One of the most iconic photographs in history was captured 79 years ago today...

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.



Captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal in the early afternoon on February 23, 1945, at the summit of Mount Suribachi. The position which dominated the southern end of the island had been captured earlier that day. Marines from Easy Company of the 28th Marine Regiment were ordered to climb to the summit, capture it, and plant an American flag. Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier's platoon would have the honor of carrying Old Glory for the occasion. At about 10:30 AM, with the summit secured, Schrier and fellow Marines Ernest Thomas and Oliver Hansen rose the first flag over Iwo Jima. The Marines and Sailors on the shore and at sea reacted immediately and enthusiastically to the sight of the Colors on top of Mount Suribachi. Cheers went up from the beach, bells and whistles blasted from the ships just off the coast.



But just as that first flag went up, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal came ashore on the island alongside General Holland Smith. Seeing the American flag flying over the imposing mountain, Forrestal was overcome with emotion and zeal, exclaiming to Smith: "Holland, the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years!" Going even further, Forrestall ordered the flag to be taken down so that he could keep it as a souvenir.

As James Bradley describes in his book, Flags of Our Fathers:

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Forrestal was so taken with fervor of the moment that he decided he wanted the Second Battalion's flag flying on Mt. Suribachi as a souvenir. The news of this wish did not sit well with 2nd Battalion Commander Chandler Johnson, whose temperament was every bit as fiery as Howlin Mad's. "To hell with that!" the colonel spat when the message reached him. The flag belonged to the battalion, as far as Johnson was concerned. He decided to secure it as soon as possible, and dispatched his assistant operations officer, Lieutenant Ted Tuttle, to the beach to obtain a replacement flag. As an afterthought, Johnson called after Tuttle: "And make it a bigger one."

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And so it was that shortly after noon on February 23, 1945, six men from Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division would raise the second flag over Mount Suribachi as an afterthought. However, the photograph taken of them as they did so would live on in history as among the most iconic ever taken. Sergeant Michael Strank, Corporal Harlon Block, and PFCs Harold Keller, Franklin Sousley, Harold Schultz, and Ira Hayes were the men who raised that second flag. Of these six, three would be killed in combat in the coming days and weeks on Iwo Jima.

For the photograph, Rosenthal received the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Photography. In 1954, that same photograph became the basis for the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial which currently occupies a space in Arlington, Virginia.



The story of the flag raising atop Mount Suribachi was eventually turned into a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by James Bradley called Flags of Our Fathers which was in turn made into a theatrical film directed by Clint Eastwood and produced by Steven Spielberg.