The Story Behind the Most Famous War Photograph in History

[Mad Scientist]

We've all seen the photo of the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima, now read about how it was shot and what happened to all the Marines in the photo.

Photos: Joe Rosenthal and Iwo Jima | Plog

 

[old navy]

One of the Marines was not a Marine. Doc Bradley was the last one to die, his was the only face visable in the photo, and his canteen cover was empty. Why was he minus a canteen? He had given it to a Marine who had lost his. Pharmacist's Mate Second Class Bradley was awarded the Navy Cross for heroic actions on Iwo Jima.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Yes, not all the guys were Marines. That's would be one of the reasons I posted the article maybe?

 

[old navy]

Yes, not all the guys were Marines. That's would be one of the reasons I posted the article maybe?

yep, hopefully people read it. After my son's commissioning at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, one of the museum guides took us to the Iwo flag so we could take pictures in front of it. That was a rare privilege as photography was not allowed in that area.

 

[mudwhistle]

Bump

 

[whitehall]

Rosenthal failed the Military physical because of his eyesight so he became an A.P. photographer. Go figure.

 

[namvet]

the first flag raised

Lowery's most widely circulated picture of the first flag raising. This picture is usually captioned as: 1st Lt. Harold G. Schrier with Platoon Sergeant Boots Thomas (both seated), PFC James Michels (in foreground with M1 Carbine), Sergeant Hank Hansen (standing, wearing soft cap), Corporal Charles W. Lindberg (standing, extreme right), on Mount Suribachi at the first flag raising. However, PFC Raymond Jacobs disputed these identifications, and asserted that it should be: Pfc James Robeson (lower left corner; not visible in this cropped version of the photo), Lt. Harold Schrier (sitting behind his legs), Pfc Raymond Jacobs (carrying radio), Sgt. Henry Hansen (cloth cap), unknown (lower hand on pole), Sgt Ernest Thomas (back to camera), Phm2c John Bradley (helmet above Thomas), Pfc James Michels (with carbine), Cpl Charles Lindberg (above Michels).

The Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal went ashore and requested to have this flag for his personal use.
The news of this wish did not sit well with 2nd Battalion Commander Chandler Johnson, whose temperament was every bit as fiery as Howlin Mad's. 'To hell with that!' the colonel spat when the message reached him. The flag belonged to the battalion, as far as Johnson was concerned. He decided to secure it as soon as possible, and dispatched his assistant operations officer, Lieutenant Ted Tuttle, to the beach to scare up a replacement flag. As an afterthought, Johnson called after Tuttle "And make it a bigger one."

The roar of the Marines on the islands and ship horns blasting away alerted the Japanese who up to this point had stayed in their cave bunkers. The Americans quickly found themselves under fire from Japanese troops but were able to quickly eliminate the threat with the only casualty being Lowery's camera.