LEATHERNECK MAGAZINE - IWO JIMA 40th ANNIVERSARY EDITION. February 1985. Includes the following articles with photographs. THE FLAG RAISINGS ON IWO JIMA, BLOOD AND SAND, THE YOUNGEST FLAG RAISER, KENTUCKY'S IWO JIMA MEMORIAL, GOLD STAR MOTHER ( mother of Franklin Sousley ), MARINES DON'T FORGET & JOHN WAYNE AND THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA and other Leatherneck features articles and sections. Great reading. The magazine is in Excellent unread condition.   USPS First class mail in the Continental US is $ 5.50. Will ship Worldwide and will combine shipping when practical.


Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is an iconic photograph of six United States Marines raising the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in the final stages of the Pacific War. The photograph, taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press on February 23, 1945, was first published in Sunday newspapers two days later and reprinted in thousands of publications. It was the only photograph to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in the same year as its publication, and was later used for the construction of the Marine Corps War Memorial in 1954, which was dedicated to honor all Marines who died in service since 1775. The memorial, sculpted by Felix de Weldon, is located in Arlington Ridge Park,[1] near the Ord-Weitzel Gate to Arlington National Cemetery and the Netherlands Carillon. The photograph has come to be regarded in the United States as one of the most significant and recognizable images of World War II.

The flag raising occurred in the early afternoon, after the mountaintop was captured and a smaller flag was raised on top that morning. Three of the six Marines in the photograph—Sergeant Michael Strank, Corporal Harlon Block, and Private First Class Franklin Sousley—were killed in action during the battle; Block was identified as Sergeant Hank Hansen until January 1947 and Sousley was identified as PhM2c. John Bradley, USN, until June 2016.[2] The other three Marines in the photograph were Corporals (then Privates First Class) Ira Hayes, Harold Schultz, and Harold Keller; Schultz was identified as Sousley until June 2016[2] and Keller was identified as Rene Gagnon until October 2019.[3] All of the men served in the 5th Marine Division on Iwo Jima.

The Associated Press has relinquished its copyright to the photograph, placing it in the public domain.[4]

Mount Suribachi (pictured in 2001) is the dominant geographical feature of the island of Iwo Jima.
On February 19, 1945, the United States invaded Iwo Jima as part of its island-hopping strategy to defeat Japan. Iwo Jima originally was not a target, but the relatively quick fall of the Philippines left the Americans with a longer-than-expected lull prior to the planned invasion of Okinawa. Iwo Jima is located halfway between Japan and the Mariana Islands, where American long-range bombers were based, and was used by the Japanese as an early warning station, radioing warnings of incoming American bombers to the Japanese homeland. The Americans, after capturing the island, weakened the Japanese early warning system, and used it as an emergency landing strip for damaged bombers.[5]

Iwo Jima is a volcanic island, shaped like a trapezoid. Marines on the island described it as "a large, gray pork chop".[6] The island was heavily fortified, and the invading Marines suffered high casualties. Politically, the island is part of the prefecture of Tokyo. It would be the first Japanese homeland soil to be captured by the Americans, and it was a matter of honor for the Japanese to prevent its capture.[7]

The island is dominated by Mount Suribachi, a 546-foot (166 m) dormant volcanic cone at the southern tip of the island. Tactically, the top of Suribachi was one of the most important locations on the island. From that vantage point, the Japanese defenders were able to spot artillery accurately onto the Americans—particularly the landing beaches. The Japanese fought most of the battle from underground bunkers and pillboxes. It was common for Marines to disable a pillbox using grenades or flamethrowers, only to come under renewed fire from it a few minutes later, after replacement Japanese infantry arrived into the pillbox through a tunnel. The American effort concentrated on isolating and capturing Suribachi first, a goal that was achieved on February 23, four days after the battle began. Despite capturing Suribachi, the battle continued to rage for many days, and the island would not be declared "secure" until 31 days later, on March 26.[8]

Two flag-raisings
There were two American flags raised on top of Mount Suribachi, on February 23, 1945. The photograph Rosenthal took was actually of the second flag-raising, in which a larger replacement flag was raised by Marines who did not raise the first flag.[9]:xix-xxi

Raising the first flag
A U.S. flag was first raised atop Mount Suribachi soon after the mountaintop was captured at around 10:20 a.m. on February 23, 1945.[9]:48


Raising the First Flag on Iwo Jima by SSgt. Louis R. Lowery, USMC, is the most widely circulated photograph of the first flag flown on Mt. Suribachi.
Left to right: 1st Lt. Harold Schrier[10] (kneeling behind radioman's legs), Pfc. Raymond Jacobs (radioman reassigned from F Company), Sgt. Henry "Hank" Hansen wearing cap, holding flagstaff with left hand), Platoon Sgt. Ernest "Boots" Thomas (seated), Pvt. Phil Ward (holding lower flagstaff with his right hand), PhM2c. John Bradley, USN (holding flagstaff with both hands, his right hand above Ward's right hand and his left hand below.), Pfc. James Michels (holding M1 Carbine), and Cpl. Charles W. Lindberg (standing above Michels).
Lieutenant Colonel Chandler W. Johnson, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 28th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division, ordered Marine Captain Dave Severance, commander of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Marines, to send a platoon to seize and occupy the crest of Mount Suribachi.[11] First Lieutenant Harold G. Schrier, executive officer of Easy Company, who had replaced the wounded Third Platoon commander, John Keith Wells,[12] volunteered to lead a 40-man combat patrol up the mountain. Lieutenant Colonel Johnson (or 1st Lieutenant George G. Wells, the battalion adjutant, whose job it was to carry the flag) had taken the 54-by-28-inch/140-by-71-centimeter flag from the battalion's transport ship, USS Missoula, and handed the flag to Schrier.[13][14] Johnson said to Schrier, "If you get to the top, put it up." Schrier assembled the patrol at 8 a.m. to begin the climb up the mountain.

Despite the large numbers of Japanese troops in the immediate vicinity, Schrier's patrol made it to the rim of the crater at about 10:15 a.m., having come under little or no enemy fire, as the Japanese were being bombarded at the time.[15] The flag was attached by Schrier and two Marines to a Japanese iron water pipe found on top, and the flagstaff was raised and planted by Schrier, assisted by Platoon Sergeant Ernest Thomas and Sergeant Oliver Hansen at about 10:30 a.m.[10] (on February 25, during a CBS press interview aboard the flagship USS Eldorado about the flag-raising, Thomas stated that he, Schrier, and Hansen (platoon guide) had actually raised the flag.[16] The raising of the national colors immediately caused a loud cheering reaction from the Marines, sailors, and coast guardsmen on the beach below and from the men on the ships near the beach. The loud noise made by the servicemen and blasts of the ship horns alerted the Japanese, who up to this point had stayed in their cave bunkers. Schrier and his men near the flagstaff then came under fire from Japanese troops, but the Marines quickly eliminated the threat.[9]:15 Schrier was later awarded the Navy Cross for volunteering to take the patrol up Mount Suribachi and raising the American flag, and a Silver Star Medal for a heroic action in March while in command of D Company, 2/28 Marines on Iwo Jima.

Photographs of the first flag flown on Mount Suribachi were taken by Staff Sergeant Louis R. Lowery of Leatherneck magazine, who accompanied the patrol up the mountain, and other photographers afterwards.[17][18] Others involved with the first flag-raising include Corporal Charles W. Lindberg (who also helped raise the flag),[19] Privates First Class James Michels, Harold Schultz, Raymond Jacobs (F Company radioman), Private Phil Ward, and Navy corpsman John Bradley.[20][21] This flag was too small, however, to be easily seen from the northern side of Mount Suribachi, where heavy fighting would go on for several more days.

The Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, had decided the previous night that he wanted to go ashore and witness the final stage of the fight for the mountain. Now, under a stern commitment to take orders from Howlin' Mad Smith, the secretary was churning ashore in the company of the blunt, earthy general. Their boat touched the beach just after the flag went up, and the mood among the high command turned jubilant. Gazing upward, at the red, white, and blue speck, Forrestal remarked to Smith: "Holland, the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years".[22][23]

Forrestal was so taken with fervor of the moment that he decided he wanted the Second Battalion's flag flying on Mt. Suribachi as a souvenir. The news of this wish did not sit well with 2nd Battalion Commander Chandler Johnson, whose temperament was every bit as fiery as Howlin Mad's. "To hell with that!" the colonel spat when the message reached him. The flag belonged to the battalion, as far as Johnson was concerned. He decided to secure it as soon as possible, and dispatched his assistant operations officer, Lieutenant Ted Tuttle, to the beach to obtain a replacement flag. As an afterthought, Johnson called after Tuttle: "And make it a bigger one."[24]

— James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers
Raising the second flag
The photograph taken by Rosenthal was the second flag-raising on top of Mount Suribachi, on February 23, 1945.[9]:xix

File:Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima (color).ogv
Sgt. Genaust's film shot of the second flag-raising, excerpted from the 1945 Carriers Hit Tokyo newsreel
On orders from Colonel Chandler Johnson—passed on by Easy Company's commander, Captain Dave Severance—Sergeant Michael Strank, one of Second Platoon's squad leaders, was to take three members of his rifle squad (Corporal Harlon H. Block and Privates First Class Franklin R. Sousley and Ira H. Hayes) and climb up Mount Suribachi to raise a replacement flag on top; the three took supplies or laid telephone wire on the way up to the top. Severance also dispatched Private First Class Rene A. Gagnon, the battalion runner (messenger) for Easy Company, to the command post for fresh SCR-300 walkie-talkie batteries to take to the top.[25]

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Albert Theodore Tuttle[24] under Johnson's orders, had found a large (96-by-56–inch) flag in nearby Tank Landing Ship USS LST-779. He made his way back to the command post and gave it to Johnson. Johnson, in turn, gave it to Rene Gagnon, with orders to take it up to Schrier on Mount Suribachi and raise it.[26] The official Marine Corps history of the event is that Tuttle received the flag from Navy Ensign Alan Wood of USS LST-779, who in turn had received the flag from a supply depot in Pearl Harbor.[27][28][29] Severance had confirmed that the second larger flag was in fact provided by Alan Wood even though Wood could not recognize any of the pictures of the second flag's raisers as Gagnon.[30] The flag was sewn by Mabel Sauvageau, a worker at the "flag loft" of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard.[31]


The flags from the first and second flag-raisings are preserved in the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia. The second flag, pictured here, was damaged by the high winds at the peak of Suribachi.
First Lieutenant George Greeley Wells, who had been the Second Battalion, 28th Marines adjutant officially in charge of the two American flags flown on Mount Suribachi, stated in the New York Times in 1991, that Lieutenant Colonel Johnson ordered him (Wells) to get the second flag, and that he (Wells) sent Rene Gagnon his battalion runner, to the ships on shore for the flag, and that Gagnon returned with a flag and gave it to him (Wells), and that Gagnon took this flag up Mt. Suribachi with a message for Schrier to raise it and send the other flag down with Gagnon. Wells stated that he received the first flag back from Gagnon and secured it at the Marine headquarters command post. Wells also stated that he had handed the first flag to Lieutenant Schrier to take up Mount Suribachi.[13]

The Coast Guard Historian's Office recognizes the claims made by former U.S. Coast Guardsman Quartermaster Robert Resnick, who served aboard the USS Duval County at Iwo Jima. "Before he died in November 2004, Resnick said Gagnon came aboard LST-758[32] the morning of February 23 looking for a flag.[33] Resnick said he grabbed a flag from a bunting box and asked permission from his ship's commanding officer Lt. Felix Molenda to donate it.[34] Resnick kept quiet about his participation until 2001."[35][36]

Rosenthal's photograph

The six second flag-raisers:
#1, Cpl. Harlon Block (KIA)
#2, Pfc. Harold Keller
#3, Pfc. Franklin Sousley (KIA)
#4, Sgt. Michael Strank (KIA)
#5, Pfc. Harold Schultz
#6, Pfc. Ira Hayes
Gagnon, Strank, and Strank's three Marines reached the top of the mountain around noon without being fired upon. Rosenthal, along with Marine photographers Sergeant Bill Genaust (who was killed in action after the flag-raising) and Private First Class Bob Campbell[37] were climbing Suribachi at this time. On the way up, the trio met Lowery, who had photographed the first flag-raising, coming down. They considered turning around, but Lowery told them that the summit was an excellent vantage point from which to take photographs.[38] The three photographers reached the summit as the Marines were attaching the flag to an old Japanese water pipe.

Rosenthal put his Speed Graphic camera on the ground (set to 1/400 sec shutter speed, with the f-stop between 8 and 11 and Agfa film[39][40]) so he could pile rocks to stand on for a better vantage point. In doing so, he nearly missed the shot. The Marines began raising the flag. Realizing he was about to miss the action, Rosenthal quickly swung his camera up and snapped the photograph without using the viewfinder.[41] Ten years after the flag-raising, Rosenthal wrote:

Out of the corner of my eye, I had seen the men start the flag up. I swung my camera and shot the scene. That is how the picture was taken, and when you take a picture like that, you don't come away saying you got a great shot. You don't know.[40]

Sergeant Genaust, who was standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder with Rosenthal about three feet away,[40] was shooting motion-picture film during the second flag-raising. His film captures the second event at an almost-identical angle to Rosenthal's shot. Of the six flag-raisers in the picture—Ira Hayes, Harold Schultz (identified in June 2016), Michael Strank, Franklin Sousley, Harold Keller (identified in 2019), and Harlon Block—only Hayes, Keller (Marine corporal Rene Gagnon was incorrectly identified in the Rosenthal flag-raising photo), and Schultz (Navy corpsman John Bradley was incorrectly identified) survived the battle.[2] Strank and Block were killed on March 1, six days after the flag-raising, Strank by a shell, possibly fired from an offshore American destroyer and Block a few hours later by a mortar round.[9]:18 Sousley was shot and killed by a Japanese sniper on March 21, a few days before the island was declared secure.[9]:23

Publication and staging confusion
Following the flag-raising, Rosenthal sent his film to Guam to be developed and printed.[42] George Tjaden of Hendricks, Minnesota, was likely the technician who printed it.[43] Upon seeing it, Associated Press (AP) photograph editor John Bodkin exclaimed "Here's one for all time!" and immediately transmitted the image to the AP headquarters in New York City at 7:00 am, Eastern War Time.[44] The photograph was quickly picked up off the wire by hundreds of newspapers. It "was distributed by Associated Press within seventeen and one-half hours after Rosenthal shot it—an astonishingly fast turnaround time in those days."[45]

However, the photograph was not without controversy. Following the second flag-raising, Rosenthal had the Marines of Easy Company pose for a group shot, the "gung-ho" shot.[46] A few days after the photograph was taken, Rosenthal—back on Guam—was asked if he had posed the photograph. Thinking the questioner was referring to the 'gung-ho' photograph, he replied "Sure." After that, Robert Sherrod, a Time-Life correspondent, told his editors in New York that Rosenthal had staged the flag-raising photograph. Time's radio show, Time Views the News, broadcast a report, charging that "Rosenthal climbed Suribachi after the flag had already been planted. ... Like most photographers [he] could not resist reposing his characters in historic fashion."[47] As a result of this report, Rosenthal was repeatedly accused of staging the photograph or covering up the first flag-raising. One New York Times book reviewer even went so far as to suggest revoking his Pulitzer Prize.[47] In the following decades, Rosenthal repeatedly and vociferously denied claims that the flag-raising was staged. "I don't think it is in me to do much more of this sort of thing ... I don't know how to get across to anybody what 50 years of constant repetition means," he said in 1995.[47]

Incorrect identifications

Joe Rosenthal in 1990
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, upon seeing Rosenthal's flag-raising photograph, saw its potential to use for the upcoming Seventh War Loan Drive to help fund the war effort. He then ordered the flag-raisers to be identified and sent to Washington, D.C. after the fighting on the island ended (March 26, 1945).[9]:xviii

Rosenthal did not take the names of those in the photograph. On April 7, Rene Gagnon was the first of the second "flag-raisers" to arrive in Washington, D.C. Using an enlargement of the photograph that did not show the faces of the flag-raisers, he named himself, Henry Hansen, Franklin Sousley, John Bradley and Michael Strank, as being in the photograph. He initially refused to name Ira Hayes, as Hayes did not want the publicity and threatened him with physical harm.[48] However, upon being summoned to Marine headquarters and told that refusal to name the last flag-raiser was a serious crime, he identified the sixth flag-raiser as Hayes.

President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. On April 19, Bradley (then on crutches) and Hayes arrived in Washington, D.C. On April 20, the three surviving second flag-raisers, identified then as Gagnon, Bradley, and Hayes, met President Truman in the White House. On May 9, during a ceremony at the nation's capitol, the three men raised the original second flag to initiate the bond tour which began on May 11 in New York City. On May 24, Hayes was taken off the tour due to problems caused by drinking alcohol and ordered back to his company and regiment which had returned to Hawaii. Gagnon and Bradley completed the tour which ended on July 4 in Washington, D.C. The bond drive was a success, raising $26.3 billion, twice the tour's goal.[49]

Harlon Block and Henry Hansen
Gagnon misidentified Corporal Harlon Block as Sergeant Henry O. "Hank" Hansen in Rosenthal's photo (both were killed in action on March 1). Initially, Bradley concurred with all of Gagnon's identifications. On April 8, 1945, the Marine Corps released the identification of five of the six flag raisers, including Hansen rather than Block (Sousley's identity was temporarily withheld pending notification of his family of his death during the battle.) Block's mother, Belle Block, refused to accept the official identification, noting that she had "changed so many diapers on that boy's butt, I know it's my boy."[50] When Hayes was interviewed about the identities of the flag raisers and shown a photo of the flag raising by a Marine public relations officer on April 19, he told the officer that it was definitely Harlon Block and not Hansen at the base of the flagpole. The lieutenant colonel then told Hayes that the identifications had already been officially released, and ordered Hayes to keep silent about it[51] (during the investigation, the colonel denied Hayes told him about Block). Block, Sousley, and Hayes were close friends in the same squad of Second Platoon, E Company, while Hansen, who helped raise the first flag, was a member of Third Platoon, E Company.

In 1946, Hayes hitchhiked to Texas and informed Block's parents that their son had, in fact, been one of the six flag raisers.[52] Block's mother, Belle, immediately sent the letter that Hayes had given her to her congressional representative Milton West. West, in turn, forwarded the letter to Marine Corps Commandant Alexander Vandegrift, who ordered an investigation. John Bradley (formerly in Third Platoon with Hansen), upon being shown the evidence (Hansen, a former Paramarine, wore his large parachutist boots in an exposed manner on Iwo Jima), agreed that it was probably Block and not Hansen.[53] In January 1947, the Marine Corps officially announced it was Block in the photograph and not Hansen at the base of the flagpole. Hayes also was named as being in the far left position of the flag raisers replacing the position Sousley was determined to have had up until then; Sousley was now in back of and to the right of Strank (in 2016, Harold Schutz was named in this position and Sousley was named in the position where Bradley was named).

Ira remembered what Rene Gagnon and John Bradley could not have remembered, because they did not join the little cluster until the last moment: that it was Harlon [Block], Mike [Strank], Franklin [Sousley] and [Hayes] who had ascended Suribachi midmorning to lay telephone wire; it was Rene [Gagnon] who had come along with the replacement flag. Hansen had not been part of this action.[54]

Harold H. Schultz and John Bradley
On June 23, 2016, the Marine Corps publicly announced that Marine Corporal (then Private First Class) Harold Schultz was one of the flag-raisers and Navy corpsman John Bradley was not one of the flag-raisers in Rosenthal's second flag-raising photograph. Harold Schultz was identified as being in Franklin Sousley's position to the right and in front of Ira Hayes, and Sousley was identified as being in Bradley's position to the right and behind Rene Gagnon (identified as Harold Keller in 2019) behind Harlon Block at the base of the flagpole.[2] Bradley and Schultz had been present when both flags were actually raised, while Sousley was only on Mount Suribachi when he helped raise the second flag. Schultz was also part of the group of Marines and corpsmen who posed for Rosenthal's second "gung ho" photo.

Bradley, who died in 1994, seldom did an interview about the famous second flag-raising, occasionally deflecting questions by claiming he had forgotten.[55] He changed his story numerous times, saying that he raised or pitched in to raise the flag, and also that he was on, and not on, Mount Suribachi when the first flag was raised.[56] Within his family, it was considered a taboo subject, and when they received calls or invitations to speak on certain holidays, they were told to say he was away fishing at his cottage. At the time of Bradley's death, his son James said that he knew almost nothing about his father's wartime experiences.[50] James Bradley spent four years interviewing and researching the topic and published a nonfiction book entitled Flags of Our Fathers (2000) about the flag-raising and its participants.[57] The book, which was a bestseller, was later adapted into a 2006 film of the same name, directed by Clint Eastwood.

After being honorably discharged, Schultz moved to California and made his career with the United States Postal Service. He died in 1995.

The possibility that any flag-raiser had been misidentified was publicly raised for the first time in November 2014 by Eric Krelle an amateur historian and collector of World War II-era Marine Corps memorabilia, and an Irish citizen and amateur historian named Stephen Foley.[58] Studying other photographs taken that day and video footage, Krelle and Foley argued that Franklin Sousley was in the fourth position (left to right) instead of Bradley and Harold Schultz of Los Angeles (originally from Detroit) was in the second position, previously identified as Sousley.[58] Initially, Marine Corps historians and officials did not accept those findings, but began their own investigation.[59] On June 23, 2016, they confirmed Krelle's and Foley's findings, stating that Schultz was in Sousley's place, Sousley was standing next to Block, and that Bradley was not in the photo at all.[60] James Bradley has also changed his mind, stating that he no longer believes his father is depicted in the famous photograph.[61][62][63]

Harold Keller and Rene Gagnon
On October 16, 2019, the Marine Corps announced that Marine Corporal Harold Keller was the flag-raiser previously identified as Rene Gagnon in the Rosenthal's photograph. Stephen Foley, filmmaker Dustin Spence, and Brent Westemeyer were key to this revised identification. Photos and video footage showed that the man (originally identified as Gagnon) had a wedding ring, which matched Keller, who had married in 1944 (Gagnon was not married at the time). The man also did not have a facial mole, as Gagnon did. Finally, a photo which captured the lowering of the first flag verified what Gagnon had looked like that day, which did not match the second man in the Rosenthal photo.[64]

Legacy

C. C. Beall's poster for the Seventh War Loan Drive
Rosenthal's photograph was used as the basis for C. C. Beall's poster Now... All Together for the Seventh War Loan Drive (14 May - 30 June 1945).[9]:63–5

Rosenthal's photograph won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Photography, the only photograph to win the prize in the same year it was taken.[65]

News pros were not the only ones greatly impressed by the photo. Navy Captain T.B. Clark was on duty at Patuxent Air Station in Maryland that Saturday when it came humming off the wire in 1945. He studied it for a minute, and then thrust it under the gaze of Navy Petty Officer Felix de Weldon. De Weldon was an Austrian immigrant schooled in European painting and sculpture. De Weldon could not take his eyes off the photo. In its classic triangular lines he recognized similarities with the ancient statues he had studied. He reflexively reached for some sculptor's clay and tools. With the photograph before him he labored through the night. Within 72 hours of the photo's release, he had replicated the six boys pushing a pole, raising a flag.[44][66] Upon seeing the finished model, the Marine Corps commandant had de Weldon assigned to the Marine Corps[67] until de Weldon was discharged from the navy after the war was over.

Starting in 1951, de Weldon was commissioned to design a memorial to the Marine Corps. It took de Weldon and hundreds of his assistants three years to finish it. Hayes, Gagnon, and Bradley, posed for de Weldon, who used their faces as a model. The three Marine flag raisers who did not survive the battle were sculpted from photographs.[68]


The U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia

The obverse of the 2005 Marine Corps 230th Anniversary silver dollar
The flag-raising Rosenthal (and Genaust) photographed was the replacement flag/flagstaff for the first flag/flagstaff that was raised on Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945. There was some resentment from former Marines of the original 40-man patrol that went up Mount Suribachi including by those involved with the first flag-raising, that they did not receive the recognition they deserved. These included Staff Sgt. Lou Lowery, who took the first photos of the first flag flying over Mt. Suribachi; Charles W. Lindberg, who helped tie the first American flag to the first flagpole on Mount Suribachi (and who was, until his death in June 2007, one of the last living persons depicted in either flag-flying scene),[69] who complained for several years that he helped to raise the flag and "was called a liar and everything else. It was terrible" (because of all the recognition and publicity over and directed to the replacement flag-raisers and that flag-raising);[70] and Raymond Jacobs, photographed with the patrol commander around the base of the first flag flying over Mt. Suribachi, who complained until he died in 2008 that he was still not recognized by the Marine Corps by name as being the radioman in the photo.

The original Rosenthal photograph is currently in the possession of Roy H. Williams, who bought it from the estate of John Faber, the official historian for the National Press Photographers Association, who had received it from Rosenthal.[71] Both flags (from the first and second flag-raisings) are now located in the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia.[72]

Ira Hayes, following the war, was plagued with depression brought on by survivor guilt and became an alcoholic. His tragic life, and death in 1955 at the age of 32, were memorialized in the 1961 motion picture The Outsider, starring Tony Curtis as Hayes, and the folk song "The Ballad of Ira Hayes", written by Peter LaFarge and recorded by Johnny Cash in 1964.[73] Bob Dylan later covered the song, as did Kinky Friedman.[74] According to the song, after the war:

Then Ira started drinkin' hard
Jail was often his home
They'd let him raise the flag and lower it
Like you'd throw a dog a bone!
He died drunk early one mornin'
Alone in the land he fought to save
Two inches of water in a lonely ditch
Was a grave for Ira Hayes.

Rene Gagnon, his wife, and his son visited Tokyo and Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima during the 20th anniversary of the battle of Iwo Jima in 1965.[75] After the war, he worked at Delta Air Lines as a ticket agent, opened his own travel agency, and was a maintenance director of an apartment complex in Manchester, New Hampshire. He died while at work in 1979, age 54.[25][76]

In other media

U.S. postage stamp, 1945 issue, commemorating the battle of Iwo Jima
Rosenthal's photograph has been reproduced in a number of other formats. It appeared on 3.5 million posters for the seventh war bond drive.[47] It has also been reproduced with many unconventional media such as Lego bricks, butter, ice, Etch A Sketch and corn mazes.[77]

The Iwo Jima flag-raising has been depicted in other films including 1949's Sands of Iwo Jima (in which the three surviving flag raisers make a cameo appearance at the end of the film) and 1961's The Outsider, a biography of Ira Hayes starring Tony Curtis.[78]

In July 1945, the United States Postal Service released a postage stamp bearing the image.[79] The U.S. issued another stamp in 1995 showing the flag-raising as part of its 10-stamp series marking the 50th anniversary of World War II.[79] In 2005, the United States Mint released a commemorative silver dollar bearing the image.

A similar photograph was taken by Thomas E. Franklin of the Bergen Record in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Officially known as Ground Zero Spirit, the photograph is perhaps better known as Raising the Flag at Ground Zero, and shows three firefighters raising a U.S. flag in the ruins of the World Trade Center shortly after 5 pm.[80] Painter Jamie Wyeth also painted a related image entitled September 11th based on this scene. It illustrates rescue workers raising a flag at Ground Zero. Other iconic photographs frequently compared include V–J day in Times Square, Into the Jaws of Death, Raising a flag over the Reichstag, and the Raising of the Ink Flag.[81]

The highly recognizable image is one of the most parodied photographs in history.[77] Anti-war activists in the 1960s altered the flag to bear a peace symbol, as well as several anti-establishment artworks.[82] Edward Kienholz's Portable War Memorial in 1968 depicted faceless Marines raising the flag on an outdoor picnic table in a typical American consumerist environment of the 1960s.[83][84] It was parodied again during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979 to depict the flag being planted into Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's behind.[82] In the early 2000s, to represent gay pride, photographer Ed Freeman shot a photograph[85] for the cover of an issue of Frontiers magazine, reenacting the scene with a rainbow flag instead of an American flag.[86] Time magazine came under fire in 2008 after altering the image for use on its cover, replacing the American flag with a tree for an issue focused on global warming.[82] The British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association likewise came under criticism in 2010 for a poster depicting employees raising a flag marked "BASSA" at the edge of a runway.[82]

Cecil Calvert (C. C.) Beall (1892–1970) was an American commercial illustrator and portrait painter. He did watercolor art and drawings for magazines and comic books. Beall designed posters for the United States government for war loan drives during World War II.



Lore of the Corps

Starting in boot camp, all Marines study the actions of those who have served before them. The history of the Marine Corps is a rich tapestry weaving together the contributions of all Marines. Over the past two centuries, certain aspects of the Corps’ history have taken on an almost legendary status. Below are examples of some of the stories, terms, and traditions that have come to be known as the “Lore of the Corps.”

The 

The Blood Stripe

Marine Corps tradition maintains that the red stripe worn on the trousers of officers and noncommissioned officers, and commonly known as the “blood stripe,” commemorates those Marines killed storming the castle of Chapultepec in 1847. Although this belief is firmly embedded in the traditions of the Corps, it has no basis in fact. The use of stripes clearly predates the Mexican War.


In 1834, uniform regulations were changed to comply with President Andrew Jackson’s wishes that Marine uniforms return to the green and white worn during the Revolutionary War. The wearing of stripes on the trousers began in 1837, following the Army practice of wearing stripes the same color as uniform jacket facings. Colonel Commandant Archibald Henderson ordered those stripes to be buff white. Two years later, when President Jackson left office, Colonel Henderson returned the uniform to dark blue coats faced red. In keeping with earlier regulations, stripes became dark blue edged in red. In 1849, the stripes were changed to a solid red. Ten years later uniform regulations prescribed a scarlet cord inserted into the outer seams for noncommissioned officers and musicians and a scarlet welt for officers. Finally, in 1904, the simple scarlet stripe seen today was adopted.


"Leatherneck"

In 1776, the Naval Committee of the Second Continental Congress prescribed new uniform regulations. Marine uniforms were to consist of green coats with buff white facings, buff breeches and black gaiters. Also mandated was a leather stock to be worn by officers and enlisted men alike. This leather collar served to protect the neck against cutlass slashes and to hold the head erect in proper military bearing. Sailors serving aboard ship with Marines came to call them “leathernecks.”


Use of the leather stock was retained until after the Civil War when it was replaced by a strip of black glazed leather attached to the inside front of the dress uniform collar. The last vestiges of the leather stock can be seen in today’s modern dress uniform, which features a stiff cloth tab behind the front of the collar.


The term “leatherneck” transcended the actual use of the leather stock and became a common nickname for United States Marines. Other nicknames include “soldiers of the sea,” “devil dogs,” and the slightly pejorative “gyrene,” (a term which was applied to the British Royal Marines in 1894 and to the U.S. Marines by 1911), and “jarhead.”

Semper Fidelis

"Semper Fidelis"

The Marine Corps adopted the motto “Semper Fidelis” in 1883. Prior to that date three mottoes, all traditional rather than official, were used. The first of these, antedating the War of 1812, was “Fortitudine.” The Latin phrase for “with courage,” it was emblazoned on the brass shako plates worn by Marines during the Federal period. The second motto was “By Sea and by Land,” taken from the British Royal Marines “Per Mare, Per Terram.” Until 1848, the third motto was “To the shores of Tripoli.” Inscribed on the Marine Corps colors, this commemorated Presley O’Bannon’s capture of the city of Derna in 1805. In 1848, this was revised to “From the halls of the Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.”


“Semper Fidelis” signifies the dedication that individual Marines have to “Corps and country,” and to their fellow Marines. It is a way of life. Said one former Marine, “It is not negotiable. It is not relative, but absolute…Marines pride themselves on their mission and steadfast dedication to accomplish it.”

"Devil Dogs"

Picture

According to Marine Corps tradition, German soldiers facing the Marines at Belleau Wood called them teufelhunden. These were the devil dogs of Bavarian folklore - vicious, ferocious, and tenacious. Shortly thereafter, a Marine recruiting poster depicted a dachshund, wearing an Iron Cross and a spiked helmet, fleeing an English bulldog wearing the eagle, globe and anchor.


A tradition was born. Although an “unofficial mascot,” the first bulldog to “serve” in the United States Marine Corps was King Bulwark. Renamed Jiggs, he was enlisted on 14 October 1922 for the “term of life.” Enlistment papers were signed by Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler. Although he began his career as a private, Jiggs was quickly promoted to the rank of sergeant major. His death at the age of four was mourned throughout the Corps. His body lay in a satin-lined casket in a hangar on Marine Corps Base Quantico until he was buried with military honors.


Other bulldogs followed in the tradition of Jiggs. From the 1930s through the early 1950s, the name of the bulldogs was changed to Smedley as a tribute to Major General Butler. In the late 1950s, the Marine Barracks in Washington became the new home for the Marine Corps’ bulldog. Chesty, named in honor of the legendary Lieutenant General Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller, Jr, made his first public appearance on 5 July 1957.


Today the tradition continues. The bulldog, tough, muscular and fearless, has come to epitomize the fighting spirit of the United States Marine Corps.

8th and I

Picture

A notice posted in the Washington newspaper National Intelligence on 3 April 1801 offered “a premium of 100 dollars” for the “best plan of barracks for the Marines sufficient to hold 500 men, with their officers and a house for the Commandant.” The site for the barracks, near the Washington Navy Yard and within marching distance of the Capitol, was chosen by President Thomas Jefferson, who rode through Washington with Lieutenant Commandant William W. Burrows.


The competition was won by George Hadfield, who laid out the barracks and the house in a quadrangle. The barracks were established in 1801, the house, home of the Commandant of the Marine Corps, was completed in 1806. It is the oldest public building in continuous use in the nation’s capital.


Marine Corps traditions holds that when Washington was burned by the British during the War of 1812, both the Commandant’s House and the barracks were spared out of respect for the bravery shown by Marines during the Battle for Bladensburg.


Today, 8th and I is home to one of the most dramatic military celebrations in the world -- The Evening Parade. Held every Friday evening from May through August, the Evening Parade features “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, “The Commandant’s Own” The United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, and the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon. It has become a lasting symbol of the professionalism, discipline, and esprit de Corps of the United States Marines, a celebration of the pride taken in a history that spans more than 230 years.

The Eagle, Globe and Anchor

The origins of the eagle, globe, and anchor insignia worn by Marines can be traced to those ornaments worn by early Continental Marines as well as to the British Royal Marines.


In 1776, Marines wore a device depicting a fouled anchor. Changes were made to that device in 1798, 1821, and 1824. An eagle was added in 1834. The current insignia dates to 1868 when Brigadier General Commandant Jacob Zeilin convened a board “to decide and report upon the various devices of cap ornaments of the Marine Corps.” A new insignia was recommended and approved by the Commandant. On 19 November 1868, the new insignia was accepted by the Secretary of the Navy.


The new emblem featured a globe showing the western hemisphere intersected by a fouled anchor and surmounted by an eagle. Atop the device, a ribbon was inscribed with the Latin motto “Semper Fidelis.” The globe signified the service of the United States Marines throughout the world. The anchor was indicative of the amphibious nature of the Marine Corps. The eagle, symbolizing a proud nation, was not the American bald eagle, but rather a crested eagle, a species found throughout the world.


On 22 June 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an Executive Order which approved the design of an official seal for the United States Marine Corps. Designed at the request of General Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr., Commandant of the Marine Corps, the seal replaced the crested eagle with the American bald eagle, its wings proudly displayed. With the approval of this seal by the President of the United States in 1955, the emblem centered on the seal was adopted as the official Marine Corps emblem.


The eagle, globe, and anchor insignia is a testament to the training of the individual Marine, to the history and traditions of the Marine Corps, and to the values upheld by the Corps. It represents “those intangible possessions that cannot be issued: pride, honor, integrity, and being able to carry on the traditions for generations of warriors past.” Said retired Sergeant Major David W. Sommers, “the emblem of the Corps is the common thread that binds all Marines together, officer and enlisted, past and present…The eagle, globe and anchor tells the world who we are, what we stand for, and what we are capable of, in a single glance.”

The Marine Hymn

Following the Barbary Wars of 1805, the Colors of the Corps were inscribed with the words “to the shores of Tripoli.” After the capture and occupation of Mexico City in 1847, the Colors were changed to read “from the shores of Tripoli to the Halls of Montezuma.” These events in Marine Corps history are the origin of the opening words of the Marines’ Hymn.


 Tradition holds that the words to the Marines’ Hymn were written by a Marine serving in Mexico. In truth, the author of the words remains unknown. Colonel Albert S. McLemore and Walter F. Smith, Assistant Band Director during the John Philip Sousa era, sought to trace the melody to its origins. It was reported to Colonel McLemore that by 1878 the tune was very popular in Paris, originally appearing as an aria in the Jacques Offenbach opera Genevieve de Brabant. John Philips Sousa later confirmed this belief in a letter to Major Harold Wirgman, USMC, stating “The melody of the ‘Halls of Montezuma’ is taken from Offenbach’s comic opera...”


Its origins notwithstanding, the hymn saw widespread use by the mid-1800s. Copyright ownership of the hymn was given to the Marine Corps per certificate of registration dated 19 August 1891. In 1929, it became the official hymn of the United States Marine Corps with the verses shown on the right.


On 21 November 1942, the Commandant of the Marine Corps authorized an official change in the first verse, fourth line, to reflect the changing mission of the Marine Corps. The new line read "in the air, on land and sea." That change was originally proposed by Gunnery Sergeant H.L. Tallman, an aviator and veteran of World War I.


 Shortly after World War II, Marines began to stand at attention during the playing of The Marines’ Hymn, Today that tradition continues today to honor all those who have earned the title "United States Marine."


00:0000:00

The Marines' Hymn

From the Halls of Montezuma

 to the Shores of Tripoli,

 We fight our country’s battles

 On the land as on the sea.

 First to fight for right and freedom,

 And to keep our honor clean,

 We are proud to claim the title

 of United States Marine.



 "Our flag’s unfurl’d to every breeze

 From dawn to setting sun;

 We have fought in every clime and place

 Where we could take a gun.

 In the snow of far-off northern lands

 And in sunny tropic scenes,

 You will find us always on the job

 The United States Marines.



 "Here’s health to you and to our Corps

 Which we are proud to serve;

 In many a strife we’ve fought for life

 And never lost our nerve.

 If the Army and the Navy

 Ever look on Heaven’s scenes,

 They will find the streets are guarded

 By United States Marines."

John William Thomason Jr. (28 February 1893 – 12 March 1944) was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Marine Corps, as well as an author and illustrator of several books and magazine stories.[1]

Military and literary career[edit]

Thomason was born in Huntsville, Texas, the son of a physician and the grandson of Confederate General James Longstreet's chief of staff Major TJ Goree. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on 6 April 1917 and served until his death in 1944. In 1917 Thomason married Leda Bass; they had one son, John "Jack" W Thomason III, born in 1920.[2] After serving as a Marine in World War II, Jack died in an airplane crash in Calcutta, India, in 1947.[2]

During World War I Thomason served as the executive officer of the 49th Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment and was awarded the Navy Cross.[3] Thomason served in Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua. He led the Horse Marines at the Legation in Peking, commanded the 38th Company in China, commanded the Marine Detachment of the USS Rochester (CA-2), and was promoted to lieutenant colonel commanding the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment at San Diego, then was assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. At the beginning of American involvement in World War II, Thomason was assigned to Admiral Chester Nimitz's staff as an inspector of Marine installations and visited Guadalcanal during the fighting. The U.S Navy destroyer USS John W. Thomason (DD-760) was named after him.

During a posting as commander of the Marine Detachment Naval Ammunition Depot in Dover, Delaware, he met an old Marine Corps Base Quantico classmate and comrade in arms from the World War, Laurence Stallings, famed for authoring What Price Glory?. Stallings introduced him to the editor of Scribner's Magazine who engaged Thomason to write and illustrate for the magazine whilst remaining on active duty with the Marine Corps.[4] He died in San Diego, California.

Books[edit]

Thomason wrote and illustrated over sixty short stories and magazine articles and wrote and edited book reviews for the American Mercury magazine.[4] His books include-

  • Fix Bayonets (1926) (short stories collection)
  • The United States Army Second Division Northwest of Chateau Theirry in World War I (1927)
  • Red Pants and Other Stories (1927) (short stories collection)
  • Jeb Stuart (1930)
  • Two Little Confederates (1932) (illustrator only)
  • Salt Winds and Gobi Dust (1934) (short stories collection)
  • The Adventures of General Marbot by Himself (1935) (editor and illustrator)
  • A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett of Tennessee by Himself (illustrator only)
  • Gone to Texas (1937) (novel)
  • Lone Star Preacher (1941) (novel)
  • -- and a Few Marines (1943) (short stories collection)

MARINE CORPS RECRUITING POSTERS OF THE GREAT WAR

It was an unusual morning on the steps of the New York City Public Library that first day of August 1918. The World War was at its height and American patriotism had reached a peak as well. Recruiting posters and posters to encourage people to buy war bonds seemed to be everywhere. Tables set up on street corners to recruit men for the service were common.

Even the steps of the library had been the site of other war-related rallies, but this Thursday in 1918 was unique. The commotion that began at 9 o'clock that morning was beginning to build. A platoon of Marines could be seen above the heads of the crowd -- dressed in field uniforms with traditional high collars, new steel helmets and rifles with fixed bayonets. At the center of the activity was a man in an artist's smock working on a stepladder as he painted his canvas. The stepladder was required because the canvas was larger than the artist or his subject-8 feet tall and 5 feet wide. His model stood on a pedestal a few yards away, where the crowd would have a good view. The model’s jaw was thrust forward in anger and he was frozen in the act of pulling off his suit jacket, ready for a fight.

The throng of spectators thickened as singer Al Jolson arrived and performed a new song titled after the same recruiting slogan that could now be seen on the canvas. Guest speakers and various officials appeared, too, as the day wore on, all to draw attention to the artist at work and the war effort in general. The scene was completed when a motion picture camera set up to capture the day on film. All expertly organized by James Montgomery Flagg to publicize his rendition of "Tell That To The Marines!" one of his most popular wartime recruiting posters.

Since the turn of the 20th century, America used famous artists, slogans and various psychological appeals to find recruits for military service. The Marines, historically an all-volunteer service, had been the most adept at using the poster as a successful recruiting tool. As the country edged towards war, many of these artist volunteered their services to the Marine Corps’ recruiting effort

As early as 1915, a volunteer group of artists was formed in New York under the direction of a small patriotic-minded council. The War Department had organized the group to produce posters to recruit men for service as the buildup for war heightened. The council matched requests from the War Department's Division of Pictorial Publicity with available artists.

Once a preliminary sketch was complete, it was sent from New York back to Washington, D.C., for final approval. For the Marine Corps, these requests for artwork originated at the U.S. Marine Corps Publicity Bureau, now established in Washington. Artists who provided artwork included such established artists as James Montgomery Flagg, Howard Chandler Christy and J. C. Leyendecker.

James Montgomery Flagg was perhaps the most famous of the poster artists. As one of the country's most flamboyant artists, he had established himself first as an advertising artist for Cream of Wheat in the late 180Os. By World War I, he was already the nation's foremost illustrator. During the war, he produced at least 46 posters, three of which were for the Marine Corps. His most recognizable work was for the U.S. Army. More than 4 million of his Uncle Sam "I Want You" posters were produced by the War Department during World War I. Another 400,000 were reprinted for use in World War II. Even as recently as the mid-1970s, the Army reproduced the poster for peacetime recruiting. The poster became synonymous with Flagg and with recruiting.

For the Marine Corps, Flagg not only created posters, but publicity events to help with war bond drives and recruiting. His most extravagant effort was "Tell That To The Marines!" He used an actor to pose for the work and later staged a repainting of the poster before a live crowd on the steps of the New York City Library. A man of no small ego, Flagg seemed particularly pleased with the event and gives it special attention in his autobiography:

"Another wartime innovation for which I was responsible involved the phrase 'tell that to the Marines!' It implied that the Marines are so gullible that they would believe anything. My poster of that title made it a fighting battle cry. I repainted the poster on a huge canvas on the steps of the Library with my model posing, and a platoon of Marines with bayonets marching about. Gus Edwards and Al Jolson both wrote songs using my title, and at different times each sang their version on the Library steps, yanking their coats off at the finale, as the man in my poster did."

In several of his works, Flagg used actual Marines as his models. In 1918, he painted "First In The Fight -- Always Faithful -- Be a U.S. Marine," using the captain who was in charge of the Corps' Publicity Bureau. At the start of the Second World War, Flagg was again active, producing two more posters for the Marines and several more for the war effort as a whole.

J. C. Leyendecker was an illustrator and advertising artist who came to America from Germany as a young boy. Before volunteering his talent for the production of recruiting posters, he had been successful as a cover illustrator for magazines such as Scribners and the Saturday Evening Post. Leyendecker had studied in Paris before the turn of the century and had won the prestigious Century Poster Competition in 1896. As an advertising illustrator, he became best known for his Arrow Shirt Collar and Chesterfield Cigarettes ads. His square-jawed "character," known as the Arrow shirt man, was the hallmark of his work-a character he continued to use in his posters.

Charles B. Falls was another early illustrator, recognized by some as the first true poster artist in America. He was chiefly responsible for transferring the European concept of the poster into an American style. The poster in its American form was meant to sell a product, and Falls applied this talent to the Marine Corps recruiting posters he painted in World War I. Shadowed style and rounded lettering, similar to the traditional French artists, were Falls' trademarks on his posters, such as 'This Device On A Man's Hat Or Helmet Means U.S. Marines."

One of Falls' most striking illustrations was of a Marine going "over the top" out of the trenches. Using the same background, it was paired with various slogans such as "Enlist Today," "Always First" and "EEE-YAH-YIP." Another of Falls' works featuring a Marine bulldog chasing a frightened German dachshund helped establish the new nickname of Devildogs that Marines had earned during the battle of Belleau Wood. The poster is titled "Teufelhunden (German nickname for U.S. Marine) Devildog Recruiting Station."

Falls had a special dedication to the Marines. As an established artist, he gave up many hours to serve as the Publicity Bureau's voluntary art editor during the war. Falls even went so far as to claim in publications that he would "give his undershirt to the U.S. Marine Corps."

Howard Chandler Christy was yet another artist for the Publicity Bureau who was established as a successful illustrator for books and magazines. What made Christy's work unique was his use of a female model, usually dressed in a military uniform, as the central figure in his artwork. In "If You Want To Fight, Join The U. S. Marines," his "Christy girl," as she became known, was dressed in a Marine's dress blue blouse.

Christy's technique made his work some of the most recognizable and also some of the most reproduced. His poster for the Navy, "Gee I Wish I Were A Man, I'd Join The U.S. Navy," became especially popular. Interestingly enough, Christy later married the teenage girl who modeled for these works.

A sincerely patriotic man, Christy also produced posters for war bonds and rationing. Christy was still producing art for the Marine Corps in 1920, when he painted one of the first posters, "Fly With The U.S. Marines," aimed specifically at recruiting Marines into the aviation field. He volunteered his services again in World War II and produced several pieces of art, including a poster for the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Sidney H. Riesenberg was perhaps the most prolific producer of Marine Corps recruiting posters. His earliest works for the Corps were in 1913. During the war, he painted numerous posters of Marines in various action scenes such as amphibious landings and raising the flag over hostile territory. Included on almost all of his works were the two most popular Marine recruiting slogans of the war: "First To Fight" and "Soldiers of the Sea."

Walking John

Riesenberg's most lasting contribution was a poster known to Marine Corps recruiters as "the walking John." This poster-a Marine sergeant in dress blues, walking his post with his rifle shouldered, and a battleship in the background-was used in various forms from 1917 until 1939. Like other artists, Riesenberg also pitched in to help paint posters for the home-front war bond drives and conservation of materials.

During World War I, posters were also produced by Leon A. Shafer. A cover artist for Literary Digest before joining the Publicity Bureau, he painted at least two liberty loan posters as well as recruiting posters. John A. Coughlin painted a noteworthy version of a Marine going "over the top" with a Lewis machine gun in hand, proclaiming "First In France-U.S. Marines." Artist Adolph Treidler provided the Corps with "Another Notch, Chateau Thierry," playing on the Marine's victory at that site.

The World War I period literally produced hundreds of recruiting posters for the services. Committees were formed, contests were held and art students volunteered, all making poster production in the United States higher than anywhere else in the world during the war. The effort, by the time the war reached its end, had helped the Marine Corps exceed all goals set for new enlistments. It also stocked the recruiter's shelves with artwork for the lean years between the wars that were to follow. It provided experience for artists and for new techniques of production. Early photomontage-type posters were seen, as well as collages of photos and illustrations intermingled on the same sheet.

After the war, with the Publicity Bureau still intact, the recruiting effort began to become a more and more streamlined business. Wartime themes like "first to fight" were replaced by different lures for peacetime volunteers. The Marines had learned from their experience before the war that "travel, adventure and education" were dominant themes that would attract the type of youth they sought.

The recruiting poster, as an alliance of art and psychological appeal, involved some of the best illustrators in the country and created some of the most lasting images associated with patriotic America.

Sands of Iwo Jima is a 1949 war film starring John Wayne that follows a group of United States Marines from training to the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. The film, which also features John Agar, Adele Mara and Forrest Tucker, was written by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant, and directed by Allan Dwan. The picture was a Republic Pictures production.


Sands of Iwo Jima was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (John Wayne), Best Film Editing, Best Sound Recording (Daniel J. Bloomberg) and Best Writing, Motion Picture Story.[2]



Contents

1 Plot

2 Cast

2.1 Actual Marines

3 Production

4 Acknowledgements

5 Idiom

6 See also

7 References

8 External links

Plot

The story is told from the viewpoint of Corporal Robert Dunne.


Tough-as-nails career Marine Sergeant John Stryker (John Wayne) is greatly disliked by the men of his squad, particularly the combat replacements, for the rigorous training he puts them through. He is especially despised by PFC Peter "Pete" Conway (John Agar), the arrogant, college-educated son of Colonel Sam Conway, whom Stryker served under and admired, and PFC Al Thomas (Forrest Tucker), who blames him for his demotion.


When Stryker leads his squad in the invasion of Tarawa, the men begin to appreciate his methods. The platoon leader, Lieutenant Baker, is killed seconds after he lands on the beach, and PFCs "Farmer" Soames and Choynski are wounded. The Marines are pinned down by a pillbox. Several more men are killed before Stryker is able to demolish the pillbox.


Later on, Thomas stops for coffee when he goes to get ammunition for two comrades. As a result, he returns too late — the two Marines run out of ammunition, and Hellenopolis is killed, while Bass is badly wounded.


On their first night, the squad is ordered to dig in and hold their positions. Alone and wounded, Bass begs for help. Conway considers Stryker brutal and unfeeling when he refuses to disobey orders and go to Bass's rescue.


After the battle, when Stryker discovers about Thomas's dereliction, he gets into a fistfight with him. A passing officer spots this serious offense, but Thomas claims that Stryker was merely teaching him judo. Later, a guilt-ridden Thomas abjectly apologizes to Stryker for his dereliction of duty.


Stryker reveals a softer side while on leave in Honolulu. He picks up a bargirl and goes with her to her apartment. He becomes suspicious when he hears somebody in the next room, but upon investigation, finds only a hungry baby boy. Stryker gives the woman some money and leaves.


Later, during a training exercise, McHugh, a replacement, drops a live hand grenade. Everybody drops to the ground, except Conway, who is distracted reading a letter from his wife. Stryker knocks him down, saving his life, and then proceeds to bawl him out in front of the platoon.


LVTs on Iwo Jima.jpg

Stryker's squad subsequently fights in the battle for Iwo Jima. The squad suffers heavy casualties within the first couple of hours. Stryker's squad is selected to be a part of the 40-man patrol assigned to charge up Mount Suribachi. During the charge, Eddie Flynn, Stein, and Fowler are killed. While the men are resting during a lull in the fighting, Stryker is killed by a Japanese soldier emerging from a spider hole. Bass kills the Japanese shooter. The remaining squad members find and read a letter on his corpse, a letter addressed to his son and expressing things Stryker wanted to say to him, but never did. Moments later, the squad witnesses the iconic flag raising.


Cast


General Graves B. Erskine (right), Col. David M. Shoup (center) and John Wayne (left) on the set. Erskine and Shoup were provided as technical advisors for the film by the U.S. Marine Corps. Shoup also appeared as himself in a cameo role.

John Wayne as Sgt. John M. Stryker

John Agar as PFC Peter T. "Pete" Conway

Adele Mara as Allison Bromley

Forrest Tucker as PFC Al J. Thomas

Wally Cassell as PFC Benny A. Regazzi

James Brown as PFC Charlie Bass

Richard Webb as PFC "Handsome" Dan Shipley

Arthur Franz as Corporal Robert C. Dunne/Narrator

Julie Bishop as Mary (the bargirl)

James Holden as PFC "Farmer" Soames

Peter Coe as PFC George Hellenopolis

Richard Jaeckel as PFC Frank Flynn

William Murphy as PFC Eddie Flynn

Martin Milner as Pvt Mike McHugh

George Tyne as PFC Hart S. Harris

Hal Baylor as Pvt J.E. "Ski" Choynski (credited as Hal Fieberling)

Leonard Gumley as Pvt Sid Stein

William Self as Pvt L.D. Fowler Jr.

John McGuire as Captain Joyce

Gil Herman as Lt. Baker (uncredited)

Actual Marines

Rene Gagnon, Ira Hayes, and John Bradley (Iwo Jima) the three survivors of the five Marines and one Navy corpsman who were credited with raising the second flag(in the Rosenthal photo, Probably the most famous war photograph in history) on Mount Suribachi during the actual battle, appear briefly in the film just prior to the re-enactment. Hayes was also the subject of a film biography, The Outsider, and Bradley the subject of a book by his son James, Flags of Our Fathers.


Also appearing as themselves are 1st Lt. Harold Schrier, who led the flag-raising patrol up Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima and helped raise the first flag, Col. David M. Shoup, later Commandant of the Marine Corps and recipient of the Medal of Honor at Tarawa, and Lt. Col. Henry P. "Jim" Crowe, commander of the 2nd Battalion 8th Marines at Tarawa, where he earned the U.S. Navy Cross.[3][4]


Actual battle footage is interspersed throughout the film.


Production

The film was based on a screenplay by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant from a story by Harry Brown.


Filming Locations included Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Leo Carrillo State Beach, Santa Catalina Island, Channel Islands, Janss Conejo Ranch, Thousand Oaks, Republic Studios and Universal Studios.


Acknowledgements

Several of the actors were re-united in the 1970 western Chisum (1970): John Wayne, John Agar, Forrest Tucker, and Richard Jaeckel.


In the television show King of the Hill (1997–2010), this is the favorite film of Cotton Hill, father of main character Hank Hill. Hank recalls that, during his childhood, his father would travel around Texas searching for showings of this film.


The episode "Call of Silence" (2004) in NCIS's season 2 references the film and a documentary as shared background to Marine history and legacy. The episode shows the NCIS character Timothy McGee watching the documentary To the Shores of Iwo Jima; the character Anthony DiNozzo approaches and, in furtherance of the character's schtick as an avowed and knowledgeable movie buff, begins talking about the theatrical film Sands of Iwo Jima, some scenes of which were taken from the documentary.


The Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers have a song title "The Sands of Iwo Jima" on their 2004 album The Dirty South. It is sung from the perspective of a young boy who has been exposed to World War 2 through old John Wayne movies. He asks his great-uncle, a World War II veteran, if The Sands of Iwo Jima represents the war properly; the old man smiles, shakes his head and responds, "I never saw John Wayne on the sands of Iwo Jima."


Idiom

The first recorded use of the phrase "lock and load" is in this film: twice as a metaphor for "get ready to fight" and once as a humorous invitation to drink alcohol (get loaded). As a period term, it similarly appears in the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan. Although the original use and implied meaning may be disputed, it typically described preparations for charging the M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle[5] by first locking the bolt back by pulling the charging handle rearward and then loading an 8-round en bloc clip into the now open magazine.


The phrase was similarly used in US Army infantry basic training in the Vietnam era - "lock" a magazine into the rifle, "load" a round into the chamber by pulling the bolt back and releasing it. During helicopter combat assaults rifles were typically not loaded when boarding the helicopters in a secure area. Approaching the unsecured Landing Zone, the command was given, "Lock and Load."