The Marines down below were still able to see that first flag go up and there was much cheering. Then, the fleet chimed in with whistles. Even though the fighting would continue for weeks for the volcanic island, this was a major turning point of the battle.
Before the fighting was over, 6800 Americans and 19,000 Japanese had lost their lives, but the Marines had secured the island and its three airfields. The bombing of Japan itself soon began.
The Rosenthal photo showed six men, five Marines and one Navy corpsman, raising the flag. Of them, three did not make it off Iwo Jima alive.
Clint Eastwood's famed "Flags of Our Fathers" movie barely mentioned the first flag and didn't show any of it.
James Michels' family contacted the National Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Virginia, and found they had no artifacts from the first flag raising and were kind enough to donate Mr. Michels' uniform and medals to it.
James Michels died in 1982 at the age of 67 and is buried at the Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.
A Member of the Greatest Generation. --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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