"I Thought, Well, I Think They Got Me"

August 25, 2006, 7:14 a.m.

"I Thought, Well, I Think They Got Me"
A photographer@war.

A review by Stephen Spruiell

It is a photograph of two slain Marines sprawled on the Iwo Jima beach as two more Marines rush fearlessly past them into enemy fire. According to photographer Joe Rosenthal, who passed away this week, this photo — not his iconic shot of five Marines and a Navy corpsman raising the Stars and Stripes — conveys the reality of that battle. “As much as the flag picture meant to me and to many others, I have always believed that these pictures on the beach captured the real story of Iwo Jima,” Rosenthal tells Hal Buell, author of Uncommon Valor, Common Virtue: Iwo Jima and the Photograph that Captured America. “No matter how many Marines fell, there were more coming forward to take their place. The Marines just kept coming.”

In Uncommon Valor, Common Virtue, Buell tells the story of Iwo Jima with a special emphasis on Rosenthal’s recollections as he describes the events surrounding his Pulitzer-Prize winning photo. Buell, a veteran photo editor with Associated Press, has set his book apart from other histories by creating a large volume that includes dozens of full-page photographs and reproductions of newspaper clippings from the time.

But the abundance of testimony from Rosenthal himself is what makes this book so valuable. Buell quotes Rosenthal for pages on everything from landing with the Marines on the Iwo Jima invasion beach to his near-fatal mishap the morning of the flag-raising. Reading Rosenthal’s account of how he fell into the ocean and was almost crushed between two boats — “I thought, well, I think they got me” — you suddenly realize that the most famous war photograph in American history almost never existed.

Buell also explores the photograph’s impact on American life. It was a sensation from the moment it reached the United States via radio transmission, restoring the public’s sagging faith in the Pacific campaign overnight. The three surviving Marines from the picture were brought back to the United States and sent on what would become the most successful War Bond drive of the war. The photo would also be immortalized in bronze as the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.

Beyond the photo’s immediate impact, Buell notes the connection to Tom Franklin’s photograph of three fireman raising an American flag at Ground Zero shortly after the 9/11 attacks. “One photo reached across the generations to strengthen the message of another,” Buell writes, “each reminding Americans that in 2001, as in the Pacific battle of 1945, the nation, its ideals, and its values would prevail.”

Uncommon Valor, Common Virtue has its weak points. The writing is awkward in places and I found the numerous typos distracting. But the fascinating interviews with Rosenthal and the moving and powerful photographs more than make up for these shortcomings.

Overall, Buell has put together a great package that even comes with a 20-minute companion documentary on DVD featuring interviews with Buell, Iwo Jima veterans and Rosenthal himself. The legendary war photographer’s last words on the film are: “It’s too bad that somehow in some past generation, the word ‘patriotism’ has been made a corny expression.

“I wish it were not so.”

Ellie