By John Bradley
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Texan who joined Marines
with his high school
football buddies.
Seventh Day Adventist
religious beliefs prohibited
fighting but he went
anyway
His mother, Belle,
recognized her son’s photo
in the paper despite
misidentification.
Mike Strank’s second in
command; he took over
leadership of the unit after
Mike was killed. He died
hours later.
 Navy
medic
 Won Navy Cross for
valor
 Wounded in both
legs
 Went home to be a
mortician
 His son wrote the
book
Raised on tobacco farm
in Kentucky
 Father died when he
was nine; he was an
only child
 Died days before
evacuation
 Mother screamed so
loud when she got the
news of her son’s
death, neighbors heard
it clear across the
fields
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Pima Indian from Arizona
Earned distinction as
paratrooper
Quiet disposition, greatly
respected Sergeant Mike
Strank
Did not want any part of
photo tour
Became a heavy drinker,
froze to death.
Told Harlon Block’s
family of his raising the
flag.
Grew up only son of a
widow in Manchester,
New Hampshire
 He carried the flag up
Mt. Suribachi
 He saw very little
combat, he was a
runner
 The youngest survivor,
he enjoyed the fame
from the photograph
more than anyone else.
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A Marine’s Marine
 Born in
Czechoslovakia, grew
up in mining town in
Pennsylvania
 At 27, he was the oldest
of the flag raisers, best
known for his
leadership.
 Died by friendly fire.
Buried at Arlington
National Cemetary
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 Date:
19, 1945
 Place:
February
Iwo Jima
 Mission:
• Deprive Japanese of
Early Warning System
• Obtain Landing Strip
for Damaged Bombers
• SAVE AMERICAN
LIVES
General Tadamichi
Kuribayashi’s Plan:
•Fight to last man. No one leaves
island alive.
•Heavily fortify island with extensive
caves and bunkers
Lieutenant General Holland
Smith’s Plan:
•Bombard island for 84 days before
invading
•Amphibious landing of 20,000
troops
•Take Mount Suribachi first and
progress north until the island was
secured.
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It took four days to
secure Mount Suribachi
It took another 31 days to
secure the entire island
This was the only battle
in WWII in which
American casualties
outnumbered Japanese:
• US=27,000,
• Japan=20,000
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Photographer for the
Leatherneck magazine.
Photographed the first
flag raising.
First flag was smaller
than second one, and had
historical significance
due to Secretary of the
Navy James Forrestal’s
comment, “…the raising
of that flag on Suribachi
means a Marine Corps
for the next five hundred
years.” It was summoned
down as a souvenier.
Here’s one for all time”
John Bodkin
AP Photo Editor
On the way up for the second
flag raising, Rosenthal met
Lowery on his way down.
Lowery advised the
photographers to keep going
up because the summit was an
excellent place to take pictures.
As the six Marines raised the flag,
Rosenthal swing his camera up and
snapped the photograph without
using the view finder. He did not
know what he got.
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Following the second flag
raising, Rosenthal had the
Marines of Easy Company
pose for a group shot, the
“gung-ho” picture.
A few days after the famous
picture was taken,
Rosenthal was asked if he
posed the picture.
Mistaking “the picture” for
the “gung-ho” shot, he said
yes, and was forever
plagued with fabricating
history.
Despite the controversy, the
picture won a Pulitzer Prize.
The Iwo Jima Photograph becomes the symbol for the
7th war bond drive
Rene Gagnon is asked to identify the Marines in the
photo
Ira Hayes threatens to kill Gagnon if he identifies him,
but Gagnon buckles to Presidential pressure and
reveals Hayes anyway.
Gagnon misidentifies Harlon Block as Sergeant Henry
O. “Hank” Hansen, who participated in the first flag
raising. Hansen died on Iwo Jima.
The bond tour raised $26.3 billion, twice the tour’s
goal.
Both flags housed in
the National Museum of
the Marine Corps in
Quantico, Virginia
 The Medal of Honor
was awarded to 27
servicemen as a result
of this struggle,
fourteen posthumously.
This accounts for over
a third of the Medals of
Honor awarded during
the entire Pacific War.
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Erection of the
memorial, which was
designed by Horace W.
Peaslee, was begun in
September 1954. It was
officially dedicated by
President Dwight D.
Eisenhower on
November 10, 1954, the
179th anniversary of
the U.S. Marine Corps.