[Dan in Wichita]

I wonder if Sgt. Stryker was in his command. For those of you who may not know, Stryker was a fictional character played by John Wayne in The Sands of Iwo Jima. One of my favorite movies of all time.

Toward the end of the movie, Stryker gets a call from his commanding officer, instructing him that it was time to raise the large U.S. flag atop Mt. Suribachi. He calls over several Marines, who in real life were some of the men who supposedly raised the flag, gives them the flag with orders to get it raised. My eyes get watery every time.

[Verginius Rufus]

I think 3 of the men in the famous photo died within days of the flagraising.

My father was in the Marines in WWII and fought on Guam and Okinawa, but not on Iwo Jima. But I did watch The Sands of Iwo Jima with him when it was on TV. He thought it was realistic even if he had not actually been there (the ground conditions--volcanic soil--were much different from Okinawa).