A video of an inconsequential event.

[LawMan Mark, SASS #57095L]

That when captured as a still shot, and published, ignited a nation with renewed patriotism. Joe Rosenthal was the photographer on Iwo Jima.  February 23, 1945.

 

On Friday morning, February 23, 1945, four days after the Marines landed at Iwo Jima, Rosenthal was making his daily visit to the island on a Marine landing craft when he heard that an American flag was being raised atop Mount Suribachi, a volcano at the southern tip of the island. Upon landing, Rosenthal hurried toward Suribachi, lugging along his bulky Speed Graphic camera, the standard for press photographers at the time. Together with Marine combat still photographer Pvt. Bob Campbell and Marine color movie photographer Sgt. Bill Genaust, he began the climb up to the summit of Mount Suribachi. When they got about halfway up, they met Staff Sgt. Louis Lowery, a photographer with the Marine publication "Leatherneck" who was coming down the volcano after an enemy grenade explosion on top had knocked him off his feet and broke his camera. Lowery told them that the flag had already been raised at 10:40 am, and he had gotten photos of the flag on the summit. Lowery told them the view was good from the summit, and Rosenthal convinced Genaust and Campbell to continue to take him to the top with them since they were armed.^[4]

 

On the high and windy summit of Mount Suribachi, Rosenthal discovered a group of Marines attaching a large flag to a length of steel pipe. Nearby, he saw the smaller flag flying and managed to get himself photoed by Campbell under the flag with Sgt. Genaust and Army Pfc. George Burn, a photographer for Yank Magazine. Another group of Marines was getting ready to lower the smaller flag at the same instant the larger flag was raised under an officer's orders. Rosenthal briefly contemplated attempting to photograph both of the flags at once, but was not in a position to get both flags in the photograph (Pvt. Campbell did capture an image of the first flag coming down while the second flag was going up), so he focused his attention on the group of men preparing to raise the second flag.^[4]

Rosenthal piled stones and a sandbag so he had something on which to stand, as he was only 5 feet and 5 inches (1.65 m) tall. He set his camera for a lens setting between f/8 and f/11 and the shutter speed at 1/400th second. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw six Marines start to raise the second flag.^[5] He swung his camera around toward the action and pushed the shutter. Three feet to his right, Sgt. Genaust captured the flag-raising from nearly the same angle using color motion picture film.^[4] To make sure he had a worthwhile photo to send to the AP, Rosenthal took another black and white photograph showing four of the second flag-raisers steadying the flagstaff and waiting for the bottom of the pipe to be more secured with rocks; and afterwards a rope. When that was done, Rosenthal gathered a group of sixteen Marines and two Navy corpsmen around the base of the flagstaff for a posed shot (called the "Gung Ho" photo) which included First Lieutenant Harold Schrier, the only officer on the summit, who had volunteered to take the 40-man patrol up Mount Suribachi that morning to seize and occupy the crest and raise the battalion's flag.^[6]

[Trailrider #896]

Even though it is chilly down in my basement office, and I put on a warmer sweater, when I look at that photo, I get real chills running up and down my spine, and my confuser screen got a little blurry!  Sadly, only a couple of those Marines made it off Iwo alive! And Ira Hayes was a belated casualty of that fight!

[PowderRiverCowboy]

[PowderRiverCowboy]

 

[irish ike, SASS #43615]

The movie Flags of our Fathers does a pretty good job of telling the story.

[bgavin]

So does the book.