Photo recalls Iwo Jima for veteran

[thedrifter]

Article published Dec 16, 2006
Photo recalls Iwo Jima for veteran
John Owen is proud of picture but disputes the story behind it

JOSHUA STOWE
Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- John Owen still keeps a laminated copy of the Iwo Jima photograph taken more than 60 years ago.

It's not the famous flag-raising shot that won a Pulitzer Prize, graced the front page of many a newspaper across America during World War II and helped pave the way for a government bond-selling campaign to finance the war effort.

No, this one shows a group of Marines gathered by an already-raised U.S. flag that flaps in the wind. They're flashing grins and hoisting helmets and rifles above their heads. In the back, one of them beams, bareheaded, as he stands by the flag pole. Owen says he's that man.

The photograph pulls at him for two reasons, he says: It's a memento of his service, and it's not the picture everyone thinks it is.

It's attributed to Joe Rosenthal, the Associated Press photographer who snapped the well-known photo of servicemen raising the American flag at Iwo Jima and who died in August at age 94. Like that photograph, it's said to have been taken atop Mount Suribachi.But in fact, Owen says, the photograph was taken on an airfield elsewhere on the island by a Marine whose name he can't remember -- an account officials dispute.

He says he's known that all these years. For decades, he's held his peace. Now, the 60th anniversary of Iwo Jima has passed, and a film commemorating the battle has come and gone from theaters. And Owen has grown old.

Now 81, he says he wants to clear up the details behind the photograph that makes him proud.

Dispute over photo

"I want to get this story out before I die, and no one wants to take it," he says. "Nobody will believe it."Maj. Celeste Ross, of South Bend-based Engineer Company B, a Marine reserve unit, says she understands Owen's perspective but differs with his account.

The photo in question squares with the island's layout, she says, noting that it shows a beach below and to one side, which is where the beach should be in relation to Mount Suribachi, atop which the famous flag-raising occurred.

Also, she says the photo includes Ira Hayes, one of the flag-raisers who was captured in Rosenthal's more-famous photograph, something Owen disputes.

"Essentially, I understand his memory of the events, but it is difficult for me to argue with what you see in that picture," Ross says. "It is difficult to look at the picture and think that it is not a picture taken by Joe Rosenthal on Mount Suribachi."

Ross thinks that perhaps Owen confused the photograph with another one that was taken on an airfield, but he says he'll press on to prove his case.Picture recalls service

Dispute aside, Owen says the photograph is a tangible reminder of the battle of Iwo Jima and his participation in it.

"I can remember being on the beach. I was scared to death," he says. "I got up to the airfield. I don't know how the hell I got up there!"

His eyes still widen as he recalls the long climb up to the airfield he had to help guard, and the casualties Marines took along the way.

"We had to climb way up," he says, "because the airfield was up high."He still can see the bodies of fallen Marines and hear the screams of the dying.

"It was terrible," he says. "You couldn't do nothing."

And he still can remember helping push a B-29 over a cliff after it landed on the airfield, so damaged by Japanese fire that it was no longer of use.

These are some of his memories as he looks back at the battle. It lasted more than a month and claimed the lives of almost 7,000 Americans and more than 20,000 Japanese. The taking of Iwo Jima helped American forces run bombing raids on mainland Japan.

Owen left the island March 16, 1945, his 20th birthday. He'd lost weight because of combat fatigue and was sent back.He came home and finished his studies at Mishawaka High School, graduating with his younger sister. He entered the tool-and-die trade. He married, divorced and eventually started his own business.

To this day, he spends time poring over his old war pictures. They fill box upon box inside his home. They show friends he made in the military, men with whom he's long since lost touch, and they help keep the grim fight fresh in his mind.

"It was shoot first," he says. "If you didn't, you were dead."

Staff writer Joshua Stowe:
jstowe@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6359

View additional photos for this story...
http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps...ate=ARTGALLERY

Ellie

[catrustycat]

I am a friend of John Owen. He would like to find out if any of the guys in the picture might be still around and would like to know how to make a search. We have the names of a few men in the picture. Is there a way to post the picture? Mary