[TSgt]

God Bless the Greatest Generation

[luvbach1]

Whoops, there it !

[ken5050]

Most stories about Iwo fail to mention that the capture of the island, and its use as an emergency landing base for the B-29's that were bombing Japan daily, saved between 15,000-25,000 USAAF lives. Some 2,500 planes made emergency landings there. Indeed, the first plane to take advantage of Iwo landed in the water just offshore from the Marine beaches on te 3rd day of the invasion..

BTW..great tag line..

[oneamericanvoice]

The story of that picture is amazing. Hopefully, I get this correct. This iconic picture is of the second flag htat was raised. The first flag was small and on a shorter staff. One of the brass (a general I think) called for a much larger flag, and someone had to fly out to another island to pick it up. When it arrived, a few guys were called over to help raise the staff. The photographer was taking alot of pictures of guys and sent all the pictures forward without realizing the importance of this one. Well, he got a call about it, and the picture took off in a firestorm making it an icon.

To all those from Iwo Jima...Siemper Fi!