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Flags of Our Fathers

Flags of Our Fathers . By John Bradley. Harlon Block . Texan who joined Marines with his high school football buddies. Seventh Day Adventist religious beliefs prohibited fighting but he went anyway His mother, Belle, recognized her son’s photo in the paper despite misidentification.

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Flags of Our Fathers

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  1. Flags of Our Fathers By John Bradley

  2. Harlon Block • Texan who joined Marines with his high school football buddies. • Seventh Day Adventist religious beliefs prohibited fighting but he went anyway • His mother, Belle, recognized her son’s photo in the paper despite misidentification. • Mike Strank’s second in command; he took over leadership of the unit after Mike was killed. He died hours later.

  3. John Bradley • Navy medic • Won Navy Cross for valor • Wounded in both legs • Went home to be a mortician • His son wrote the book

  4. Franklin Sousley • Raised on tobacco farm in Kentucky • Father died when he was nine; he was an only child • Died days before evacuation • Mother screamed so loud when she got the news of her son’s death, neighbors heard it clear across the fields

  5. Ira Hayes • Pima Indian from Arizona • Earned distinction as paratrooper • Quiet disposition, greatly respected Sergeant Mike Strank • Did not want any part of photo tour • Became a heavy drinker, froze to death. • Told Harlon Block’s family of his raising the flag.

  6. Rene Gagnon • Grew up only son of a widow in Manchester, New Hampshire • He carried the flag up Mt. Suribachi • He saw very little combat, he was a runner • The youngest survivor, he enjoyed the fame from the photograph more than anyone else.

  7. Mike Strank • A Marine’s Marine • Born in Czechoslovakia, grew up in mining town in Pennsylvania • At 27, he was the oldest of the flag raisers, best known for his leadership. • Died by friendly fire. Buried at Arlington National Cemetary

  8. The Military Objective • Date: February 19, 1945 • Place: Iwo Jima • Mission: • Deprive Japanese of Early Warning System • Obtain Landing Strip for Damaged Bombers • SAVE AMERICAN LIVES

  9. The Challenge • General TadamichiKuribayashi’s Plan: • Fight to last man. No one leaves island alive. • Heavily fortify island with extensive caves and bunkers • Lieutenant General Holland Smith’s Plan: • Bombard island for 84 days before invading • Amphibious landing of 20,000 troops • Take Mount Suribachi first and progress north until the island was secured.

  10. The Battle • It took four days to secure Mount Suribachi • It took another 31 days to secure the entire island • This was the only battle in WWII in which American casualties outnumbered Japanese: • US=27,000, • Japan=20,000

  11. Louis Lowrey • Photographer for the Leatherneck magazine. • Photographed the first flag raising. • First flag was smaller than second one, and had historical significance due to Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal’s comment, “…the raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years.” It was summoned down as a souvenier.

  12. Joe Rosenthal Here’s one for all time” John Bodkin AP Photo Editor On the way up for the second flag raising, Rosenthal met Lowery on his way down. Lowery advised the photographers to keep going up because the summit was an excellent place to take pictures. As the six Marines raised the flag, Rosenthal swing his camera up and snapped the photograph without using the view finder. He did not know what he got.

  13. The Controversy • Following the second flag raising, Rosenthal had the Marines of Easy Company pose for a group shot, the “gung-ho” picture. • A few days after the famous picture was taken, Rosenthal was asked if he posed the picture. • Mistaking “the picture” for the “gung-ho” shot, he said yes, and was forever plagued with fabricating history. • Despite the controversy, the picture won a Pulitzer Prize.

  14. The Bond Tour The Iwo Jima Photograph becomes the symbol for the 7th war bond drive Rene Gagnon is asked to identify the Marines in the photo Ira Hayes threatens to kill Gagnon if he identifies him, but Gagnon buckles to Presidential pressure and reveals Hayes anyway. Gagnon misidentifies Harlon Block as Sergeant Henry O. “Hank” Hansen, who participated in the first flag raising. Hansen died on Iwo Jima. The bond tour raised $26.3 billion, twice the tour’s goal.

  15. The Legacy • Both flags housed in the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia • The Medal of Honor was awarded to 27 servicemen as a result of this struggle, fourteen posthumously. This accounts for over a third of the Medals of Honor awarded during the entire Pacific War.

  16. The Marine Memorial • Erection of the memorial, which was designed by Horace W. Peaslee, was begun in September 1954. It was officially dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on November 10, 1954, the 179th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps.

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