Flags of Our Fathers

Flags of Our Fathers By John Bradley

1Harlon Block

Texan who joined Marines with his high school football buddies. Seventh Day Adventist religious beliefs prohibited fighting but he went anywayHis mother, Belle, recognized her sons photo in the paper despite misidentification. Mike Stranks second in command; he took over leadership of the unit after Mike was killed. He died hours later. John Bradley

Navy medic Won Navy Cross for valor Wounded in both legs Went home to be a mortician His son wrote the book

Franklin Sousley

Raised on tobacco farm in KentuckyFather died when he was nine; he was an only childDied days before evacuation Mother screamed so loud when she got the news of her sons death, neighbors heard it clear across the fieldsIra Hayes

Pima Indian from Arizona Earned distinction as paratrooper Quiet disposition, greatly respected Sergeant Mike StrankDid not want any part of photo tour Became a heavy drinker, froze to death. Told Harlon Blocks family of his raising the flag. Rene Gagnon

Grew up only son of a widow in Manchester, New HampshireHe carried the flag up Mt. Suribachi He saw very little combat, he was a runner The youngest survivor, he enjoyed the fame from the photograph more than anyone else.

Mike Strank

A Marines Marine Born in Czechoslovakia, grew up in mining town in Pennsylvania At 27, he was the oldest of the flag raisers, best known for his leadership.Died by friendly fire. Buried at Arlington National CemetaryThe Military Objective

Date: February 19, 1945

Place: Iwo Jima

Mission: Deprive Japanese of Early Warning System Obtain Landing Strip for Damaged Bombers SAVE AMERICAN LIVESThe Challenge

General Tadamichi Kuribayashis Plan: Fight to last man. No one leaves island alive. Heavily fortify island with extensive caves and bunkers

Lieutenant General Holland Smiths Plan: Bombard island for 84 days before invadingAmphibious landing of 20,000 troopsTake Mount Suribachi first and progress north until the island was secured.

The Battle

It took four days to secure Mount Suribachi It took another 31 days to secure the entire island This was the only battle in WWII in which American casualties outnumbered Japanese:

US=27,000,Japan=20,000Louis Lowrey

Photographer for the Leatherneck magazine. Photographed the first flag raising. First flag was smaller than second one, and had historical significance due to Secretary of the Navy James Forrestals comment, the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years. It was summoned down as a souvenier. Joe Rosenthal

Heres one for all time John BodkinAP Photo EditorOn the way up for the second flag raising, Rosenthal met Lowery on his way down. Lowery advised the photographers to keep going up because the summit was an excellent place to take pictures.

As the six Marines raised the flag, Rosenthal swing his camera up and snapped the photograph without using the view finder. He did not know what he got.

The Controversy

Following the second flag raising, Rosenthal had the Marines of Easy Company pose for a group shot, the gung-ho picture. A few days after the famous picture was taken, Rosenthal was asked if he posed the picture. Mistaking the picture for the gung-ho shot, he said yes, and was forever plagued with fabricating history. Despite the controversy, the picture won a Pulitzer Prize. The Bond Tour

The Iwo Jima Photograph becomes the symbol for the 7th war bond drive

Rene Gagnon is asked to identify the Marines in the photo

Ira Hayes threatens to kill Gagnon if he identifies him, but Gagnon buckles to Presidential pressure and reveals Hayes anyway.

Gagnon misidentifies Harlon Block as Sergeant Henry O. Hank Hansen, who participated in the first flag raising. Hansen died on Iwo Jima.

The bond tour raised $26.3 billion, twice the tours goal. The Legacy

Both flags housed in the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia The Medal of Honor was awarded to 27 servicemen as a result of this struggle, fourteen posthumously. This accounts for over a third of the Medals of Honor awarded during the entire Pacific War. The Marine Memorial

Erection of the memorial, which was designed by Horace W. Peaslee, was begun in September 1954. It was officially dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on November 10, 1954, the 179th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps.