On this date in 1945, six Marines raised the American flag over Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. That moment was captured by Joe Rosenthal, an AP photographer whose photograph became an American icon. What many people don’t know is that the photo taken by Rosenthal was actually of the 2d flag raised over Mount Suribachi. When the 1st flag was raised, Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, watching from a Navy ship, wanted to claim it as a souvenir. When the battalion commander heard of this he said, “To hell with that!”, rightly proclaiming that it belonged to his men. He sent up a 2d, larger flag that could be seen more easily by his Marines.
Rosenthal, upon seeing the 1st flag being raised, sensed that he had missed an historic moment. Dejected, he decided to trudge up the mountain to salvage what he could with a photograph of the flag flying over Mount Suribachi. When he got to the top he saw the second flag about to be raised and captured the famous image.
For 71 years one of the flag raisers, Harold Schultz, had been misidentified as John Bradley, a corpsman, who helped raise the 1st flag. The error was finally corrected but Bradley is not to be discredited because he did help raise the 1st flag and went on to win the Navy Cross for bravery.
Of the 40 men who assaulted the 554 foot Suribachi summit, 36 would be killed on Iwo Jima. In all, 6,800 Americans were killed during the 36 days it took to secure the island. Approximately 20,000 Japanese also died on the eight square miles of Iwo Jima.
The Iwo Jima Flag Raisers
Six Marines raised the flag
On Suribachi Mount that day.
Captured in a photograph;
Our flag above the fray.
The highest point all around
Must be in our control.
Forty men sent up its slopes.
Plant our flag, their solemn goal.
They had fought for bloody days
Across the black sand beach
At a deadly, crawling pace.
Slopes, now, within their reach.
At the top six brave men
Raised Old Glory high
To the horns of Navy ships
That saw the banner fly.
But the flag atop the mount
Was not so easy seen
To be observed down on the sand
By each fighting Marine.
The battalion commander
Dispatched some men
Up the slope of the peak
To raise a larger flag again.
This was the time Joe Rosenthal
Made that famous shot
That brought on some confusion
‘Bout who did and who did not.
These were the men who raised the flag,
In that shot renowned,
That accomplished the historic task
To plant the pole in the ground.
Sergeant Mike Strank
Was the one in command
To plant the flag at the top
And ensure that it would stand.
His captain tried to promote him
But he had turned him down.
He died on Iwo later on,
Hit by a mortar round.
He said that he had trained them
Through sweat, peril and noise,
So he told the captain
He would battle with his boys.
Harlon Block was a jock
And second in command.
He took over when Mike was killed,
In the sequence that was planned.
But that grizzly island
Cruel to the last,
Also took Harlon Block
With a mortar blast.
Franklin Sousley
Was freckled with red hair.
When they raised that banner,
Frank was also there.
They found when it was over,
With records to compile,
Frank was the last flag raiser
Claimed by that deadly isle.
Ira Hayes, a warrior
Of the Pima Nation,
Rejected hero status
And hated acclamation.
He felt a lot of guilt
That somehow he survived
When so many of his friends
On Iwo, there, had died.
When the dismal demons
Wouldn’t leave his head,
He couldn’t take it anymore
And turned to drink instead.
The alcohol consumed him;
Finally did him in.
As he died, they said he cried
About his slaughtered friends.
Rene Gagnon, the youngest
Of the men up there,
Carried up the final flag
That adorned the Iwo air.
Rene was always modest
About his Iwo feat.
Buried now in Arlington,
Monument across the street.
Harold Schultz, a modest man,
Was misidentified
For two long decades
After he had died.
For seventy plus years
It was John Bradley.
In the photograph,
Rene was left out, sadly.
But that was finally rectified
After a technician
Noticed in the photograph
A uniform condition
That did not fit the gear
That a corpsman wore.
That’s what Bradley was
During that World War.
The slight has been corrected.
Schultz, now recognized.
But John Bradley’s not a man
That should ever be chastised.
For Bradley helped to raise
The first erected there.
Went on to win the Navy Cross
For heroes brave and rare.
So now you know the story
Of who raised our flag on high
To proclaim that we were there
To have victory, or die.
Sources: “The Six Iwo Jima Flag Raisers”, http://www.iwojima.com/raising/raisingc.htm; “Legendary Letter Carriers: Harold Schultz, The ‘Real’ Flag Raiser of Iwo Jima”, https://soapboxie.com; “Battle of Iwo Jima”, http://militarybattle.org/battle-of-iwo-jima.
Note: For more stories in rhyme about historic military events and American Heroes see Patriotic Poems by Lee Austin, available on Amazon.
