From Wikipedia.
That famous photograph of the six Americans raising the flag atop Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima was taken 70 years ago today. Joe Rosenthal was there to take the photograph of the five Marines and one Navy corpsman raising it. Sadly, there of them did not live to see the end of the battle which raged for considerably longer.
Putting that flag up did not end the battle.
Iwo Jima was a tiny eight-square mile island in the Pacific. Its importance came from the three Japanese airfields located there. The United States wanted to use them to strike at the Japanese home islands.
The picture was taken four days after the battle started.
It is quite possibly the most reproduced photograph in history and one of the most recognized images of the war and is the only photo ever to win a Pulitzer Prize in the same year it was taken.
However, it was not the first flag raised atop Mount Suribachi.
More On That Tomorrow. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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