Lipscy admitted he was sketchy at first about Washabaugh. After they made initial contact, it came back to him.

"I think I made a bigger impression on him because I had been there and done that ... and he hadn't. It was his first invasion and my third. I just took him up under my wing, even though I was 18 and he was 20."

He recalled the day he and Washabaugh met. "I was a machine gunner when I met Vern. I was a demolition man ... I used to blow things up. We came in the second wave. We were early birds. Oh, God, the shells were going off. Everywhere you looked there was a dead man lying. There were boats coming in. It was a bloody mess," he said.

Lipscy was a member of the 4th Marine Division, Company D, Second Battalion, 20th Engineering Unit based in Maui, Hawaii. He joined the Marines at 17.

"I was in my first major battle at 17, my second when I was 18 and my third when I was 18. That's when I met Vern. Oh, God, I wasn't a boy at 17. I was a man," he said.

Washabaugh and Lipscy continue to communicate by telephone and via the mail. It's unlikely the two will be able to meet in person because both are suffering from several health problems. Lipscy continues to work for a masonry business. Washabaugh remains committed to sharing his World War II experiences and has spoken to a local Young Marines group, which Maxson oversees.

As the men continue to rediscover the bond that brought them together, they say they are amazed at the similarities they've had their lives, including long marriages, children, grandchildren and even great-granchildren.

"We both married nurses. Two of my sons work in masonry, and Donald owns a construction masonry business," Washabaugh said. "We've both had a good life."

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