Iwo Jima: 71 Years Ago Today
The United States Marine Corp Raised Our Flag at IWO JIMA this day on 1945
Seventy-one years ago, the United States Marine Corps hoisted an America flag at Mt. Suribachi, a dormant volcano on the southwest corner of a little seven and a half square mile island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Iwo Jima is so small you cannot find it on a map. It is almost seven hundred miles from the Marianas and an equal distance from the mainland of Japan. It is a little nothing of a black sand pork chop in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. Iwo Jima remains, to this day, the bloodiest and most expensive battle ever fought in the history of that renowned fighting force. Our Marines paid an unimaginable price: 7,000 were killed; 28,000 were wounded. Every Japanese defender had to be killed because they would not surrender even when the battle was clearly won by the Marines. Two hundred Japanese were captured only because they were too injured to hurt themselves or anyone else. Twenty-eight Medals of Honor were awarded to Marines for this single battle. One quarter of all the MOH’s to be received by the Marines in all of World War II were earned on that little island.
The original flag was raised about 10:30am on the 5th day of the battle. The 20 or so men who raised the original flag are almost entirely forgotten. They fought their way up the 540 foot slopes of that volcano and found a pipe that was part of the destroyed Japanese radar installation that made the island the target of the War Department. Iwo Jima had to be taken in order to destroy those radar stations. We needed the Japanese airfields so that we could escort our bombers with the new P-51 long range escort fighters. Seven thousand B-29s would land on the airfields after having been damaged and shot up over the skies of Tokyo. Those captured airfields saved untold thousands of airmen’s lives.
About an hour later, at noonish, a small squad of Marines were tasked with raising a second flag. Joe Rosenthal, an AP photographer was there and serendipitously photographed the most iconic picture of the Pacific war. He won a Pulitzer Prize for the photo. Every one of us has grown up with that image of those six men raising the flag. I used to have a steel pressed image of it in my office. Those six men were real and young and all of them wanted to live. It was a real war, and half of them would never make it off the island alive.
These are the six Marines shown in the photo.
Harlan Block was a corporal and a funny young Texan with a wonderful sense of humor. He had a girl friend at home. He grew up a devout Christian. He had premonitions of his death. But he did not waiver. He would be killed on Iwo in a mortal barrage.
Rene Gagnon was a handsome young boy, some said he looked like Tyrone Power. He was the kid who ran the second flag up the mountain. He will survive the battle and suffer with alcoholism and depression for the rest of his life. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Michael Strank was the Sergeant. Twenty-five years old. A naturalized American– born in Czechoslavakia. A hero from boot to helmet. He was decorated with the Silver Star for taking out Japanese machine-gun positions in Peleliu. He always lead from the front. Never expected anyone to do what he was unwilling to do himself. A Marine’s Marine. He also had premonitions of his own death. He knew he had survived too many battles already. The Marines at Peleliu and Cape Gloucester had sustained 85% casualties. He knew his luck was up. He died trying to take one of the three airfields on the island. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Ira Hayes was a full-blood Pima Indian from the Pima Indian Reservation in Arizona a little south of Phoenix Arizona and attended the famous Indian School there. He was an articulate and well educated Christian boy. He wrote often of his faith in the regular letters he wrote home. He joined the Marines to fight for his country. He saw things and acts of brutality and barbarism no man should have to see. Killed Japanese at close quarter with his bayonet. And saw what Japanese soldiers did to captured marines. He will be wounded on the 25th day of the battle. The battle will continue on for 36 days. Ira will be evacuated with wounds to his legs and awarded the Purple Heart. But the wounds Ira sustained on Iwo were not the kind that heal. Ira will drink himself to death. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Frank Susley was only 19 years old. Born in Kentucky an only child. He was young and funny, full of country-boy pranks and well loved. And he will die when a sniper shoots him down in the black sand. “Are you okay, Franklin?” his buddies asked as he bled to death. “I’m okay.” He said. “I’m just fine. I can’t feel a thing.” Franklin is buried with his Purple Heart in Hilltop Kentucky. Another forgotten hero.
John Bradley was not a Marine. He was a Navy Corpsman. John Bradley will twice sprint across 100 yards of open black sand to save Marine lives, while Japanese machine gunners tried to kill him and hurled grenades at him. John Bradley will go to his grave never telling anyone that he received the Navy Cross. The Navy Cross is the second highest award given for valor. Only the Medal of Honor is higher. He was a life-long devout Catholic. Went to mass every Sunday of his life according to the stories I’ve read. He grew old and raise a large happy family in Antigo, Wisconsin. He died of natural causes, but was haunted for the rest of his life by the horrific memories of the battle and in particular the horrible torture of his best friend, Iggy, who was immolated by the Japanese. The detail are too gruesome to recount.
Next time you feel sorry for yourself, remember them.
Our country has been purchased with the blood and flesh and psyches of generations of soldiers, unknown to us. We have a duty not just to ourselves but to them. This country is their legacy to us.
Let us resolve to fight to keep it.
