[SunkenCiv]

I can't look at the Rosenthal shot without getting emotional.

There were at least two flag raisings, only one got photographed. Someone I knew of (now deceased, knew his daughter) claimed to have been there as well. And, you know, I don't give a **** -- as far as I'm concerned, the entire US Marine Corps, past and present, was on that hill that day, raising the Flag.

[colorado tanker]

There are photos of the first flag raising by Marine Sgt. Louis Lowery. But, he broke his camera and was going down the mountain to get another when Rosenthal passed him and Lowery told him he was too late. Of course, he didn't know the Marines had been told to raise a second, bigger flag.

This was in the days when there were no electronic cameras and everything was mechanical. So, basically Rosenthal's shot was a happy accident.

Rosenthal later took a staged shot when the flag had been raised with most of the Marines at the summit that he called his "gung ho" shot because of the poses the men took.

There was no dark room on Iwo so Rosenthal dropped his film into a pouch to Guam. He had no idea what he had captured. As soon as the photo came out of the dark room, Guam knew what they had and radioed the photo back to America where it was on the front page of darn near every paper.

Lowery claimed the photo had to have been staged, perhaps out of jealousy. Somebody asked Rosenthal if the photo had been staged and thinking they were talking about the gung ho photo said it was. He immediately corrected himself, but the rumor persists to this day.

These are interesting tidbits of history but the power of the photo, as you say, is that it embodies the fundamental spirit of the Marine Corps and the way they fought the worst battle in the history of the Corps.

[wildbill]

To me, the fact that you can’t really see the faces and identify them easily is symbolic of your comment that all the Marines on that island were part of raising that flag.

Uncommon Valor was a common virtue” Chester Nimitz