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thedrifter
02-26-04, 06:38 AM
The Second,
More Famous Flag-Raising
On Iwo Jima



Shortly after the first flag-raising on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Lieutenant Colonel Chandler W. Johnson, the Battalion commander, told Second Lieutenant Albert T. Tuttle, Assistant Operations Officer, 2d Battalion, 28th Marines, to go down to one of the ships on the beach and get a large battle flag - "large enough that the men at the other end of the island can see it. It will lift their spirits also." Lieutenant Tuttle went on board LST 779, beached near the base of the volcano and obtained a larger set of colors. Ironically, the flag from LST 779 which would soon fly over the first captured Japanese territory had been salvaged from Pearl Harbor, probably from some decommissioned destroyer or destroyer escort.

http://images5.fotki.com/v57/photos/1/133612/695558/originalpicture-vi.jpg

This is the original photograph by Joe Rosenthal. It was later cropped to become the photo we all know.


When Tuttle returned to the command post with the larger flag. Lieutenant Colonel Johnson directed him to give the flag to Private First Class Rene A. Gagnon, the Colonel's runner from Company E. Gagnon was headed up the hill with replacement batteries that Lieutenant Schrier had requested for his radio. As Gagnon was carrying this second and larger (96 by 56 inches) flag up the slopes of Suribachi, Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal was just beginning his hard climb up the mountain. Sergeant Michael Strank, Corporal Harlon H. Block, Private First Class Franklin R. Sousley and Private First Class Ira H. Hayes also accompanied this set of colors up Suribachi's slopes with Gagnon.

When the men arrived at the top, Lieutenant Schrier decided that the new flag should be raised as the original one was lowered. Sergeant Strank, Corporal Block, Private First Class Hayes and Private First Class Sousley fastened the larger colors to a second pipe and then tried to set the makeshift staff in the rugged ground. Since the four men appeared to be having difficulty in getting the pipe firmly planted, two onlookers, Private First Class Gagnon and Pharmacist's Mate Second Class John H. Bradley came to their aid.

http://images5.fotki.com/v59/photos/1/133612/695558/EasyCompany-vi.jpg

Easy Company take the flags up Mt. Suribachi.
Easy Company had been fighting 4 days. They had 40% casualties to date


All six were struggling to raise the flag when Rosenthal snapped a picture of the scene. According to Rosenthal, luck played an important part in the taking of his famous photograph. The Associated Press photographer arrived at the summit just as Lieutenant Schrier was preparing to take down the first flag. At first, Rosenthal hoped to photograph the lowering of the first flag together with the raising of the larger flag. When he discovered that he would not have time to line up both pictures, he decided to concentrate on the second flag raising. He backed off about 35 feet, only to discover that because of the sloping ground, he could not see what was happening. He piled up some loose stones, mounted them and focused on the band of Marines.

Just as Rosenthal was training his camera on the men, Lieutenant Schrier walked into his line of vision. Rosenthal later recalled that just as Schrier moved away, Sergeant Bill Genaust, the Marine motion picture photographer, "came across in front of me and over to my right...He said 'I'm not in your way, am I, Joe?' And I said, 'Oh, no." I turned from him and out of the corner of my eye I said, 'Hey Bill, there it goes!' By being polite to each other we damn near missed the shot. I swung my camera around and held it until I could guess that this was the peak of the action and shot."

Rosenthal took 18 photographs on Iwo Jima that eventful day. Among them was a shot posed by men of the 28th Marines around the flag. When queried a few days later by his wire service picture editor as to whether "the flag raising picture" was posed, Rosenthal, unaware of which picture had had the sensational reception in the United States, thought the editor meant the one which actually had been posed. Out of Rosenthal's affirmative reply to the editor grew the misconception that the flag raising picture was posed.

The testimony of Rosenthal himself and of eyewitnesses who survived the battle, however, attest that the flag raising photograph was in no way rigged. As Rosenthal put it, "Had I posed that shot, I would, of course, had ruined it. I'd have picked fewer men...I would also have made them turn their heads so that they could be identified for AP members throughout the country and nothing like the existing picture would have resulted."

http://images5.fotki.com/v58/photos/1/133612/695558/Group-vi.jpg

Four of the Flag Raisers (Bradley, Hayes, Sousley & Strank) appear with their jubilant buddies. Strank, Sousley and many of these boys would soon be dead.


As it was, "the photo" became perhaps the most famous single photograph ever taken. It won:


Joe Rosenthal a Pulitzer Prize;
President Franklin D. Roosevelt the badly-needed support of the American people to finish off Japan;
the Treasury coffers 220 million dollars in war bond sales when it was used as the symbol of the Seventh War Loan drive;
unwanted fame for PFC Ira Hayes and PM2 John Bradley;
welcomed fame for PFC Rene Gagnon;
the U. S. Marine Corps a symbol that would memorialize its grit and tenacity forever.



It appeared on literally millions of posters...
and on a U.S. postage stamp.

And it was forever immortalized in the largest bronze statue in the world - the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on 10 November 1954, the 179th anniversary of the Marine Corps.

The popularity of Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the Iwo Jima flag raising caused Brigadier General Robert L. Denig, Director of the Marine Corps Division of Public Information, to try to learn the identity of the six flag raisers. Nor was General Denig the only person interested in learning the names of these men. President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that the six Marines be located and returned to the United States. The President felt that the safe return of the flag raisers would prove a boon to national morale.

First of the flag raisers to return was Private First Class Rene A. Gagnon. Using an enlargement of the Rosenthal photo, he identified Sergeant Michael Strank, Private First Class Franklin R. Sousley, both of whom had been killed in action, and Pharmacist's Mate Second Class John H, Bradley. He also numbered among the flag raisers Sergeant Henry O. Hansen, who was subsequently killed during the Iwo operation. A year passed before Gagnon realized that the Marine he had believed to be Hansen actually was another victim of the fight on Iwo Jima - Corporal Harlon Block. Ironically, Hansen had taken part in the earlier, less celebrated flag raising on Iwo Jima and was killed by a sniper a few days later while being treated for wounds by Pharmacist's Mate Bradley.

Gagnon at first refused to give the name of the sixth flag raiser. He insisted that he had promised to keep the man's name a secret. Finally, Gagnon revealed that the man was Private First Class Ira H. Hayes.


Bradley, who had been wounded on 12 March 1945, was ordered back to the United States and participated with Hayes and Gagnon in a war bond drive.

Because of the haste with which their bond-selling tour was organized, none of the surviving flag raisers seemed to have had time to examine closely the Rosenthal picture. At any rate, Hayes did not mention his doubts concerning the identity of any of the deceased flag raisers until the winter of 1946. He then claimed that the person at the base of the flagstaff was Corporal Harlon Block. An investigation proved him correct and the list of flag raisers was altered.


continued.....

thedrifter
02-26-04, 06:40 AM
The Iwo Jima flag raisers, as shown in the Rosenthal photograph left to right, are:

http://images5.fotki.com/v57/photos/1/133612/695558/persist-vi.jpg

"The strength to persist, the courage to endure."



Private First Class Ira H. Hayes (with poncho hanging from belt - died in 1955);


Private First Class Franklin R. Sousley (with slung rifle - killed in action);


Sergeant Michael Strank (barely visible on Sousley's left - killed in action);


Navy Pharmacist's Mate Second Class John H. Bradley (with empty canteen cover hanging from right side of belt - wounded in action - died 1994.);


Private First Class Rene A. Gagnon (helmet barely visible beside Bradley - died 1979);


Corporal Harlon H. Block (at foot of pole - killed in action)



http://images5.fotki.com/v57/photos/1/133612/695558/iwoposter-vi.jpg



http://images5.fotki.com/v57/photos/1/133612/695558/Rosenthaltakingpicture-vi.jpg

Here's Rosenthal snapping a posed shot minutes after the second flag raising

thedrifter
02-26-04, 06:45 AM
CORPORAL <br />
HARLON HENRY BLOCK, USMC <br />
(DECEASED) <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Harlon Henry Block, participant in the famous flag raising on Iwo Jima, was born at Yorktown, Texas, on 6 November 1924.Young Harlon...

thedrifter
02-26-04, 06:49 AM
CORPORAL <br />
IRA HAMILTON HAYES, USMCR <br />
(DECEASED) <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Ira Hamilton Hayes, participant in the famous flag raising on Iwo Jima, was a Pima Indian, born at Sacaton, Arizona, on 12 January 1923....

MillRatUSMC
02-26-04, 08:40 AM
The writtings of this historic event in World War II are as varied as Homer's Illiad of the Trojan War.
Now we're left to ask "What really happen on 23 February 1945?"
From AppleEater a member of a tank company firing in support of Easy Company's assualt up Mount Surbachi;
"All of a sudden, there appeared a little color atop of Mount Surbachi, than all hell broke loose!"
Many thought it signal the end of that operation.
But it was to last another 26 days and many cheering than, were to die later.
Sad.

Some have Easy Company assaulting to the rim of Mount Surbachi.
Where Sgt. Lowery shot the first Flag raising.
Now there the account of the six Flag raisers accompanying Gene Gannon, Joe Rosental and Sgt. Bill Genaust up Mount Surbachi.
I alway thought that the second Flag raisers were part of Easy Company 2nd Battalion 28th Marines.
No wonder there's being controversy over the past 59 years on those two photo's.

http://www.mca-marines.org/Gazette/sting.html
A nice article on the two Flag raisings on Iwo Jima.

http://www.mca-marines.org/Gazette/0204/0204sting1.jpg
Photo taken by Sgt. Lowery USMC of the first Flag raising.

http://www.mca-marines.org/Gazette/0204/0204sting2.jpg
Another photo taken by Sgt. Lowery of both Flags.

http://www.mca-marines.org/Gazette/0204/0204sting3.jpg
The famous photo taken by Joe Rosenthal of the raising of the second Flag.

There's also a movie clip of this second Flag raising shot by Sgt.Bill Genaust USMC.
Sgt.Bill Genaust is also known as the "man we left behind"

An exceprt from the web;
History records, if little remembers, that Rosenthal's photograph was of the second flag raising on Mt. Suribachi.

E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, under the command of Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier, fought their way to the crater rim. They found a discarded length of pole and tied a small American flag to its end. After five days of bitter fighting, the flag could be seen by the support ships off shore (the wounded were heading back to these ships, and the fresh troops were coming in). The Marines, clinging to the rocks and fighting for advantage in the plains below, were motivated by the flag, too. Hopes of victory were renewed, and the fighting spirit of the men restored.

Marine photographer Lou Lowery took a series of pictures capturing the first flag raising but they were not immediately published. Rosenthal's photo of a second and larger flag raised later in the day was so utterly remarkable that Lowery's shots took a back seat.

In the States the Rosenthal photograph ran in every newspaper and magazine coast to coast. To the public, the photo was a sign that four years of war might finally be coming to a victorious end. Just as E Company's small flag inspired the embattled Marines on Iwo Jima, Rosenthal's perfect picture inspired a nation at home.

Ira Hayes on being asked how does it feel to be a hero;
"How can I feel like a hero, when only 5 men in my platoon of 45 survived, only 27 men in my company of 250 escaped death or injury?"

US Navy Hospital Corpsman John Bradley on heroes;
"No, the heroes are the ones who didn't come home".

TO THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES
THAT OTHERS MAY SAY PROUDLY
I AM A MARINE

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo

MillRatUSMC
02-26-04, 08:47 AM
Just as E Company's small flag inspired the embattled Marines on Iwo Jima, Rosenthal's perfect picture inspired a nation at home.

These words might be the reason why Joe Rosenthal's photo was chosen as Marine War memorial because it inspired the Nation in time of war...

TO THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES
THAT OTHERS MAY SAY PROUDLY
I AM A MARINE

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo