Lest We Forget 80 Years Ago Today 2/23/1945

[Cypress Sun]

The famous picture of the second flag raising that day on Iwo Jima. It would be over another month and many more American lives lost, including three of the men involved in the flag raising, before the battle for the island was declared over.

 

God Bless the Greatest Generation and Thank You.

 

 

 

[The Original Lumpy Gritz]

Thank you for posting this for!  

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

[Pat Riot]

I knew a Marine that was on Iwo Jima when this flag raising happened. He was not up at the flag raising site. He was somewhere down the hill, but I do recall him saying that this flag raising was a moral booster for the fighting men on that island. 

He was my boss and he and his wife rented me a room when I ran away from home at 17.

 

Rest in Peace Herb 

[Sedalia Dave]

[Subdeacon Joe]

https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/the-two-flag-raisings-battle-of-iwo-jima-marine-corps/

 

 

The first flag was raised on Mt. Suribachi Feb. 23, 1945, at around 10:20 a.m., but the fighting wasn’t over on Suribachi, and even after the mountain was secured, the battle on other parts of the island would continue for a month. In the foreground, facing the camera, is Pfc. Louis Charlo, who was part of the earlier morning patrol that found Suribachi nearly undefended, and was present for both flag-raisings. He was killed in action a week later while attempting to rescue a wounded Marine. U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO BY SGT. LOUIS BURMEISTER

 

 

“History never looks like history when you are living through it. It always looks confusing and messy, and it always looks uncomfortable.”

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

http://www.collectinghistory.net/iwojima/

 

 

[watab kid]

i never forget any of the island hopping , its why im here today , my father was in the pacific theater , 

[Capt. R. Hugh Kidnme]

Ooh Rah ! 

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

One of my Dad's best friends was in the Marines in WWII. He was in Okinawa and in the first wave landing at Iwo Jima. He was wounded there and finished the war in a hospital at Pearl Harbor. He recovered and I remember the stories he used to tell about the war when I was growing up. RIP Ray .

[Cypress Sun]

9 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

http://www.collectinghistory.net/iwojima/

 

 

 

I've seen many pictures and video of the battle for Iwo, I don't remember ever seeing that picture. Thanks Joe.

[Subdeacon Joe]

7 minutes ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

I've seen many pictures and video of the battle for Iwo, I don't remember ever seeing that picture. Thanks Joe.

 

Amazing how much stuff is still turning up, isn't it?  That one, and others in the article,  were new to me , too.

[irish ike, SASS #43615]

The movie Flags of our Fathers does a pretty good job telling the insanity of the battle. And then what happened after it.

[PowderRiverCowboy]

We Can play this all Day went to 60th reunion with 2 Marine Vets that I knew, Jack Lucas (MOH) and Gene Gustad

40 Got some of the sand I picked up from Green Beach 

 

Edited February 24 by PowderRiverCowboy

[Stump Water]

1 hour ago, irish ike, SASS #43615 said:

The movie Flags of our Fathers does a pretty good job telling the insanity of the battle. And then what happened after it.

 

And Flyboys: A True Story of Courage also by Bradley.  

 

Quote

That book tells the story of an air raid that took place during the Battle of Iwo Jima, some 150 miles away, when United States warplanes bombed the small communications outpost on Chichi Jima. While Iwo Jima had Japanese forces numbering 22,000, Chichi Jima's forces numbered 25,000. Nine American crewmen survived after being shot down in the raid. One was picked up by the American submarine USS Finback. That was Lieutenant George H. W. Bush, who later went on to become the 41st President of the United States. The other eight were captured as POWs by the Japanese and were executed and eaten, a fact that remained hidden until much later.