Posted on 02/20/2005 6:57:29 AM PST by gunnyg
My grandfather drove DUKKs off the Nevada. Semper Fi.
I'm not sure when I first learned that the photo was a second raising of the flag. Then as now, it makes little difference to me and in no way diminishes anything that was done there. Why would it? So the media got it wrong. Apparently this is nothing rew.
If you don't know--you cannot be told--so, in a way, yer right...what a shame...
But leave it to the Left to get bogged down in the trivia.
Not sure I follow you - I've known this for a long time.
Turns out there were two separate flag-raising photo groups.
The first was totally spontaneous, and there is a photograph of it.
The second was somewhat staged, but not in any sinister, cynical way. The brass decided they wanted a better picture, evidently.
The second flag-raising is where the famous photo comes from.
>>>oversized colossus of the Marine Corps Memorial near Washington.
I can't get a good feel for what the author's bent is, though my gut tells me he'd like to criticise the Marines more but has held his pen.
Next I have to say BS, there was no conspiracy or effort to diminish the guys who raised the first flag's accomplishments as I have read the story from many sources. Marine commanders wanted a flag that could be seen from the whole Island as a morale booster - that clearly worked! That fact that the press was there with both movie and still equipment should tell anybody with half a brain that the serious fighting was slowing down on the mountain. The raising of the larger flag in no way diminished the efforts and accomplishments of Easy Company and the others who supported them. This was a time for hope and not despair the picture gave the American public hope. As for John Wayne as Sargent Striker, I can only say that it was a time when we needed heroes he made one.
I climbed the mountain in 1989, it is not an easy stroll even now.
War has it's own price, from Audie Murphy to Ira and the many more who are haunted by the moment that focused the public eye on them. Those "injuries" are the ones that heal the slowest and some never do. Today most Americans cannot imagine the savagery and sacrifice that the Pacific War demanded from our soldiers. Let history be interpreted in the context of the time it happened, not in the rear view mirror.
Semper Fi my brothers RIP, we shall never forget.
You hit what matters right on! I read the story when the book was published, and I thought then, "So what?" The sacrifice, heroism, and honor of the brave men of Iwo Jima remain unchanged, and it is those qualities which the picture symbolizes.
That photograph may have been about a flag-raising on Mount Suribachi. But it has grown way, way beyond that. The story told by that group of men huddled around that flag is the story of human triumph everywhere. Yes, it celebrates the names you listed ... and a whole lot more.
Thanx fer the newsflash, Jack...--feel better?
By the way, for what it's worth, I in no way intended any disrespect, nor did I intend to diminish anyone's sacrifice. Just the opposite. I meant to show that in their sacrifice, the flag-raisers rose above mortality to become symbols of something greater than themselves.
I didn't feel bad to begin with. But somebody obviously crapped in your Cheerios.
thanks for the list, Gunny...they are important...
OK, OK, OK, Jack--back in yer box now--STFU and give others a shot at the board--or is this your living room?
Sheeesh!
If it is published in the MSM, you can be 100% sure that it is wrong in some or other important detail. The true accuracy of "reportage" is abysmal. EVERY (and I mean 100%) of every news story that I have been close enough to to have detailed knowledge of the facts involved HAS BEEN WRONGLY REPORTED. I'm sure others of you out there have had similar experience(s).
There is always some clown out there that secondguesses the accounts of the battle or the tactics, or some other aspect - but you'll note that the aforementioned clown wasn't anywhere near the battle itself.
The tone and intent of the writers as well as their political bent is best captured by the backhanded slap at the heroes of the Vietnam War: "...a faith now so distressingly contradicted by the 58,180 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.". No offense to the poster, but those 58,180 fallen Marines, soldiers, sailors, airmen and coastguardsmen were and are heroes and no second-guesser that wastes his/her time over "which flag raising at an epic battle was more heroic" should try to taint their memory.
First Flag-raising on Iwo Ping...
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