More than 60 years have passed, but Donn Lewin still lies awake at his home in Kuli'ou'ou and thinks about the nearly 10 bloody days he spent killing and staying alive through the battle of Iwo Jima.

"We landed at 8 o'clock in the morning with roughly 250 men in my company," said Lewin, 80, who at the time was an 18-year-old Marine corporal. "By noon, we had 142 left. It was insanity."

Last night, at a special screening of Clint Eastwood's World War II movie about Iwo Jima, "Flags of Our Fathers," Lewin was greeted with handshakes and reverence from modern-day Marines who came to see both the movie and the last of Hawai'i's once four Iwo Jima survivors.

"I'm the only one left," Lewin said. "The others have all died."

Just before the premiere, at the Dole Cannery 18 Theatres, Marines stood around Lewin listening to his memories of the battle.

"Don't 'Sir' me," Lewin good-naturedly barked at Lance Cpl. Marc Cilley, 20, as Cilley pumped his hand. "That was my father."

Later, as he prepared to enter the screening, Marine Sgt. Christopher Olinger looked back at Lewin and said, "I've met Donn a couple of times (at Marine Corps Base Hawai'i) and had a couple of opportunities to talk to him. There's no real words to describe it. Anybody who came out of that kind of fighting alive is a hero."

Lewin was one of only two Marines from his squad of 12 who survived their first four hours in what would turn out to be one of the pivotal battles of the war in the Pacific.

After retiring as a sergeant, Lewin went on to a 33-year-career in the civilian world as a professional wrestler nicknamed, "The Executioner."

The memories of Iwo Jima are never very far.

Before that battle, he was shot through the leg during the fight for Bougainville. Then on Iwo Jima, a Japanese sharpshooter struck the gas chamber of Lewin's Browning Automatic Rifle, causing it to explode and injure his legs.

Back on a Navy hospital ship, ready to be shipped out, Lewin said he pointed his .45-caliber handgun at the head of a Navy captain until he was sent back to Iwo Jima, where he promptly had a Japanese hand grenade explode between his legs.

Of his three Purple Hearts, Lewin said, "All three of those and a buck will get me a cup of coffee at Zippy's."

And there was the moment when Lewin, making his way up Mount Suribachi, saw the Marines raising the U.S. flag. A photo of that scene, which would soon become famous, appears on Eastwood's movie poster.

Lewin doesn't worry that "Flags of Our Fathers" will trigger painful memories for him the way "Saving Private Ryan" caused some World War II veterans to relive scenes from the D-Day invasion.

Instead, he expects that "Flags of Our Fathers" will cause a "stampede" of young men and women to enlist in America's modern-day wars.

"I would give anything in the world to be 60 years younger and going with them," Lewin said. "Once you're a Marine, you're always a Marine. There's no 'ex' or 'former.' "

Today, Lewin can't even remember everything he did yesterday. But he swears he can recall every second, sound and smell from his time on Iwo Jima.

They're not particularly painful memories, Lewin said. But they are vivid.

"I lie awake at night sometimes dreaming about Iwo Jima," he said. "I can tell you everything that happened there, from the day I touched that black sand until the day I left.

"They don't bother me. But they don't leave my head."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.