Flag Raising On Mt. Suribachi - 23 February 1945

This Day In U.S. Military History ^

[nascarnation]

Bike Week at Daytona isn’t until March, so maybe something else.

http://www.daytonachamber.com/daytonabikeweek/search.cfm

[left that other site]

I don’t know about Panama City...I am nearly 500 miles away to the south.

There wasn’t anything today in our neck of the woods, but the last few weekends have been VERY busy! Mandatory runs, Charity Runs, Memorial Runs, etc.

[Squantos]

Thank you for reminding us.......life sometimes makes us look forward at what’s to come, than remembering and honoring those that brought us here.......

Stay safe...

[RJS1950]

I remember when I first read the story and saw the Lowery shots in 1972. I was a Marine Sgt and it changed my perspective on the workings of media and its effect on morale.

The Rosenthal shot was the perfect shot and I understand why it gained the notoriety it did. What was sad, was that most of the original raisers went immediately back into the battle and were killed. It wasn’t in the best interest of maintaining national morale to put out anything about the original raising and the men involved but after it was all over, to ignore it entirely, was a slap in the face of those guys who fought their way up that ridge to raise the first flag.

I served with a MGySgt who saw the raising of the first flag. For the Marines on the beach, that was the morale builder and he didn’t know anything about the second one until after the fighting was over.

The Iwo battle was hard fought example of real heroism for all involved in the campaign.

[RightSpirit]

My uncle, now deceased, was a 19 year old Marine Corps linesman from Orono, Maine who clawed his way to the top of Mount Suribachi laying telephone lines to establish a command post at the summit. He had his rifle in one hand and the wire laying device in the other.

He was exhausted emotionally and physically when he got to the top and says he laid there on the ground as he watched them raise the flag both times. The bullets were still flying around from Japanese hidden in caves on the mountain. I can not remember if he caught the shrapnel in his back and leg there or at Okinawa.

He told me about his experiences in WWII when I was young pre-teen in the 50s and he had a visit from a Marine buddy who was a Medal of Honor winner. That made me curious and I asked him what the war was like. He also went with the Army of Occupation to Japan before coming home. He brought home to my mother, his little sister, Japanese dolls and a silk kimono.

Another Marine gave my uncle his bronze miniature of the Marine Corps Monument as he was dying in the VA Hospital in Florida. He just wept silently when it was presented to him. Thank you for this reminder of this anniversary. “Uncommon valor was a common virtue.” So true of that generation. Remarkably this great country still breeds these kinds of young, unsung heroes. Perhaps that will be our salvation.

[SunkenCiv]

Of the six in the Rosenthal shot, three died on Iwo. Rosenthal took the famous photo during the second flag-raising, about three hours after the first. I think only one of those present at the first flag-raising died on Iwo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_W._Lindberg

[luvie]

Hard to believe it was so long ago and far away. But it is.

God always bless our heroes!

[luvie]

God Bless our Heroes!
[borrowed...but I liked the size of this one! :) ]