Posted on 06/24/2016 9:01:21 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
The Marine Corps acknowledged Thursday it had misidentified one of the six men in the iconic 1945 World War II photo of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima.
The investigation solved one mystery but raised another. The Marine Corps investigation identified a man who has never been officially linked to the famous photo: Pvt. 1st Class Harold Schultz, who died in 1995 and went through life without publicly talking about his role.
"Why doesn't he say anything to anyone," asked Charles Neimeyer, a Marine Corps historian who was on the panel that investigated the identities of the flag raisers. "That's the mystery."
"I think he took his secret to the grave," Neimeyer said.
The Marine Corps investigation concluded with near certainty that Schultz was one of the Marines raising the flag in the photo.
The investigation also determined that John Bradley, a Navy corpsman from Wisconsin, was not in the photograph taken on Mount Suribachi by Joe Rosenthal, a photographer for The Associated Press. The Feb. 23, 1945, photo that has been reproduced over seven decades actually depicts the second flag-raising of the day.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
It’s just distasteful. For someone like this guy to claim he knows anything about those minutes on the summit of Suribachi.
That was chaos and misery and death like no one hardly ever sees. It’s disgusting to have some SOB, safe in Nebraska, 7 decades later who thinks he REALLY knows what happened.
I don't know - but maybe he was there every minute with his unit, and just happened to be standing off to the side when the photo was taken, so felt entitled to some recognition anyway. He's no longer around to tell us, as I understand.
Well said. My wife’s teenage uncle died the night before after scouting Suribachi with a small team
We’ve talked to some of the vets who served with him. Incredible, humble, gentlemen with minds like yesteryear. Those conversations literally sent chills up and down our spines, tears to our eyes, and a sense of patriotism never felt before
True American Heroes . . . every last one of them
Same with my father, God bless his memory. He fought for nearly two years in the Pacific as a member of the 31st Infantry “Dixie” Division (Alabama National Guard), and he rarely talked about what he went through. He did mention that getting strafed by the Japanese was the worst of it, the Marines provided the best close air support, and that he helped a sergeant who was blind in one eye get a battlefield commission, but little beyond that. Only near the end of his life did I learn from reading his division combat book that he had been awarded two Bronze Stars. Career Army, but so modest he did not wear all the awards & decorations to which he was entitled. Came home from the WWII a Major at 24 years of age...told me enough about what he had experienced and that war makes old men of young men.
‘Flags of Our Fathers’ Author Now Doubts His Father Was in Iwo Jima Photo
“He said that his father, John, a Navy corpsman, had participated in raising a flag on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945, but had not taken part in another flag-raising the same day, which became the famous photograph.
His father, he said, probably thought that the first flag-raising was the one that was captured in the famous picture taken by Joe Rosenthal, a photographer for The Associated Press. Mr. Bradley’s doubts tell a story about the fog of war, the efforts of a son to memorialize his father and the apparent willingness of the Marines to at first brush aside questions about one of their most historic moments.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/us/iwo-jima-marines-bradley.html?_r=0
Im talking about the Historian for Gods sakes, NOT Bradley. Bradley wasn’t distasteful. The low life researcher going over minutiae decades later and thinking he can explain Suribachi is the low life.
My dad was there, on board ship, under fire from Japanese planes, and he said what he did was nothing compared to the guys on the island.
Knew another elderly man, retired lawyer, who operated a flame-thrower on Iwo, he was a Marine, he absolutely would not talk about it, period.
I have to disagree with you about Flyboys: it’s full of liberal claptrap about how “ committed atrocities all the time” so the Japanese atrocities were just no worse than ours.
I threw my copy out.
will check it out...
Some similar thoughts:
http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2016/06/correcting-history.html
It appears that it was Harold Schultz in the second flag-raising, not John Bradley. But that does not take away from the courage and heroism that they—and thousands of other Marines and sailors—displayed on that island.
And it’s easy to see how the confusion arose. Two flag raisings on Suribachi that morning; a firefight in between. Three of the flag raisers killed in combat before the search for them began in earnest. Many of the same individuals around the summit for both flag-raisings and the “gung ho” photo that was also snapped by Joe Rosenthal.
Then, the Marines had to rely on the youngest (and least experienced) of the group, Rene Gagnon, to identify the rest. Gagnon, who was a runner for most of the battle and only fired his rifle once, made one mistake initially when he put Hank Hansen in the photo in the place of Harlan Block. And he identified Ira Hayes only with the greatest reluctance; Hayes was already consumed by the demons of battle and alcohol and wanted no part of any fanfare. John Bradley was a reluctant participant as well, and left the war bond tour as soon as the brass allowed. Remember: he is the same man who received the Navy Cross on Iwo and never told anyone—his family found the medal in a shoe box after his death.
Harold Schultz had been through the same hell as thousands of other men and did his best to put it behind him. He knew what transpired at the top of Suribachi that day and that was (apparently) enough for him. It’s another testament to a generation that focused on doing their duty and sought no publicity or fame for their actions. It’s a lesson worth remembering and emulating today.
Nimitz (I believe) said it best: Iwo was the place where uncommon value was a common virtue.
great post
I’m waiting for the announcement that the misidentified individual is a minority female or lgbt.
Combat veterans did not run their mouths about what they
did during the war. They were ever mindful of the buddies
who lost their lives on those foreign shores. My dad had
bad shell shock & talked a lot after the war; but NOT about
the war. Flashbacks are NOT dreams; they are a repeat of
BEING THERE over & over & over.
I want to see the photos in question. You would think someone would have noticed in all the decades since.
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